I was already interested in organic production back in 1997 when I attended a course for the conversion to organic. Then my father ran the farm and was still too young to pass the farm on to me. I also wanted to gain additional experience elsewhere and thus worked for an inspection body mainly outside the office for 18 years. I mainly had to do with apples, but with other fruits and meat products as well. My area of responsibility included various checks at the producers’ farms, in the cooperatives and in other marketing businesses. I also conducted product certifications for integrated production in South Tyrol (Agrios) and for “South Tyrol Apple PGI”. During the course of the years I gained experience all around Europe consolidating my ecological awareness.

Now that I’m a full-time producer the conversion to organic was the only logical decision. Today, travelling around the world is no longer that easy because a holiday during the vegetation period is a luxury for an organic producer. Rapid action is required by the producer, especially when the weather is bad and the spores of the apple scab fungus germinate best. The same is true for the numerous frosty nights that we have every year in spring. I realized that organic producers don’t have an appropriate remedy for every problem. So you sometimes simply have to accept that you can’t do anything. Nature requires a certain flexibility on our part and dictates the rules.

We also run an agritourism business. My wife, my father and me like explaining the organic cultivation method to our guests and try to answer their questions in an easy and understandable way. In so doing, we hope to contribute that our apples are appreciated even more.