Mustard No. 2000 shows up, gets place of honor in museum

Journal staff

DOZENS of individuals and mustard companies vied to be donor of the 2,000th mustard to the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum's growing collection.

The museum hit that milestone number late last year, according to the January issue of The Proper Mustard, the museum's official newsletter.

One mustardmaker, Gary Woodward, owner of Halliday Mustards, had sent his entire line of nine different mustards, with a plea that museum officials delay acceptance so one of them could be the No. 2,000.

Not ethical, said museum owner Barry Levenson.

Levenson writes in his newsletter ("Yellow Journalism at Its Best") that the collection was stuck at 1,999 when he stayed home one day to clean his closet. He picked up his pair of black dress shoes (which he had not worn in months) and to his surprise a little jar of Country Store and Farm Honey Garlic Mustard from Washington state fell out.

It had been a donation from the company at the Summer 1994 New York Fancy Food Show. He says he forgot that he had packed it away in the shoe. So there it was No. 2,000!

The mustard museum adjoins a retail mustard store. Levenson's collection began in 1986 in the middle of the night. The New England native was wandering the supermarket aisle in a fit of depression because the Red Sox has just lost the World Series.

"I decided I needed a hobby," he recalled. "I was in front of the mustards when I heard a voice say, `If you collect us, they will come.' "

He bought 11 or 12 mustards, and hasn't stopped since. Besides display cases of jars of the condiment, the museum also houses mustard paraphernalia and Red Sox memorabilia.

Every jar of mustard has a story some better than others. No. 2,049, for example, was a jar of Podravka mustard from Serbia. Denise Marth of Pelkie, Mich., traveled to the war-torn former Yugoslav republic and under cover of night went behind enemy lines to find this mustard. According to Levenson, she "crawled under barbed wire fences, dodged hostile artillery fire and endured hours of torture" {watching reruns of "The Flying Nun"} to capture the prize.

The official count as of Feb. 28 was 2,085 and still growing.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information about the museum, or for a mail- order catalog, call (800) GET MUSTARD (438-6878). Gehl's planning its centennial

IT will be a centennial celebration in 1996 for Gehl's Guernsey Farms, a food and beverage manufacturer located in Milwaukee and Germantown. To plan its observance, the company is looking for people with knowledge of its history for phone or in-person interviews.

Copies of photos or other memorabilia about the company history also are sought. Appropriate items will be purchased.

Former employees or anyone else with knowledge of Gehl's operations in Milwaukee or Germantown may contact Melissa Peterson at 251-8572, Ext. 15. Journal staff

Copyright 1995
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