Axel is tending the fire in the Bakehouse.
After leaving Munich on either the 25th (I think) of March we headed north. The trains were exceptionally packed that day because many German schools started their Easter vacation that weekend. As a result, we had to stand for the whole train ride. We were very tired when we got to Bremerhaven that night and were happy to meet our HelpX hosts, Axel and Angelika, at the station. There were two other helpers at Axel and Angelika’s aside from us. Marie-Claude was a french-canadian and Michael was an Englishman. I found it highly amusing that Marie-Claude referred to herself in English as a Quebecer (sounding like Ka-beck-er). I always think of them as Quebecois, but I think this is one of those things that you would had to be there to think that it was funny.
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A sheep.
This farmstay was very different than our one in Italy. Located in Grossenhein (south east of Bremerhaven and south south west of Hamburg) Axel and Angelika’s farm has been operating for over 30 years. Whereas Ev and Claudia were just starting out and trying to create a successful vineyard, Axel and Angelika already had the whole operation running smoothly.
We made around 60 loaves!
For the two weeks we were there around 80 to 90% of the food we ate came directly from last year’s harvest. I found the food to be excellent and was amazed by how comparatively little work they have to do to have such a great yield. (They do not sell any of their produce though so the money they have comes from their pensions.) They have around 10 acres of land and own 17 chickens and 19 sheep. The purpose of the chickens is obvious but I can not understand why they keep sheep. They do not eat the sheep and do not sell or make anything from the wool so they seem like a drain on the pasture land to me, but Axel likes them so I guess that is enough of a reason.
Our work was varied while we were there and I enjoyed it. I split some logs, learned how to uses a chisel to split 6 foot logs into posts, turned the garden with a garden fork, planted potatoes, built a fire pit, chased down and captured chickens in order to clip their wings, and some other things as well.
Rachael took this picture of me sitting on one of the chairs I made by the fire pit.
One very interesting thing that I learned was how to graft a fruit tree. The point of grafting is to combine the heartiness of one variety of fruit tree with the productivity/flavor of another. I think that I will write a separate post about this though because I have not yet uploaded the pictures that go along with it.
Anyway, all the people we met there were very nice and it was a fun time.
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3 Comments
1 Mama wrote:
You really are turning into a farmer! That’s my boy!!!!!
I still haven’t tried out the bread machine although that’s one of the things on my “to do” this week (our April vacation). I hope you’re coming back with some bread recipes. I’d love to be able to make some good German bread.
Mama
2 Keith wrote:
Look at you farmin’ man. So masculine and hearty. I meant to comment on the night train in the last post, but forgot until here. Anyhow, I took a night train from London to Edinburgh and (out of cheapness rather than availability) did not purchase a bed. Sleeping wrapped in my coat on the seat was enjoyable in its own pain-inducing, sleepless kind of way. Nothing a healthy dram couldn’t cure upon arrival!
I’ve been reading husbandry manuals from the 16th and 17th centuries recently and learned quite a bit about grafting. One thing they told me to watch out for though was that you didn’t accidentally transform the nature of your trees (peach trees becoming pear trees) from improper manuring, etc.
3 Jason P. wrote:
Funny you mention the purpose of sheep. Why does one have male goats?