The story could go like this: a master butcher runs a sheep farm as a hobby, but cannot slaughter his animals because he has grown so fond of them.
Andreas Zeller is not that sentimental after all.
Brunnthal
– Andreas Zeller (42) has owned a butcher's shop in Ramersdorf, Rosenheimer Straße, for eight years.
He and his family, mother Annemarie and father Benno Zeller, live in Hofolding (Brunnthal municipality) and have been running part-time farming on leased land on the Markweg for two and a half decades.
16 sheep, 15 lambs and a ram (“His name is Toni”) belong to Andreas Zeller, as well as two pigs.
He got it from friends in October last year for his birthday.
A lamb provides around 18 kilograms of meat, including the bones
Lambs and ewes - for the layman, it is not easy to tell them apart, because up to a year old they are still considered lambs.
They are no longer as cute as you might imagine lambs to be.
Zeller's lambs are between four weeks and six months old.
They are slaughtered when they are between six months and eight months old.
Before that, "they are still too small" and it's not entirely clear what he means: too little to eat or simply out of love for the creature.
A lamb, including the bones, provides about 18 kilograms of meat.
Andreas Zeller keeps brown mountain sheep
What fascinates him about the sheep that Andreas Zeller has been keeping for 20 years?
"They're like little cows," says Zeller affectionately.
He keeps so-called brown mountain sheep.
Although they give less meat, he says, this is leaner than that of other breeds.
And Toni, a Texel buck by breed, makes sure it stays that way.
Easter roast for 30 euros per kilo
What does Easter mean for Andreas Zeller?
"Especially more work in the butcher shop," he says.
He would not describe himself as a strictly religious person, "rather a kind of habitual Catholic".
Lambs actually symbolize purity and peace.
Traditionally, they were slaughtered and eaten at the Jewish Passover festival.
Today, the following applies above all: You have to be able and willing to afford lamb - a kilo costs around 30 euros in the Zeller butcher's shop.
For comparison: For pork, you pay just twelve euros.
"I also like to eat lamb," says Andreas Zeller.
On the evening before the Merkur visit, there was a party in the small hut next to the stable, a few spare ribs are still left and a few schnitzel.
Was there lamb?
"No, much too expensive!" Says Zeller and laughs.
From May to autumn on the summer pasture near Dietramszell
From May, about two weeks after clipping, Zeller's animals go to the summer pasture, about eight kilometers from their home stables, until autumn.
Incidentally, only the goats are slaughtered for the meat.
Zeller doesn't slaughter his animals himself. Not because he couldn't, he has the appropriate certificate of expertise to do so.
But he simply lacks the prescribed infrastructure on the small farm, he says.
Among other things, strict hygiene requirements apply to slaughtering.
Zeller therefore has the slaughter in Dietramszell.
So no long transport for the animals.
Andreas Zeller likes to take his animals for walks
In winter, when his sheep aren't out in the fields all day, Andreas Zeller likes to take them for a walk.
They follow him like a lamb, some then hop around exuberantly as if they were dancing.
Lammbada, so to speak.
That looks a little like trained.
But in order to motivate his herd to go home, he sometimes needs a bucket of barley to lure them with.
Love always goes through the stomach.
Andreas Zeller looks over his flock of sheep.
He seems content with himself and the world.
"With such creatures," he says, "that's great."
