A World Without Wheat; Musikfest GF Style!

I am enjoying Musikfest 2013 - going several times to volunteer and just to enjoy the music.  I have been volunteering there for over a decade so I signed up as usual, not thinking much about it.  I volunteer in beer/wine service but mostly beer.  I didn’t think about my exposure to beer as an issue. Until a few days before the festival started when I realized I was potentially likely to poison myself.

It seemed too late to change course and ask to be volunteering somewhere besides the beer tent.  Plus I volunteer with a group of friends and if I changed I wouldn’t likely be even at the same platz.  So I just went with it. Friday I was at Festplatz, ditto for Saturday afternoon.  It was pretty busy Saturday and crazy busy most of Friday.  I poured literally hundreds of beers.  And there was a big crew so there was some splashing, bumping and spillage on one’s arms and legs.  I like to give a great pour so sometimes the beer pours over my fingers and hands.  Not such a great idea if you are highly allergic to wheat. 

Second topic I need to address; food available for me at the fest: I really haven’t eaten much food yet at the fest.  I am not sure what I can eat.  The Artsquest website has nothing on food allergies.  I asked at the roasted corn stand (Aw Shucks) and they said that if I didn’t have the seasoned salt I would be okay; can have the butter and the plain cheese.  So I had that both Friday and Saturday.  I brought some food from home as I was kinda scared that there would be nothing there to eat during my volunteer shift. 

Friday I felt fine after getting home from volunteering but by late Saturday I felt pretty ill.  I went over what I ate all day and couldn’t find anything that was an issue.  I am fairly sure I must have touched my mouth with my contaminated hands/fingers and ingested a bit of beer that way.  It doesn’t take much wheat to make you sick of you have celiac disease.

So Sunday I decided to wash: I rinsed my hands between serving especially if I got beer on my fingers or hands.  There were some small water buckets for washing table tops.  I changed the water when I could so it was pretty clean. I even washed my shins once when I got doused with beer down there.  Doing this seemed to work as I didn’t get sick Sunday or Monday.  My friends noticed but seemed to accept my slightly compulsive washing behavior.  I just was so relieved to not get ill either day.

I had checked with a celiac group on facebook and someone suggested I must have touched my mouth with beery fingers.  I think she was right!  And my rinsing seemed to be a great solution.  I also tried hard to pour a full beer without getting any suds on my hands and fingers, sometimes tricky but for the most part I succeeded and it seems all of this paid off with no glutening due to serving something I am now allergic to! I know,  you will say, "work somewhere else" but I have done other vol jobs and liked beer service the best. Pouring a great beer is a lot of fun that I look forward to each summer.  So I don't want to quit it and seems like I won't have to.

As to food to eat at Musikfest; on Monday I got brave and purchased a chicken kebab from Hogar Crea down at Handwerkplatz.  I asked and was told that the marinate and mop sauce were wheat free.  I had them leave off the bread they generally stick on the end and voila - a GF shish kabob!

Now if only I could find some other GF choices besides a soda or ice cream to enjoy at the fest!  If you have any GF fest food suggestions I would be most grateful as I will be going there this coming weekend.