Egon Rieper lives in Lana with his family. The house is at the southern end of the Merano basin. However, his organic farm is in lower Val Venosta between Rablà and Plaus, with a wonderful view of the Texel Group mountains. The farm has been in the family since 1986. These days, Egon manages it with his son, Hannes, an electrician.

Egon gained his solid, practical education in agriculture at the South Tyrol technical college for fruit production, viticulture and horticulture in Laimburg. He loves working with his hands on the farm and is happy to leave the tractor driving to others. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that all the orchards are all joined together in the same place, which makes the distances very short.

There is a channel which runs through the orchard, which creates a small, natural habitat between the apple trees. Egon converted the farm to organics in 2009. For him, it was all about the land and handling nature in the right way. He says that nature is unique and should be given back to the world in the same state in which we found it.