Hard work is usually rewarded with a large quantity of strikingly beautiful and delicious apples here in the Corzes orchards on an alluvial fan above Silandro. As an organic producer I have more work and a lower yield than my colleagues of integrated production, but nothing else than organic came into question for me. I can hardly wait to show my newly born son Matthias the many nesting facilities for birds that I created. I’ll explain him that the birds eat the worms of pests such as codling moths and summer fruit tortrixes and thus indirectly protect our orchards.

He will, however, understand the so-called pheromone confusion method where we attract and catch male codling moths with the help of pheromones only a bit later on, maybe when he knows more about reproduction. I’ll also tell him everything about the many organic fertilizers. Even though many new red varieties have been planted in Val Venosta in recent years, Matthias will definitely still see a lot of typical Golden Delicious apples in “his” apple orchards. Although they are less resistant against certain fungal diseases, rain-wet trees dry very quickly here due to the slightly windy location of the Corzes orchards and so the fungus can’t spread so easily.

The most important thing that I would like to teach my son about organic production is the fact that you constantly need common sense. Whenever you take a decision, you have to think carefully about what to do. If you take the right decision, the Corzes orchards in Central Val Venosta are a real Garden of Eden for wonderfully tasty apples. So there are best conditions for the young generation. Thanks to organic.