A short introduction to the Dicke Eiche organic farm

My gap year starts near Bissendorf in Germany, on the organic farm which I have been coming to for the past seven summers. Over the years, the farmers Thomas and Gudrun have become my friends and I will be spending the next six weeks working alongside them. What goes on on the farm varies from season to season and I am looking forward to learning what needs to be done in preparation for the winter. At the moment, summer still leaves its mark on the plants, the fields are still full of flowers in bloom and the last raspberries hang from the bushes.

I arrived nearly a week ago and so far I have only done some meat and cheese cutting and packing (you'd be surprised at how much of this needs to be done) for the farm shop and orders. Gudrun showed me how to edit the shop labels so that they meet new regulations so I will be doing that every day until I finish all of them. I enjoy cooking lunch every day when the workers join us at the table. One of them is a vegan so I'm learning a new kind of cuisine that excludes all animal products. Yesterday I made pizzas and making it vegan was quite simple: no cheese or salami.

Every evening before “Abendbrot” or “evening bread” Gudrun and I take the dog Ole out for a walk around the beautiful woods and fields. For those of you who knew Lottie, Ole looks almost identical to her! It has been pouring with rain for the last few days so yesterday Thomas gave in and made a fire although they usually always wait until October.

My favourite thing to do on the farm is milking, but unfortunately Thomas is recovering from a kidney infection meaning that other workers come every morning to do the milking and I would get in their way (Thomas is always very patient with me!). A total of 60 white and black milk sheep are milked everyday to make cheese. Milking and cheese-making will both be over by the beginning of October as milk production decreases when lambs are weaned so I hope that I get to milk in the coming weeks.

Thomas had promised me a driving lesson which we just now did. I drove around the silo once and I think I did quite well. This afternoon Gudrun and I are making apple strudel for tomorrow (on Sundays, cake replaces lunch) and then we'll go on another walk!

This is just a bit of an introduction to what it's like here on the farm, I love the fresh air, the nice food and helping out. I'm hoping to do a little more work outside although it is already getting quite cold.

Sascha xx