This Christmas season we are again baking, decorating, and packaging 40 kilos (80 lbs) of chocolate biscuits, gingerbread, jammy dodgers, and other little goodies in the rooms of the Diving Club Bubbles in Schaan, Liechtenstein. The proceeds from the sale of these delicacies, shaped like little turtles, go entirely into the protection projects run by Turtle Foundation.
The passion for delicious Christmas cookies is rooted in the joy for collecting nuts of the father of board of trustee’s member Margrit Roduner Gabathuler. The whole family helped to open the nuts – but what to do then with this flood of nut kernels? Then came the brilliant idea: Christmas time was approaching – and that means … baking!
The passion gradually evolved into a little profession that was placed at the service of Turtle Foundation. The Christmas turtle cookies became a big thing, and were sold together with mulled wine at the local Christmas market in Vaduz, Liechtenstein; even the turtle biscuit cutters were highly demanded by the visitors of the market.
Last year we produced 40 kg (80 lbs) of biscuits, and this year the figure will be equal. It is clear that such amounts of biscuits can not be easily produced in the kitchen at home. Here the Diving Club Bubbles pitched in, and for four years now the annual pre-Christmas baking evenings at the diving club are a fixed institution and are always a very sociable event.
The production process is running!
The dough is produced at home by more than a dozen eager helpers composed of friends, club and family members, as well as of board members of the Swiss and Liechtenstein subsidiaries of the Turtle Foundation, so the dough can rest for its proper time. Then, the helpers meet in the rooms of the diving club at an appointed evening, and they’re off and running: rolling out the dough, cutting out cookies, baking. With only one oven, baking is not always an easy task, and quickly a veritable traffic jam develops in front of the oven. However, Peter, the President of the diving club, is armed with three timers and scrupulously takes care that the different varieties of biscuits are always subjected to their proper baking times. OK, nevertheless it might happen sometimes that a biscuit becomes a bit too dark or a leg breaks off… but there is always somebody around lurking for his chance to have a nibble… 🙂
President of Turtle Foundation Switzerland and Liechtenstein Frank Zindel struggles with a difficult decision: bagging or snacking…
After cooling the artistic part starts: decorating! There are no bounds to creativity, and thus, against all rules of evolution, new “turtle species” are quickly and continuously popping up! Finally, the turtle biscuits are packaged, weighed, nicely decorated with colored ribbon, and labeled. Now, the turtle biscuits are ready to be dispersed into the world for their short life!
Packed and ready for sale
In 2010, the Turtle Foundation was present the first time with a booth at the Christmas market of Vaduz, Liechtenstein. This year we will have no own booth, but now comes the really good news: Our turtle biscuits are not only sold at the Christmas Market weekend, but are available the whole December!
Where you can find our turtle cookies in Vaduz:
- in the Red Christmas Hut at the restaurant “Burg” in the heart of the pedestrian zone (Städtle 15) at all weekends of the Advent season
- in the restaurant “Adler” (Herrengasse 2) throughout December (except Saturday and Sunday)