Why an Alm is more than a meadow with cows
Summer grazing (Sömmerung), biodiversity, slope protection – and why the flower meadow disappears when nobody grazes anymore.
Holiday know-how
Farming & sustainability
The landscape you holiday in is a workplace. Here we explain how this workplace works – and what that has to do with your booking.
Why we write this
Because we come from farming ourselves
For us, an Alm (alpine pasture) is not a backdrop and a farm is not a photo motif – both are a working business with an annual rhythm, weather risk and bills. Whoever rents out a hut usually does so alongside everything else – between hay harvest, barn and forest.
Whether alpine hut, chalet, holiday house or holiday flat – behind every accommodation stands a working farm. When you book with us, you should know where your money goes. And if you run a farm or an Alm yourself, reading this should show you that we understand what we're talking about. That's why we prefer to explain the matter itself here instead of parading individual farms.
All articles
Sixteen topics, one context
Direct marketing: why it is vital for farms
For around 17,000 farms it brings more than half of the farming income.
One farm, several sources of income
Why letting follows the same logic as the farm shop – and a few products are worth a lot.
Difficult ground becomes good land
How a steep, uneven slope becomes usable pasture again – and which rules apply.
Why guests want to experience real farming
Barn, hay harvest, farm shop: for many, that is exactly the holiday – not the extra on top.
Gentle hut holidays instead of mass tourism
Few beds, long stays, short distances – and what of it stays in the region.
What we look at before we take on an accommodation
Energy, water, animals, products, arrival – and what we expressly do not claim.
Grazing: what it gives the animal and what it gives the meadow
Three levels from the paddock to the Alm – what is proven, what is not, and what good grazing management depends on.
Alm, Alpe, Bergmahd – and which of them lies above the tree line
Two terms mean the same thing, the third something completely different. And the most widespread explanation is wrong.
Where the water at the hut comes from
Spring tapping, karst water, cistern – and what hosts must do as soon as a guest moves in.
Wood from our own forest – more than fireplace romance
Why felling happens in the mountain forest, how long firewood has to dry and what makes the difference when heating.
The annual cycle of a mountain farm
Four very different years in one – and why you see a different farm at any given time.
Why the Almabtrieb is a celebration
The adornment on the animals is not decoration, but a message you can read.
Seasonal calendar: when which time is worthwhile
What happens at the farm, what blooms and when it is really quiet up top – month by month, with the numbers to go with it.
Why good paths help everyone
Who builds and maintains alpine pasture paths, where you may walk and cycle – and why barriers are a liability question.
Who may rent out what?
Pure letting of rooms is not a trade. The four routes, the thresholds and the levers with which you decide yourself where you end up.
For guests
Straight to the right huts
The knowledge in this section is not theory – you can book it. Each accommodation states what's available at the host's and how to get there.
In addition: Shopping regionally shows you where to shop locally, the seasonal calendar what is ripe when, and forest gold what you may gather yourself.
You run a farm or an Alm?
Then after these pages you know how we think. If a building stands empty, talk to us – before you invest anything.