Provenance - where does your food come from?

Matthew and I have been planning a trip to Austria for a few weeks now. With Easter in the way, it only just happened, but because we had time to plan it properly, the outcomes have been great. 

We started by calling in at Grand Farm started and managed by the Austrian farmer Alfred Grand. He has a vibrant organic market garden and farm  just north of Vienna in Lower Austria. Alfred comes from a farming background and his work happens on the land, but he’s also a researcher and thinker, involved in many international projects mapping soil biology and biodiversity in land use. They were soil sampling with Wageningen University, so we let them get on with it. 

Our second stop was ReinSaat, a beautiful biodynamic farm and vibrant seed business just a little further into the hills of Lower Austria. Reinhild Frech-Emmelmann started the farm which slowly grew into one of the most important open pollinated seed companies for organic growers worldwide. We already use some of their seed in our production at Zsamboki Biokert, but Matthew was interested in seeing if we could help them multiply seeds in our climate and season. This is still in development, but there are some exciting developments in the pipeline. 

We then pushed further to Upper Austria for a grand tour of Achleitner Biohof and Biokiste (via a rest in Melk, a beautiful town on the Danube). The Achleitner family have been farming organically since the 1990s after seeing the power of making their own compost - which continues today. The built up a local demand for their produce which they started to sell beyond their farm shop in weekly vegetable boxes. They now ship about 10.000 boxes a week (!) in Linz and surrounding countryside. They have serious operational side - sourcing exceptional quality organic produce from trusted suppliers, packing and delivering customer orders every day of the week. Their recently opened hub - logistics facility, but also offices, restaurant and shop is testament to their steady development of the business and loyal customer base. We will be working with them to get some amazing products (mostly fruit initially) into your orders very soon. 

In summary, the trip was a success. Matthew and I came back with opportunities for the farm and webshop at Zsamboki Biokert and talked at length about the future of food, farming, land on the long drive. Now back to the fields - there’s harvesting to do!