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Get online – Flachsenberg Crowdfunding begins
Let’s move our beloved project forward !
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Dear friends, the time has come! Our first crowdfunding at Michaelshof went live a few days ago! Those familiar with our project know that we never run out of ideas, and just need the right people and the right funding to fulfil our dream – creating a diverse community with people from around the world. So many people want to get involved in our community, to help shape it for the years ahead. We want to make that possible with the next houses at Flachsenberg – ‘Community needs housing’.
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Who lives there?
The houses in Flachsenberg are shared flats of families, single people, couples, young and old people in every possible combination. and there’s also a house for children from the Peronnik Children’s and Youth Home. The new twin we recently completed gives living space for at least 18 people .
What do we need?
160,000€ to complete the next two community housing units. We took out a loan in 2020, massive increases in construction costs mean that it’s been used up after 10 of 14 planned houses. Now we need swarm support – money for plumbing, electricity, drywalling, paint, kitchen counters, ceiling lights, and anything else needed to build. Can you help us?
How can you help us?
By making a donation and helping us create our dream village! In our Startnext portal you can find various ways to give, and help us with our project. For a donation of 20€, you get a Michaelshof jute bag, for 500€ you get to spend a day at the construction site (food and accommodation included) and for a donation of 10,000€, you get an original painting by graffiti artist MadC (if you want to know more about her).
And now?
Now we need YOUR help! Go online to the Startnext platform and support our project ‘Community needs housing’. You help directly benefits a community trying to create a diverse and welcoming place for all. Great to have you on board!
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Isn’t SELMA marvellous !
A new school year and many important questions
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Let’s go! The Selma Lagerlöf School is starting its third school year, with a fresh team and lots of great ideas. ‘Selma’ is a fascinating, and innovative project: it’s a state-run special school focussed on emotional/social development, with a Waldorf educational mindset (that means singing, drama, lots of colour, and lots of fun!) We’re enthusiastic about ‘learning by doing’, but also know that ignoring modern technology is useless. Life in Selma is mostly relaxed – rough shell, sooooft core – though sometimes you might see a chair flying. Every day, we look for the right way to engage unusual children who themselves would often prefer a “completely normal” school. How can it all work? Sometimes it doesn’t, but the team has learned an incredible amount in the last year. In the process, the ‘school personality’ of Selma is becoming clearer and clearer, and we are thrilled at how Selma fits into the whole of the Sammatz learning landscape. We couldn’t have imagined it if we’d tried !
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Suppose they opened a school and everybody came (with pleasure)!
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How can school be fun? That’s what interests us, because if it’s fun for the students, then it’s arrived in their lives. And that’s what we want to aim for! There will always be days when teachers and students alike long for Friday. But if every day is like that? That sounds like a nightmare. On the way to a play-and-fun school in the good sense, we make a little progress every day. In the near future it is our big dream – simply to make good teaching – to become an international sustainability school with Waldorf and action pedagogy and above all happy children. Look forward to hearing more about Selma – we’ll be jumping into the fray! – Hey, you in the back, cut it out – and where did that basketball come from again? Doesn’t anyone here hear the school bell …. ?!!!
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Spend the night in Sammatz – 8 cozy guest rooms in garden paradise
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Good news about staying overnight in Sammatz! Claudia, Janet, Hannah and Anna have worked hard for you and created eight relaxed and tasteful guest rooms – of course each is named after our dearest flowers! 🙂
A holiday-break at the guesthouse at Michaelshof is the perfect way to combine nature experience with relaxation and community flair. Gardens, flowers, people, cows – it’s all just around the corner!
Reservations by e-mail at uebernachten@sammatz.de and by phone at 05858 970 30.
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Sunday brunch at the Café am Michaelshof
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Every Sunday from half past nine the Café am Michaelshof invites you to brunch. Register by Friday at the latest and enjoy a sumptuous buffet with cheese, ham and many other delicacies directly from the farm, scrambled eggs, fish, fresh wood-fired bread and everything that conjures up that wonderful brunch feeling in your stomachs and hearts! And when you’re full and happy, of course, we’ll take you for a spin through the summer gardens … Michaelshof at its finest!
