At the Valtinhuebhof in Ciardes, we are now in our fourth generation of farming. My grandfather even had a bakery on the farm, my father started growing apples at the end of the 1950s. As a representative of the third generation, I attended the agricultural school Laimburg. Now it is my son Lukas who steps into my shoes. But unlike in the famous song of Cat Stevens "Father and Son" we wanted a change. Together we decided to change to organic farming and enriched our organic range with two typical organic varieties Topaz and Natyra. The sour Topaz has a pleasantly refreshing effect, especially in the summer, thanks to its acidity, and its aroma reminds me very much of a good Champagne in my opinion. Only a few percent of this variety mixed with the sweet juice of a Golden Delicious gives the best of all possible apple juices. For me our typical Val Venosta luxury drink, which is no less sparkling than the grape elixir from France. We cultivate just what we both like best.

The varieties Topaz, Natyra and Bonita, are very resistant to scab, which reduces the use of natural pesticides to a minimum. We are equally careful and economical with our traditional Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Gala. Father and son fertilize each other with new ideas and views. This critical dialogue between me and my son is very important, because there are no fixed magic formulas in organic. On the contrary: if you ask three organic farmers a question, you will get three different answers, which may all be correct.

Since our immediate neighbor has been farming organically for twenty years, organic farming was the logical way of cultivation for us, which we wanted to learn, use and mature. As a team. What we both particularly enjoy - also with organic - is the teamwork in the grafting of the apple trees by so-called "Abbelzen". During the rest of the year, "apple plucking" is also a very responsible job. We advise our helpers that in case of doubt they should rather hang more apples than too few. Lukas and I then go through the rows of apples again anyway and check if everything fits. After all, we are a team of "Father and Son" and organically well-coordinated.