I come from a farm where dairy farming was practised. My brother is an apple farmer. I myself worked in banking for many years. "Ethical banking" to finance forward-looking projects has been a buzzword there for a long time. Perhaps one can formulate the organic idea in agriculture in a similar way: as a kind of investment in a sustainable future. This is the path I wanted to take in agriculture. In this respect I have shown sufficient perseverance, although the first years in organic farming were anything but easy for me: Unwelcome fungi in the first year, a plague of mice on the tree roots in the second year, and then another cold winter with the replacement trees added in the third year. Things could not have been worse. Despite all the initial difficulties, I quit my job at the bank. Valuable advice from my brother, support from organic farmers and a lively exchange of experiences with other like-minded people kept me going on the path I had chosen. Golden Delicious, Royal Gala, Jonagold and Pinova now give me great pleasure.

As soon as you, as a career changer, have understood that nature determines the rhythm and demands a certain surrender from the farmer, everything runs more smoothly. Basically, the principle is very simple: it decides when you have to have time and not vice versa. This applies to measures in plant protection just as much as to a host of other activities in the apple orchard. Above all, nature also decides that you have to spend a lot of time on it. Organic farmer part-time or on call, very difficult, almost impossible. That's why I'm now a full-time farmer, my meadows in the Upper Vinschgau see me every day and not only during harvest time like before. Every day I meet living creatures that have a splendid curriculum vitae and all have a special right to exist. The distinction between pests and beneficial organisms only makes sense as soon as one population predominates in terms of quantity to such an extent that an imbalance arises. In this case, we farmers ally ourselves with their natural antagonists and ask them for help. Until the balance is restored. At the same time, I get to know my individual varieties and their locations better year after year, and these experiences are also expressed positively in good harvest results.