Stories from the mountain summer
Baby animals at the show farm
Maximum cuteness!
With a baaa-baaa here, and a moo-moo there, here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink-oink. Spring is finally here – with the greatest euphoria for new life and inquisitive offspring.
Photographer Bernd Ritschel is the kind of friend it’s hard to find. We have known each other for decades yet only get the chance to meet up very occasionally, but when we do, the conversation flows easily. As we climb from the Zillergrund reservoir up towards the Plauener Hütte mountain restaurant and lodge, we chat about (now resolved) relationship problems, (recurrent) back pain and (the bane of our lives!) annoying colleagues. Our openness is firmly encouraged – by the sublime and even uplifting views over the lake and mountains: our everyday lives are a distant memory and every corner we head round seems to take us closer to our true selves.
And then they stand still. In silence as if they were in the presence of the Pope, Emperor or another dazzlingly important person, and watch the little kids play. They jump and eat, cuddle and sniff – just as if they’d already been on this Earth a long time. But this sweet moment ends abruptly: Two goats jump up and look at us curiously, as if they just want to ask: “Food or petting?” We laugh out loud and discover that the children can climb over ladders into the shed. What a joy. Now all the kids are united – mine and the nanny goat’s.
So much to discover
After extensive stroking and feeding, we say goodbye to the funny four-legged friends and do the same as the goats: we go on a journey of discovery and learn many interesting facts. Did you know, for example, that goldfish come from the carp family, pigs like to play ball, a bee has more hair than a goat, cows are pretty smart and an old cherry tree can carry up to a million blossoms at a time? We have great fun strolling through the show farm, from the pasture milk shed, over the pigsty to the fish pond and the organic chickens, on to the bee pavilion with a show bee hive, the herb beds and the adventure area with hay stall, climbing wall, tractor course, pasture milk slide and photo point. Fortunately, we can refresh ourselves here with fresh spring water from the fountain – wonderful! And then, like a stroke of good fortune, we rediscover our favourites: 20 cheeky young goats in the goat kindergarten. We enter their area through a special entrance and spend another half an hour feeding and petting them.
Amazement and indulgence
“Now it’s our turn. We’re hungry.” I certainly would have been surprised if this sentence hadn’t come up. And so we follow our nose and enter the “Sennereiküche” – the restaurant at Erlebnissennerei Zillertal. “Today, there’s cheesecakes, apple strudel or chocolate brownies,” I read from the daily menu and it doesn’t take long for the children’s milkbearded faces to look totally satisfied. As naturally they wanted to drink a glass of milk with their sweet treats.
In this moment of silence I hear the question: “Why does alpine milk taste better than regular milk?” – We’ll find that out next,” I say, and hey presto we’re standing at the entrance to the show dairy. Listening to our audio guides, reading beautifully designed display boards and watching videos, we learn that cow, sheep and goat milk from over 400 pasture milk farms in Zillertal is processed here, in the show dairy. When the milk collected from the pasture dairy cows in one year is added up, it comes to 24 million litres of milk. It is used, for example, to make Tyrolean grey, alpine and mountain cheese, Bergtilsiter cheese, yoghurt and butter. Of course, we also learn why the alpine milk tastes so good. On the mountain pasture, the animals only eat and drink the best: a thousand different alpine herbs and clear mountain water.
“Marvelling, petting, tasting
and discovering – a day
like this is unforgettable.”
The pure mountain air contributes to this as well, and so it doesn’t surprise us that the pasture milk is a real superfood. It has about twice as much valuable omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk. The following stations are particularly popular: at the cheese tasting machines, we try nine cheeses and yoghurt in many flavours, such as strawberry, vanilla, coffee or wild cranberry. After taking in a lot of information and watching the staff at work in the production halls, we finish off our visit in the farm shop and stock up on award-winning cheese, delicious butter, various yoghurts and fresh milk.
Image Phillip Geisler and text: Barbara Schneeberger
Zillertal Magazine Year-Round Edition 02
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