Summary of the Interview with the local farmer Martin Keller
The journey to the local farm was a great experience as we learned a lot about apples and gained knowledge about farming. Martin Keller didn’t just told us the answers to our questions, he also showed us the apple plantation, other fruit trees and told us about differences between the sorts, he gave us apples and apple cider (Apfelmost) to try and he told us different stories about his job which actually is also a big part of his life.
Arriving at the farm, first of all, Martin showed us around. Interestingly, the local farmer owns more than 12 different sorts of apples as well as pears, cherries, grapes but also horses, cows and the naughty (frech) cat called Flocke.
The lifecycle of an apple trees starts with choosing and growing the baby tree, they are grown in tree nurseries (Baumschulen) and can bought with an age of one or two years. Martin Keller personally tend to buy two years old trees as first apples can be harvested from the apple trees third living-year on.
The most annoying destroyers that farmers have to struggle with are animals and the weather. Birds like to pick the apples, mices destroy the roots from young apple trees which results in dead trees. However, farmers can work with fertilizer, pesticides and nets against the animals, while weather damages the apples with hail, heavy rain, storms and freeze. Against the bad weather condition farmers can not do more than net their trees or use the possibility to paint the tree white as protection against frost. Unfortunately, there is no sort of apple, which is better protected from damages than others.
The harvest starts in mid July and ends beginning of November as the exact time of the harvest depends on the sort of apple. Martin Keller does the harvest together with his lovely wife, as their plantation is not as big as farmers that only have apples on their farms, they can manage the harvest by themselves. While they pick the apples from the trees, they split them into different categories directly:
- Nice Apples (not splitten into categories as for Martin Keller all apples are perfect sized)
- Apple Cider: Damaged apples but still edible (essbar)
- Leftovers: Rotten or very damaged apples are either given to the horses and cows or are used as fertilizer.
For kindergarten and schools the mix of smaller and bigger apples in crates (Harasse) is perfect as some children prefer the bigger apples while others rather takes smaller ones.
To make sure the apples can be kept fresh as long as they needed to, there are different ways of storages. Mr Keller differ between the sorts, some kind of apples like it cooler and are therefore stored in the “chilly stock” (0-1 °C) while some sorts like it a bit warmer and are stored in the other stock (2-3 °C). Additionally, there is a so called “CA-Stock” (CA = controlled atmosphere) where the apples can be stored for a longer time and it is filled with a special gas for keeping the apples firmy (knackig) and fresh.
Often our clients bring along their own bags for the buyed apples, however, there are different packaging methods available in our “home-store” like plastic bags, paper bags and carton boxes. For delivery we normally use crates (Harasse) and reuse them several times.
Ideally, Martin Keller said, would be that farmers would sell their apples to customers directly as the value from the product would grow. At the present, intermediaries (Zwischenhändler) depress farmers selling and set their selling prices higher, what results in more profit for the intermediaries organisation. That means that, the farmer gets less money for its work and can only sell the first class apples of 7-8 cm without damages. From Mr Keller's point of view it would make much more sense to mix the apple sizes as not anyone like the same ones and the taste of the smaller apples is as good as the others: “The most important thing is to realize, that the quality of apples doesn’t depend on their size or shape.”
In Martin Keller’s eyes, the climate change will have an influence on the farmers business as there will might be less water and it also could cause drought. Additionally, if it gets warm after winter but icey days come back in spring, the weather causes damage due to freezing. Further, pesticides will be another challenge in future according to Mr Keller’s words, not only with regard to the ingredients but also the protection of the environment (e.g. space from sprayed pesticides to water bodies).
Check the whole interview right here: Interview Martin Keller.pdf (65.87 kb).
Tamara Keller, Stefanie Kunz, Simone Etter
Wetzikon, Switzerland