Skillcation? Participating in daily farm life…

A connection between relaxation and actively learning new skills

Yesterday, I heard an interesting report on Radio Salzburg about the new trend “Skillcation”. This refers to a break where vacation is combined with learning new, practical skills. Instead of just relaxing, more and more people want to get hands-on, try new things, and gain experiences that often no longer have a place in everyday life.

I had to smile at that. Because that’s exactly what we’ve been experiencing at Zittrauerhof for many years.

Again and again, people come to us who consciously want to step out of their usual daily routine for a while. They don’t just want to be there, but to get to know life on a farm and become a part of it. They help in the garden, collect herbs, assist with hay harvesting, care for the animals, or support us in the barn and household. Everyone brings different skills and interests – and often our helpers discover talents they didn’t even know they had before.

What begins as helping often turns into a special experience. Working with your hands, nature, animals, and the rhythm of the farm brings peace, contentment, and the wonderful feeling of seeing what you’ve accomplished together at the end of the day.

On the internet, a Skillcation is described as follows:

“A Skillcation on the farm combines a rural vacation with the active learning of new, manual or practical skills. Instead of just resting, you participate in daily farm life and use the farm as a special place for learning and experience.”

For us, this is not a new trend. For years, we have seen how beneficial this form of break is for people. Many arrive with the desire to learn something new – and return home with valuable experiences, beautiful memories, and often a completely new perspective on life.

Perhaps that is the greatest value of such a time on the farm: not only to learn new things, but also to rediscover how fulfilling simple, hard, yet rewarding work in and with nature can be.

Warm regards from Zittrauerhof in Gasteinertal

Katharina Schwaiger