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«Have a look» – our category for all garden fans who just can’t get enough of the gardens at Michaelshof (we are one of them, of course!)
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Garden tip of the month – from Hannah
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Hi Hannah, what is special about the arena right now ?
When you come into the arena, two things catch your eye straight away. One is that when you look straight down, incredibly great shades of yellow beam up at you. You get the impression of a colourful jungle that you could climb down into. If you then take the paths that wind into the arena, you come to an area where the perennials have grown so tall and take up so much space to make you feel small. You become aware of an incredible power, a green power all around you, which then discharges into the rainbow of bright colours. The yellow and the red that shines everywhere. Between the many perennials, we also have a great wildflower mix that the insects are particularly happy about. Down by the pond you can already see the wonderfully radiant coneflowers: the fall colours are already on their way, all the great yellow tones are there, it’s shining everywhere.
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The second thing that catches your eye is the dahlia garden on the right. The huge dahlia heads are now shining from above in their very special colourfulness. It’s definitely worth taking a detour there, simply because it’s super great to see these originally Mexican plants in their colours and shapes up close.
What are your favourite places right now?
For me personally, there are two favourite places in the arena. One is a bench in the middle of the arena. There’s a lot of grasses growing behind it this year with some perennials and to the front you’re looking down at the pond. You’re actually right in the middle of the insect and flower diversity and you can really enjoy that. And the other place that I particularly like is our rock garden at the very end of the arena, which is still hidden behind the gracilimus maiden grass with the statues of the Seven Liberal Arts. You can barely see the statues in mid-summer because of the grass, but that’s also the appeal. Behind that is our rock garden. I love to sit on the largest stone, and children love it, too.
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From there you have a special view of the arena, namely from the bottom up. First you see the green grassy area and then, in the great colorfulness, the buckthorn on the left and the tall oaks on the right. I think that’s a great point, too.
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And don’t forget: Right now is the absolutely hot phase in the S-beds right next door on the perennial plateau. If you come to Sammatz now, you should definitely make a detour to the perennials. They are in full bloom, and yes, they need to be weeded again, but the beds are still a lot of fun, because the colors are there, the shapes are there, the power is there. So don’t miss it if you’re visiting the Michaelshof!
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Farm diary – the cowgirls have it under control
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Where are the Arche- and other animals when the stables are empty? On the pasture, of course! Around 9 o’clock, our 22 dairy cows set off on their lazy journey. In their inimitable majestic cradle step they stroll through the village, not without Viktoria holding everything up because she – and only she – has to steal a few apples. Before the vegetable field they walk down the ‘mountain’ (yes, that’s how hills are called here in the north) to the pasture at the edge of the brook, where they can feast on the fresh grass.
At around 10 o’clock the sheep and goats follow. That’s something quite different, as far as speed and liveliness are concerned. Take good care of the boxwood hedges, they find them particularly tasty! In the pasture, they eat everything that the cows have trampled and not eaten. Highly economical, and at the end you are left with a perfect lawnmower-short meadow!
Back we go in reverse order, first sheep and goats, then the cattle, who are already looking forward to milking and the hay afterwards.
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Happens sometimes: birth on the pasture – our Angler cows can do that!
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The core stable team around Sara-Lou, Gaby and Sanne knows how to get the animals well around the bends and fully on the pasture. Two lead the herd, usually supported by 2 to 4 school interns – a coveted job with a real cowboy feeling. By the way, from the village square and the café you can see the animals passing by – it is one of the best Sammatz moments of the day when suddenly the lively herd of goats appears on the street, directed by the motivating ‘Koooomm, koomm’ shouting of the stable team – village life as it should be!
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Ham and more from the Angler Rind
Super lean and tender beef ham from Angler Rotvieh, similar to Bündner Fleisch or Bresaola. The meat of the old breed of Angler Rotvieh has been included in the Slow Food Arche for its outstanding quality.
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We’re one of the very few farms that sell this noble meat, in Demeter quality to boot. For example, delicious veal steaks, beef chops and other delicacies. Have a look at our farm store or let us inform you at the food truck in Lüneburg.
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Rosemary Salt
The aroma of rosemary combines with fine sea salt in this special salt blend. Delicious on a hearty sandwich or to season exquisite dishes. Goes also quite simply: Hot potatoes with olive oil and rosemary salt. Very tasty!
