Summer Dream

The cowbells are ringing somewhere nearby, the sun doesn’t quite dare to peek over the mountain peaks yet, and the scent of summer mountain days hangs in the air – that’s exactly what it’s like when you spend the summer on the alpine pasture and open your eyes in the morning.

Our beautiful Gastein mountains are still full of snow and there’s not much hint of spring or summer yet, but we still want to indulge in a little daydream and think about the coming summer. You can almost count the days until the daydreams become everyday life again. And our Grandpa Hias is probably already counting, because the hard work on the alpine pasture in three months falls mainly to him. As soon as the animals are driven up, he too spends the days and nights on the Stubnerkogel and takes care of all the work that needs doing. He looks after the cows, milks morning and evening, brings the milk down to the valley, and whatever else comes up. But of course he’s not completely alone up there. During the summer holidays he’s happily accompanied by his grandchildren, who pitch in energetically.

Every year we bring the animals up to the Stubnerkogel and fetch them back down to the valley at the end of summer. You might think that would get boring at some point, but quite the opposite. No day is like another and no year is like the previous one! This year too there’s already a new development on our beautiful Zittraueralm:

This summer our alpine pasture will be run as a working hut again! Our guests are especially happy about being able to visit Grandpa again and get a good Brettljause on the side. We’re very much looking forward to the time with Christiane, Tanja, and Christian. They will probably run the alpine pasture independently from mid-May onwards, help Grandpa with the work, and look after the guests’ refreshments. Christiane ran the Böckfeldalm for many years and everyone who knows her knows that it’s important to her that the “menu” on an alpine pasture stays simple and the prices moderate. Let’s look forward to her homemade pressed apple juice, cider, Pofesen, and many other farm products.

(Christina and Tanja will serve the drinks)

For now we’re still enjoying the warm winter days, but the time until the first alpine pasture day will fly by anyway. Until then we’ll keep dreaming of lush alpine meadows, the babbling of mountain streams, and the warm summer sun on our skin while gazing at the wonderful mountain world of the Gasteinertal.

Your farmer Katharina from Zittrauerhof, Gasteinertal. www.gasteinurlaub.com