Mennonite Foods

  

  

   The Old Colony, Kleine Gemeinde, and Old Order have a diet which mainly consists of homemade bread, cottage cheese, noodles, pork, potatoes, and stewed beans. Milk is used in many of their meals, such as casseroles and faspa foods. Some dishes from the Plautdietsch groups are:

 nuddelsuppe: noodle soup made with home-made noodles 

 werenaki: (perogies see picture above) made of pockets of flour with glums (cottage cheese) filling, schmaunfat (white gravy made of flour, milk and black pepper), and formavorscht (pork sausage). The perogies are then boiled and served. I recommend it to anyone who wants to try out Plautdietsch foods although I prefer the fried ones.

 Cheesy or creamy casseroles: often it will contain meat and cream with potatoes or macaroni

  borscht: a vegetable soup with bits of meat sometimes added to it

  Clops: patties from either ground meat or potatoes

  And then there is that unique Mennonite meal known as faspa, a late afternoon snack or early supper, whichever side of the clock you look at it. Faspa foods will vary based on families, but a traditional one consists of rollkuchen (thin rectangular strips of fried flour) with watermelon but tastes really great with syrup, honey or refried beans. Another delicious faspa is homemade buns spread with butter and meat, or crackers with canned wieners, or pluma moos (a "soup" of cold fruits). Click here to watch a video or scroll to the bottom of this article.

Rollkuchen with watermelon

Pluma Moos

A family prays before eating faspa

  The Old Order and Old Colony Mennonites grow their own vegetables, as well as raise their own meat. The Kleine Gemeinde and other white Mennonites from the Conservative and Beachy group have become quite dependent on trips to the market, their refrigerator and also being more modern has given them access to new and different recipes and ideas as well as the use of electrical appliances. There are some of them who still keep their own backyard gardens.
 Just a note, in Belize, cultures have influenced each other and intertwined in the area of food. For example, the national dish of rice-and-beans with stewed chicken is the most common meal anywhere you go, as well as Belize's prime food (BBQ chicken with flour tortillas). Also, what milk is to the Plautdietsch Mennonite's food, so is the red Adobe plant to the Maya, Creole and Mestizo Mennonite. Both add flavor and richness to the meal.

  Among other Mennonites such as Beachy and Holdeman, they eat according to their culture. For example, tortillas are to the Mayas and Mestizos what bread is to Old Colony Mennonites. It goes with everything.
  Some Mestizo and Maya foods are: corn or flour tortillas with stewed beans, caldo (soup with meat, lots of spices and colored with red adobe), tamales, rice porridge, escabeche ( a broth made with lots of onions, but without red adobe), atole (a thick creamy soup made from roots or young corn), wild meat, etc.

Tamales wrapped in banana leaves

  

 This is a very brief description of some food items from the Mennonite groups here. Since there has been interracial marrying in some churches, cultures have combined and food tastes have changed.

The above article on Mennonite Foods was updated on November 16, 2022

                                               A. Mendoza