Category: Culture

Finished Doughnuts or Fastnachts Detail 2

Doughnuts or Fastnachts?

In March of 2017, I wrote an article about Fastnachts, those holeless, wholesome doughnuts that appear every year in parts of Pennsylvania on Shrove Tuesday to usher in the Lenten season. So as not...

When I Left My Good Home Poem Detail 2

Poetry in Enoch’s Written History

In February 2020, I examined Enoch Hagenbuch’s (b. 1814) written history and celebrated the addition of his family information to Beechroots (Revisiting Enoch Hagenbuch’s Written History). Enoch writes of names and personal details, yet...

Mark Hagenbuch Deitsch Eck 2

A Winter’s Day in Hagenbuch Country

On a cold January day, my father, Mark Hagenbuch, and I ventured into Hagenbuch country—Albany Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. We had three important stops planned for the day, all of significance to our family....

Making Handmade Christmas Cards Detail 0

Handmade Christmas Cards

For the last decade, my wife Sara and I have made it part of our holiday traditions to handmake some of our own Christmas cards. The first year or two, I found the process...

Trundle Bed Detail 1

The Bedding Connection

Several weeks ago, we visited friends of ours in Virginia. We stayed two nights. If you are like Linda and me, you never sleep well in a strange bed. In fact, Linda and I...

William L. Hagenbaugh Painting Monk with Conquistador 5

The Paintings of William L. Hagenbaugh

The Hagenbuch family tree is full of interesting characters—one of whom is William Louis Hagenbaugh (b. 1878, d. 1943). Several articles have been written about how William’s family migrated to northern California in the...