KRAMETERHOF: learning from the rebellious farmer

We couldn’t avoid visiting it! Our ultimate model: Sepp Holzer’s Krameterhof.

The Krameterhof is located on the southern slope of the Schwarzenberg-mountain in Lungau, federal state of Salzburg. This mountain farm covers 45 hectares (111 acres), and is located between 1100 and 1500 meters above sea level.

Due to harsh and long winters and low average temperatures this region has the reputation of being “Austria’s Siberia”. Over the year, the place also gets a lot of sun and very little rain.

Sepp Holzer turned a simple mountain area, mainly characterized by the presence of Norway spruces, into one of the most important examples of permaculture in Europe. He created ponds, terraces and nurseries and he practices fish farming of freshwater crabs, breeding of wild bovines and mushroom cultivation. He also manages a nursery of arboreal plants and much more.

To give an example of the climatic conditions, the average yearly temperature is 5°C, the days of frosts are 166 and the average yearly rainfall is 751 mm.

In a harsh environment from the climatic point of view, Sepp Holzer’s family can produce all they need to sustain themselves and their farm. They have a great production of berries that they use to make delicious jams, in August they harvest hundreds of kilograms of cherries, when there is no one left in the plain and, thanks to the system of ponds and running water they created, they manage to breed good quantity of fish and freshwater crabs.

How did they create all of this?? By playing since childhood with water, wind and ground…