Staff writer
The younger cousins of the Martin Jost family have a unique celebration every year, the day after Thanksgiving.
They get together at the farm of Clinton and Diana Jost northeast of Burdick, where the women prepare and all eat traditional Mennonite food.
The number of people who attend varies from year to year, the largest group being 72 in 1999, when an aunt celebrated a milestone birthday. The event has been held almost every year since 1979.
Diana’s first order of the busy day is to make a breakfast bread called Bubbitt. A yeast dough is patted into a large pan and pieces of sausage are scattered across the top before baking. The bread is served with jelly.
Guests begin arriving at 10 a.m. and the fun begins. The women gather in the kitchen to make kielka and vereneka.
“It’s not unusual to have 10 women cooking,” Diana said. “I don’t do much cooking. I just supervise.”
Fortunately, she has a large kitchen.
She keeps a large box of aprons especially for that day. Even aprons have become traditional as some of the women identify certain ones as their own.
The women prepare kielka by boiling potatoes in large pots, removing the potatoes, and then snipping bits of dough (kielka) into the boiling potato water, cooking them until done.
The potatoes and kielka are combined in a large, electric roaster. Fried sausage or bacon bits, onions, and drippings are poured over them. The dish is served with vinegar on the side.
Vereneka is made by rolling out bread dough, cutting it into rounds and filling them with a dry, curd cottage cheese and egg yolk mixture seasoned with salt and pepper. Diana said it has become traditional to cut the dough using china cups.
Some vereneka is fried and some is boiled to accommodate the guests’ preferences. The vereneka is kept warm on large platters in the oven.
As one would imagine, it takes a lot of planning on Diana’s part to bring it all together. She makes a list of things that need to be done in the days leading to Cousins’ Day.
Although guests bring potatoes, sausage, and other items, she makes sure to have enough on hand in case someone unexpectedly cancels plans to come. She said it takes about one gallon of cream to prepare all the dishes that are served.
She makes plumemooss ahead of time, storing it in a gallon jar in a refrigerator. The mooss is made by bringing three quarts of water to a boil and adding breakfast prunes, raisins, and apricots.
She thickens the mixture with a combination of sugar, flour, and cream. The finishing touch is a few drops of anise extract.
Diana also makes several batches of zwieback and stores them in her freezer. Zwieback are double-decker dinner rolls. Diana’s zwieback yeast dough is made using butter, lard, cream, and a little sugar and salt.
To accommodate guests, large borrowed tables are set up on the lawn around the house. If the weather is bad, tables are set up in every available space in the house.
Diana creates a “classy” atmosphere by using tablecloths and real plates and silverware. The meal is served family style using a large assortment of platters, bowls, pitchers, and other items she has accumulated for the occasion.
“Some people have never had some of this food,” Diana said, “so I set small bowls on the tables if they want to try something.”
Pie is served from a table set up in the office.
The dishwasher gets a lot of use during cleanup. Sometimes the women place large pans of water on the tables and the men wash dishes.
The beginning
This annual event began almost by accident. One year, when Karl Jost and his sons wanted to go hunting on Clinton and Diana’s farm the day after Thanksgiving, his wife, Marilyn, suggested they could bring pies if Diana would make kielka.
“We had 26 that first year,” Diana said.
The men don’t do much hunting anymore, but family members look forward to the occasion. Sometimes they come from as far away as California, Texas, Oregon, Arizona, and Wisconsin.
“It gets really crazy sometimes,” Diana said, “but we have a lot of fun. Some people just come for the dinner, and others hang around and visit. The little kids have the best time running around and climbing up on things.”
The men saddle up horses and give rides, and there’s usually a sand pile available.
The Martin Josts had 14 children. Only one, Ted of California, survives, but the cousins make a point of keeping in touch this time of year, with reunions on Thanksgiving Day in Hillsboro and Cousins’ Day at Clinton and Diana’s farm.
The couple have lived on the same farm/ranch all of their married life. Diana is a retired home economics teacher. They have three grown children — James, John, and Beth — and two grandchildren.
The son of the late Otto Jost and Lorene Jost, Clinton grew up in rural Hillsboro. Diana is the daughter of the late Cy and L’Dena Goertz of Marion.