Although our farm has been in the family for about a hundred years and the "Hofstatt auf Haus auf dem Moos zu Latsch" is already dated in surviving entries from the 15th century, I felt very little interest in agriculture during the years of my studies. As a computer scientist, I unflinchingly went my way from South Tyrol via Pisa to the German city of Jena. I met my wife there, my two children were born there and I founded a computer science company with two partners.

A few years ago, I found a second mainstay in the agricultural tradition of my ancestors. I suddenly felt a great desire to cultivate the family-owned land myself and to handle it in the best possible way. Organic farming was the only option for me. I took on the responsibility and tried to understand the complex processes on the orchard. I was happy to be advised, sometimes deliberately ignored certain advice and went back to my former life and collected as much data as possible regarding weather, frost and irrigation on my orchards. After all, they are my orchards, and I must know them better than any other person. My approach to this concept is to collect data, as much of it as possible - I am after all, a computer scientist.

I like to try out new things and rack my brains over some processes with a love of detail. For example, I am firmly convinced that watering according to the motto "give the plant exactly the right amount of water at the right time, when it really needs it." has a very strong effect on the sensory quality of the fruit. In the course of the trees lifecycle, there are moments when it needs a lot of water for example during cell division from flowering until June. Then there are moments when it can almost manage without water for example during cell elongation over the summer. Sensors in the orchard can provide valuable data and if interpreted correctly, significantly improve the sensory quality of my apples. All of this happens in a very sustainable way.

As a part-time farmer who has found his balance in organic farming, it happens quite often that I hold a video conference with my partners in Germany from the blooming orchard and can see the envy of my work colleagues. It is not only my parents, our boys Max and Oskar or my wife and I who have realised that organic is a noble way of farming that one can pursue with joy and pride, others realise it to. It is a mutual goal to bring the best tasting fruit to the table of our consumers.