Legumes

Peas, beans, lentils and the like have a long history in the Saarland. Once cultivated in gardens and fields as a tasty source of protein, typical Saarland "workers' cuisine" would never have developed without them, because in times when meat was unaffordable, they provided the strength needed for the hard work in the mines and ironworks.

Traditions that are still commemorated every year with the "Pea Wheel Roll" at Wadrill or the "Lentil Festival" in Besseringen.

In recent years, friends of the meatless diet have also rediscovered its advantages. Developments that encouraged Patric Bies from the Bliesgau oil mill, among others, to work with farmers to make the legumes native again in the Saarland.
They are not only delicious in soups, main dishes and as a side dish, they are filling, do not cost much and are very healthy thanks to their vitamins and minerals. In the field, they are high-yielding, climate-neutral, improve the soil and offer innovative farmers an alternative income.

Arguments that are also shared by leading restaurateurs, who show what tasty creations can be conjured up from them during the "Legume Weeks" organised by Slow Food Saarland.

LINS

The lentil, which first appeared in the Orient, is one of the oldest cultivated plants on earth. Even the botanist and physician Hieronymus Bock (1498-1554, Saarbrücken and Hornbach) praised lentils in the first German cookbook. Saarland green lentils come from the "border triangle" of Saarland, Palatinate and Lorraine. Farmer Werner Brengel of the Loutzviller Mühle grows them in a mixture with other crops. Organic black lentils grow above the Saar valley.organic farmer Marcus Comtesse relies on soil-conserving - namely ploughless mixed crop cultivation so as not to drive away the valuable, nutrient-producing earthworms. Quality standards that you can taste.

PEAS

For the Romans in Germania, peas were not only a staple food and a source of protein, they also often played a role in rituals. Even today, a metre-high pea wheel is rolled down the hill in Wadrill every year on "Pea Sunday", the first Sunday of Lent. This custom harks back to the time when the pea had not yet been displaced by the potato as a staple food. For a few years now, "brown peas" have been grown in the Bliesgau as a speciality.

BEANS

Field beans (also called broad beans or broad beans) also have a centuries-old tradition in the Saarland. In ancient Rome, they were considered the "gladiators' concentrated food". The area between the Saar, Blies and Moselle rivers was once considered a great bean country, as evidenced not only by the numerous "bean valleys". In 1568, the legendary "Trier Bean War" ended with the destruction of numerous bean fields near the bishop's city. Even in modern times, it is said to have been not uncommon in the Hochwald to mix field beans with sauerkraut and finally serve them with a brown sauce of fat and onions.
A special Saarland chapter was the cultivation of runner beans in Lautzkirchen near Blieskastel. Around 1900, a significant bean cultivation slowly developed there, which increased to no less than 200,000 stalks, corresponding to yields of about 200 tonnes (approx. 18 hectares) in 1918.
After the Second World War, however, bean cultivation began a slow decline. For a little longer, only the "bean festival" with opulent parades reminded us of this time. Unfortunately, there are no more "bean sparrows" singing the "bean song" for their "bean queen" in Lautzkirchen today. One of the bean varieties grown in Lautzkirchen was "Ruhm vom Vorgebirge" (Glory of the Foothills), which can recently be seen again in some vegetable gardens.