Our “Heachgut” in Tschars can look back on a proud past. In the Middle Ages, the entire farmstead was under the administration of the local monastery, and from that time a fresco from the 12th century has been excellently preserved. With its clerical content, it is listed as a cultural monument by the South Tyrolean Office for Monument Protection. It is beautifully paneled all around and fits perfectly into our farmhouse parlor.
My great-grandfather bought the farm, and a few years ago I took it over from my father Erich. As the eldest son, I now carry on the farm. All our fruits are Royal Gala apples, with only a few Golden Delicious trees kept for home use, mainly for baking delicious pastries. Our meadows lie partly on the very dry Vinschgau Sonnenberg, where water scarcity is a daily issue. Like my father Erich, I place great importance on the careful use of water for irrigation, which is provided through well-dosed drip irrigation. The water still comes, as in my grandfather’s times, from the Schnals Valley. Farmers like my father personally took care of maintaining the kilometers-long irrigation channels (“Waalwege”) high up in the mountains. They received no direct wage, but their laborious daily work was compensated with the right to purchase water for the meadows. With pickaxe and shovel, the farmers of those days were also true mountain masons. Perhaps I inherited this skill, as I myself am often in the Schnals Valley working as a “builder.” Our farm also maintains a strong connection to these mountains through rights on the Penaud Alpine pasture at 2,300 m, the highest alpine pasture in South Tyrol, surrounded by the 3,000-meter peaks of the Ötztal Alps. These rights, including access rights, belong directly to the Heachgut. This allows me to check at any time how our water supply is doing – whether the water is crystal clear and not polluted by landslides. A wonderful spring normally ensures that, thanks to clean water, no irrigation system gets clogged.
My father also taught me much about fruit growing and always gave me plenty of freedom. Yet I know that sometimes he secretly checked my work in the orchard and later gave me “spontaneous” advice at lunch – as if he had not “accidentally” found a small suggestion for improvement earlier. This mutual support, passed from generation to generation, seems to be in the DNA of us Vinschgau farmers. The advice is sincere, well-intentioned, and valuable for the continuity of our food production.
