"Never lose your lightness and always remember who you are!"

It takes just under 20 minutes by car to drive from Barnhouse to Rudi Hargasser's farm in Salmanskirchen (Ampfing). The Schloßbauer Hof was formerly owned by the Pfäffingers family, a noble family in the 1500s. It has belonged to Rudi's family since 1845 and has been run as an organic farm with pure grain cultivation since 2012. Rudi lives and works on the farm with his wife and two children. He works full-time as a purchasing manager at a supplier to the automotive industry.

The Bioland farmer meditates to counteract the stress that can occur from time to time with his two jobs. The awareness of a healthy lifestyle was also the reason why Rudi became an organic farmer. "... because it gives me and my family an absolutely good feeling that I am producing healthy food and can therefore pass this on to conscious people."

He tries to convey this awareness and the importance behind it to his children and to show them what farming means with his means. His work on the farm also gives Rudi a certain grounding and at the same time a balance to his main job.

"Thinking in tune with the seasons as a farmer, but also being submissive in a way, gives me a certain humility that's growing in me every year," he tells us.

But it is also important for Rudi to know why he does all this and grows his grain. “It is one thing to know exactly what is produced from my grain. Knowing which people are facing you and knowing their personal convictions is another. If both are coherent and the interests of everyone are perceived and taken seriously, you also know what you are working for the whole year. Only then is it so much fun to celebrate with everyone!“

Worth mentioning: Rudi Hargasser is on the board of the association "Eicher Raubtiere Salmanskirchen", which is not only dedicated to the preservation and demonstration of old farming working methods, but also to the tradition and maintenance of historical agricultural machinery. Tractors from the Upper Bavarian company Eicher, whose sky-blue series “Eicher Raubtiere” from the 1950s/60s is legendary, gave the name here.