Country farmer Johanna Haider plants organic grain and bakes bread in Engerwitzdorf. The change is paying off, the demand for your products is growing.
Johanna Haider with her mill
“Around the year 2000 I was already considering converting the farm to organic. We were a conventional company, but we only injected what was absolutely necessary. You have more income, but you also have to invest more. ”Finally, Johanna Haider (50) was also able to convince her husband Heinrich (55). Because: “I ask myself how do I want to eat? What do I want for myself and for my family? That was what made me want to run the farm organically in 2007. ”
Spelled rolls, onion wreath and snacks
A major rethink had to take place with her husband. “He always said that the wheat field is so beautiful when there is no green looking out. That was a great picture for him. My motivation has always been that you have to do it differently, without pesticides. ”The conventional farmer also has a great deal of knowledge about agriculture, the biological one the same, only he has to think about how to handle the weeds so that they can be used did not overgrow the seed and culture. “That doesn't happen overnight, you have to try out a lot, you have to pay for it.”
30 Cameroon sheep populate the stable
As an organic farm you get a lower yield, of course, but you get bonuses for your products, “it balances out again”. There is more work. While the conventional farmer drives with the sprayer, they go with the dock stick and stick out the weeds.
The flour sacks weigh 25 kg
Johanna Haider runs a 14 hectare farm in Engerwitzdorf, which she took over from her parents. The house name is Gratzer z'Gratz. “Back then it was a traditional mixed farm with cows, bulls and pigs.” Bread has been baked since 1995, “we went to the market”. In 1995 the cowshed was rebuilt, but cow husbandry was given up in 2003 due to the low milk price. And because she can't be without animals, she hired 30 Cameroon sheep.
The Gratzer z'Gratz is a typical Mühlviertel farm
In 2003 she returned to her trained profession as a retail saleswoman. With 20 hours a week, as a saleswoman in the butcher's Riepl in Gallneukirchen. She and her husband, who is production manager in a food company, have four sons: Dominik (29), David (27), Benedikt (25) and Michael (21).
The courtyard in the interior
She grows rye, spelled, wheat and corn. For reasons of crop rotation also clover. Every year a different fruit is added, in the previous year linseed. The corn is ground and mixed with the other grain, cornmeal is used, for example, to cook polenta.
Johanna Haider with her cat Schwarznase and Dino
She bakes around 35 kg of flour per week. For example, for the onion wreath, a rye-spelled-wheat mixture that weighs 400 grams, for the spelled roll (60% spelled, 20% wheat, 20% rye), for the nut bread, the snack and for the farmer's bread (60% Rye, 40% spelled, without yeast, only sourdough). The wholemeal bread consists of equal parts rye and spelled, the brioche is made entirely of wheat, and there is also the spelled stick and the herb rose. We sell on Wednesdays and Fridays, either directly from the farm or at the warehouse in Engerwitzdorf. Their products are now also available from Spar in Rainbach and from Ms. Steininger from Bruckmühle in St. Georgen.
This is where the dough is stirred
Since her appointment as a country farmer last year, she has given up her job as a saleswoman, she is fully focused on the business, because the demand is growing. She has also been an ÖVP councilor since 1997, became a local farmer in 2003, and in 2016 she became a district farmer in Urfahr-Umgebung. “Political education was my favorite subject even at school.” Now she is third on the list (behind President Michaela Langer-Weninger and Vice President Karl Grabmayr) in the Chamber of Agriculture elections on January 24th, she is to become the chairwoman of the Farmers Committee.
The organic food is also offered in small packs
How is it as an organic woman in a patriarchal male world of conventional agriculture? “We have become more courageous because we are better trained. Our self-confidence has increased. We live the partnership very well on the farms, which is also necessary in the committees. We still have to stand by our wives and still do more than men. It's going slowly, but you can see the progress. “
