Around 2000 fruit trees: three generations, one farm - fruit paradise in Upper Bavaria
Created: 04/10/2022 05:14
By: Carina Zimniok
Picture book farmers with their apples.
From left: Hans, Resi, Agnes, Christian, Martin and Regina Seebacher.
The second daughter Barbara is not in the picture, she has a little son - so four generations live on the farm.
© THOMAS PLETTENBERG
There is no other fruit that Germans like to eat as much as apples.
They taste good, they are healthy - especially if they are regional and untreated.
Fruit grower Seebacher from Bad Feilnbach has 2000 trees, 60 varieties.
How was the harvest this year?
Bad Feilnbach – Julia is crunchy, Resi sweet and Jonathan lightly perfumed.
It's about apples, this wonderful fruit, and it's amazing how sonorous the names of the varieties are.
Mercury, Carnival, Rubinettes.
Kaiser Willhelm!
The Seebachers from Bad Feilnbach own around 2000 fruit trees
Christian Seebacher, fruit grower from Bad Feilnbach, district of Rosenheim, knows them all.
Almost 60 varieties grow on its trees.
Even as a boy he used to dig holes with a shovel, put small fruit trees in them, pounded them down and hoped that they would grow well.
Now he is 45, the head of the family business, and some things are still the same as they were decades ago.
For example, that fruit growing is a wonderful job.
"You're out in nature so much and it's often ticklish: will that be something with the new strain?" he says.
But some things are very different than before.
When Senior Hans Seebacher was still in charge, picking was a tedious business.
The trees were exclusively tall trunks.
To cut the branches or to harvest, you had to climb the ladder.
Up and down.
Up and down.
An apple tree is 80 to 90 years old – “I know them all”, says Christian Seebacher.
But now things are moving a little faster on the farm: now most of the 2000 fruit trees are spindle trees – you can also see them on the large plantations in South Tyrol.
"They wear them for about 15 years," says Christian Seebacher.
Because they are smaller than standard trees, the apples are easier to get hold of.
The Seebachers only use a narrow tractor with a lifting platform for those at the top.
Even apples with blemishes end up on sale
The Seebachers have been picking since July, and now the peak is slowly approaching – and by the end of October all the apples should be in crates and will be sold in the farm shop.
Incidentally, apples with blemishes are also offered there – “That’s not so important to our customers,” says Seebacher.
The main thing is regional, the main thing is unsprayed.
Supermarket customers are more picky, they often leave apples with the brown-grey, slightly rough spots.
Involved on the farm early on: Martin and Regina.
© THOMAS PLETTENBERG
Of course, Christian Seebacher tries to grow apples that are as tasty and pretty as possible.
And that's why he carefully selects new varieties.
To do this, he drives to a fruit center in the Freising district, where experts breed and test.
"What grows well there also grows well in Feilnbach," says Seebacher.
Bad Feilnbach, the town with 7,500 inhabitants at the foot of the Wendelstein, is known for its mild climate. Apples, plums, pears and cherries grow particularly well here - which is why there are more than 30,000 orchard trees there.
Bad Feilnbach is also known as "Bavarian Meran".
Seebacher says: "There's often snow all around, just not here."
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Apple harvest in Bavaria is excellent
Of course there is already frost in Bad Feilnbach.
And that is sometimes a problem for Seebacher.
This year and last spring it was very warm at first – then the late frost came.
It destroys the flowers and that's it for the apple harvest.
There is “almost nothing wrong with the standard Seebachers”, says the fruit grower.
That's bad luck - the apple harvest in Bavaria is excellent overall, according to the farmers' association.
The Lake Constance apple queen even promised a rich harvest: "Our fruit growers expect quality and mass" - the numerous hours of sunshine are responsible for this, which allowed the local apples to ripen in a particularly fruity and sweet way.
Maybe things will go better for the Seebachers next year.
At least the hail spared their trees.
Every year it's a surprise package, what grows well, what doesn't.
The fruit grower therefore relies on several mainstays: holiday apartments, dairy cattle, other fruit such as pears, plums and plums, mirabelle plums and cherries, quince.
By the way, fruit grower Seebacher thinks it's most beautiful when all the trees are in bloom in spring.
A sea of green, white and pink.
He's already looking forward to that.
Bavaria's largest apple market will take place in Bad Feilnbach next weekend.
More than 40,000 visitors are expected from October 7th to 9th.
You will be presented with more than 200 varieties of apples, there are numerous products to try and buy.