ORDER IN OUR ONLINE SHOP
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Gourmet tour à la Michaelshof
If you now visit the farm store or shop at the weekly market in Lüneburg, you can put together a delicious menu made entirely from Sammatzer products – you can’t get more organic, seasonal & regional than that! We’ll show you how it’s done: For example with a tender veal steak from Demeter Angler Rotvieh (something special, see above!), served with buttered potatoes with fresh parsley, crispy-short steamed summer vegetables (the magnificent zucchini and the new Sammatzer eggplants must not be missing).
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Plus, of course, (cucumber &) tomato salad with a guaranteed sunshine flavor explosion in the gourmet palate. And for dessert Sammatzer yogurt with Sammatzer honey … mmmmh!
ALL INGREDIENTS IN THE STORE AND AT THE MARKET
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Events in September & October
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Sunday, 10/9, 11a.m. – 6 p.m.
Apple day in Sammatz
Our region is an ‘apple area’. Maybe there is a rare variety of apple tree in your garden? Bring 5 apples with you and have them expertly identified! There will be a colourful apple festival around the ‘Haus der Natur’ with a juice bar for experimenting, games and food.
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Michaelshof – at a glance!
Opening hours:
Arche-Hof:
Mon-Sun 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Café:
Mon-Fri 8 – 12 a.m.
2 – 6 p.m.
Sat 8 am. – 6 p.m.
Sun & bank holidays 9.30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Farm shop:
Mon-Fri 10 – 12.30 a.m.
2 – 7 p.m.
Sat, Sun & bank 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
holidays
Der WAGEN:
Weekly market, Lüneburg:
Wed & Sat 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Michaelshof Sammatz
Sun 12 a.m. – 6 p.m.
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Summer Toughts
Why is money so scarce? Who prints it, and why don’t they print it for me? Who decides who is rich and who is poor – and according to what criteria? The world is unfair, we all know that. But it is especially unfair when it comes to money. And we are all very lucky to live in Germany. When I really think about what Steiner proposes in terms of social issues, it sounds utopian at first, but it makes sense. Imagine that a company is not owned by heirs or joint-stock companies, but is left to those who work in it, as long as they do so sensibly. It is not run by directors who have to keep the dividends high, but simply by the people who are best suited for it. Imagine if companies were to do business in a brotherly way instead of fighting each other in competition. They would work together with consumers and produce useful products that are really needed and wanted! They would organise that themselves, the state would only deal with security and law where all people are treated equally – and seriously equally.
And cultural life is the place where freedom reigns. This includes schools and universities, art, religion and science.
Speaking of science: I would also find it revolutionary to think that science allows pluralism instead of decreeing, like a new holy church, that the world must consist of nothing but matter. With its claim to truth, it also makes fun of the fact that 21.6 million Catholics live in Germany alone as of 2021. Are they all crazy? Certainly, but so is science when it insists solely on its measurable and reproducible facts. Where is the humanity? Where is the between-the-lines? Where is the positive magic?
These are a few questions that are buzzing through my head in August. If you have any answers, please feel free to contact me! |
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All around the world – Goodbye AIESEC
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Here comes a story…
On 15 July, 41 young people from different parts of the world arrive in Sammatz – from Brazil and Mexico, Hong Kong and Greece, Turkey and Serbia, Egypt and the Czech Republic… All of them are young and studying (except Lucy, also young, but still in school). We put them up in our charming rose garden house. After a week, some leave – life with us is really very different from home. The remaining 30 young people stay here and have the time of their lives (quote from at least 3 AIESECers). They help on the building site and in the garden, with the animals and in the kitchen, with Peronnik and in the café. And with all this, which is already exhausting, they learn what community means. But hear for yourself!
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“In the 6 weeks I got to know the essence of a community where everyone has to work together to keep this wonderful place alive. Thank you Sammatz for allowing me to experience this. This place is a special place where you can be yourself and discover the stories of others, a place like a second home.”
