Getting Stuck In

Every year I receive a few internship applications by post or email. Whether just for 2 weeks or 6 months, every length is represented. That’s why I’d like to show today what an internship at our Zittrauerhof means! For this I’ve summarized the experiences and adventures of our previous interns.

In the morning our intern heads straight to fetch milk for the breakfast guests, then into the children’s barn, because sheep, goats, donkeys and pony are already waiting longingly for fresh grass and want to be brought to pasture. Often early risers among the guests are already there and are included when time allows and can join in.

Once the animals are standing happily and contentedly on the pasture, chicken and duck eggs are still collected and the milk fetched from the milk chamber. Sometimes just for everyday needs, sometimes whole buckets full for making yogurt, fresh cheese or curd. When you’re finished with the barn work, the rubbish from the kitchen is taken out and we then prepare the guest breakfast together.

I myself place great value on the aspect “the eye eats too,” which is why all products and foods are nicely arranged. Our guests are all the more pleased when they come into the parlor and find a beautifully laid breakfast table and all the (wild) herbs can be eaten. After coffee and fresh eggs are brought to the tables, our own breakfast can begin in the family kitchen.

The morning work begins directly after breakfast: While the guests gather energy for the day in the parlor, the rooms are quickly tidied in between; as soon as the parlor is empty, the dishes are cleared and everything made crumb-free again; the house and the area in front of the house are swept so everything looks tidy – the odd cobweb has to be removed too. If there’s a departure on a given day, the rooms and apartments are thoroughly cleaned in the morning, otherwise there are always different jobs to be found in the barn, on the farm, in the garden or in the kitchen.

This is also when the delicious jams, juices and milk products are made. I advise all the girls right at the start to keep a little notebook in which all the recipes and experiences made at Zittrauerhof can be noted down. I’m all the more pleased when emails come from mums or the girls themselves saying they’re glad to have done the internship with us and can use so much for daily life. I try to coax abilities out of everyone that perhaps remained undiscovered until now :-)

Around midday the oven is fired up and usually Austrian dishes are conjured. In the process one or another has already discovered their cooking talent or noticed that the kitchen really isn’t their thing ;).

After the washing-up is done, it’s time for the lunch break. At 4 p.m. we bring the animals back into the barn. On some days there’s also a children’s program with go-karts, water games and watering-can battles, which has to be prepared beforehand. After the small animals are cared for and the cows are brought into the barn for milking, we check the playgrounds, flowers and prepare supper together, which we sometimes eat outside in the garden. You don’t get bored quickly at Zittrauerhof.

Before an internship happens, I invite the girls to come and try it out, so both sides get to know each other and see whether it can work or not.

An internship at our farm is very varied, but also sometimes quite demanding. You are completely integrated and involved in the family, must like children, be reliable and honest. For me it’s loveliest when I get emails now and then from time-out women and interns and hear how things are going.

Training people or accompanying and “helping along” a part of their lives is a very beautiful aspect of my farmer’s-wife existence :-)

Your farmer Katharina