A new dining experience

Our family was invited to the nearby Hutterite Colony this evening for dinner and to watch the school's Christmas program. We've been out to the colony a few times before, mostly to buy vegetable and corn, but a couple times for the year end school picnic where they host a very large bbq outside. Tonight was more 'traditional'.

I've seen the kitchen and dining hall before and I know that the men sit on one side and the women on the other. They also seat the older, more important, people at the head tables. In church they sit segregated as well and sit in order of age, older at the front, younger at the back. I suspect it's the same at meals. I wasn't sure how they do things when they have guests as I have never eaten in the dining hall before. I also had the girls with me, and usually the children eat in a seperate room or before the adults. We were waiting outside the dining hall with the other guests, sort of in the kitchen area where there were about 6 women taking care of the food preperation. They have an amazing kitchen, which includes a pressure cooker, or maybe it's a deep fryer, large enough for an adult to sit it! The women cook for the 100 or so colony members for 3 meals a day and that kitchen is still spotless! Anyways, after we had been there a few minutes the men started to arrive. I still was unsure how we would be seated until Frank, one of the older men, who is in charge of the barns, said to Chris and pointed to the dining hall "Okay let's go". He only was referring to Chris, so my question was then answered, lol. Luckily I knew some of the other women visitors, so I didn't feel quite so abandoned.

Because of Chris's job, he is quite respected by the colony and he knows many of the men. He was asked to sit at the head table with the old guys. I on the other hand ended up at the very last women's table. I didn't have to sit at the end, but I was not invited to the front like he was. I had the choice of the last three tables, so I sat at the one with the most people I knew, lol. The meal was very nice, nothing fancy, but good. We ate duck, which I have never eaten before, and it was very good. Even the girls liked it. Beth and Katie thought it tasted like chicken and Anna thought it was a chicken, lol.

After dinner the women did the dishes. I was able to get out of that since there were lots of visitors helping out and I had the kids with me. Lydia, Frank's oldest daughter, said we could go to their house while we waited for the Christmas program to start. She had to stay and do dishes (they have 3 rotations of which women do the kitchen work) so we were just going to wait for her, when Chris and Frank came along and she told Frank we were going to their house and Frank decided Chris and he would go there too. So we went ahead with Frank while Lydia worked. Lydia's mother and brother were there when we arrived (3 houses down from the kitchen, lol) and the mom made us some coffee while Chris and Frank and the brother chatted and Frank shared some wedding photos with Chris. I was busy encouraging the girls to try to play with the grandchildren Kerri and Darren. Kerri was probably a year older than Beth and could speak english but Darren only spoke german. He was not quite three. They didn't play much. Lydia was home soon after and we visited a bit before the program started.

The school at the colony has 18 children who attend from about ages 5-15. They generally only go to school until it is no longer required by law. Because they all speak german from infancy many of the children had very thick accents and with my kids being squiggly and a few little Hutterite children bouncing around nearby I had a hard time concentrating on the program. The program was completely in english though, and the kids seemed to have a very fun time showing off their english skills. After the program the colony sang about 3 german songs while we stayed seated and a few of the men and women set out the lunch. Man is the food good there, or in Katie's words "Mom, the food here is AWESOME!" They make the best salami I can remember eating, and they had lots out as well as lots of homemade sweets etc. We sat with Lydia and Darrin (her nephew), her mom was behind us somewhere and her father did not come, he went to work in the barns instead. After we ate Lydia showed me around the school and the church (all in the same buulding) and then she had work to do and I went to visit with Chris and some of the other colony members. It was getting late though so we got the girls ready and made our way out and to the van.

All in all it was a really nice evening. I would love to spend a day at the colony seeing how things run on a daily basis, how they run their households etc. I have so many questions about things, none that I felt comfortable asking when I barely know the people. For instance Lydia is the oldest sibling (she's probably my age or a little older) but her younger sisters are married and she is not. She has a married brother and her youngest brother left the colony. He's in Fort Mac working on the rigs. He may decide to come back to the colony one day, maybe not. Most young people who leave the colony do end up coming back. I'm not sure why she isn't married or if she even has to get married. Things I'd like to know but didn't ask. Anyways, if you want to know more about Hutterites read this Wikipedia link. It mentions they trace their roots to similar to the Amish, but do not confuse them with the Amish. The Hutterites are completely modernized in so many ways. They have the best farm machinery etc. We saw their milking barn a few years ago and it was amazing, completely computerized. And amazing spotless, even sparkling, of course thanks to the women, lol.