Edwin, Mexiko
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“There is no right or wrong here, so just be yourself and go with the flow. (You people reading this, I hope you understand!)” Kaka, Hong Kong
“I don’t think I’ve ever been happy for six weeks straight. When I came here, literally all my worries melted away.” Elina, Greece
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“Thank you, Sammatz, for taking me in and teaching me that together we can achieve anything we want, that nothing is impossible. Thank you for reminding me that life is NOW and that it’s never too late to say something nice to someone.” Bruna, Brazil
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“I am grateful for every single person I shared this house with. Different nationalities, habits, standards, opinions … but ….we made it!” Lucie, Czech Republic
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“I learned a lot about building and living in the community. It was a pleasure to participate in this project, thank you for everything, Sammatz!” Ana Carolina, Brazil
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Thanks to all of you!!
Alpay, Ana, Asli, Jaqueline, David, Dimitris, Ebru, Elina, Bruna, Defne, Ece E., Ece B., Edwin, Feyza, Merve, Holly, Emre, Jelena, Kaka, Lucie, Marianthi, Kübra, Nur, Cansu, Naz, Roniel, Stefania, Sude, Victor, Alex
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WE LOVE TO ENTERTAIN YOU
Netzfunde, die wir ️…
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Cradle to cradle – a cult book with ideas for a circular economy that wants to avoid many of the stumbling blocks of both the austerity-focused environmental protection and, above all, the destructive economy that we have today. When you read it, you involuntarily begin to rethink everyday life – super exciting for a place like ours! C2C on the internet, for example, here (German website).
The playlist this time is very romantic with a real hymn, the evergreen king of raspy vocals and, a German classic, the two cuties from hip hop collective Freundeskreis. Sigh – and now everybody’s comments on German music taste!
Commitment, trust, spirit, courage – crazy on the ice, good to have them in life, too!
The three big environmental issues are global warming, loss of biodiversity and soil degradation. On biodiversity loss, which affects not only individual species but the entire web of life, a good overview here (both websites in German). Soil degradation – i.e. the destruction of humus – is described as the most underestimated disaster of all. For years, Michaelshof has been committed to soil improvement and more biodiversity in settlement areas – as long as there is no big switch to eco agriculture, a central building block to preserve biodiversity.
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+++ NEWSTICKER +++
5 WEEKS OF SAMMATZ CARRIAGE – Since the summer festival at the end of July, our beautiful carriage has been officially allowed to drive guests through the country. There have been about 200 so far – despite a 2-week break during which Marc, our coachman, supported Peronnik on a holiday trip. The carriage is available on weekends or on request – it’s a very special feeling to roll through the village or over the countryside with the hoofbeats of our two “heavyweights” Charlie and Luna. Thank you, Marc, for your commitment! By the way, on event days there are also extra shorter rides at a reduced price. Please register via our central telephone number!
GEN ON A BIKE – on Friday we were happy to have the «Wandelreise» (journey of change) of GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) with us. The cycling tour of community-minded people started on 1.8. at the Eibsee below the Zugspitze in the utmost south of Germany and ends on 10.9. in the north at Kap Arkona on the island of Rügen. On Friday, the cyclists arrived at Sammatz with their tents and were welcomed with dancing, food and exciting stories. We will report on how it was in the next newsletter. Here’s more info (website in German).
UPDATE FIELDS – If you are wondering how it went on in the fields: The harvest is in, we got hay and straw well under cover “thanks” to the drought. Soil cultivation has started, and on many areas an interseed with flowering plants is growing to strengthen the insect population. And soon the autumn sowing will start!
AND THEN THERE WERE TEN – We don’t want to bore you, but we have another house ready to move into on the Flachsenberg, and that means a lot to us! The noise level of our suburbs has risen considerably: Because this time it’s going to be a real multi-generational house with two families, five children, a cat and a fun-loving person of retirement age. Welcome Katharina, Elisa, Kristin, Amelie, Benny & Co!
To finance the rest of the houses, we need your help -> see our crowdfunding!
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We are looking for skilled workers or interns in the field of:
Office:
Hands-on:
- Agriculture
- Horticulture / Gardening
- Construction worker
- Maintenance
Production
- Market cart salesperson
- Farm shop
- Bakery
- Confectionery
Human beings / therapy
- doctor/physician
- Pharmacist
- Ecucation/Care giving
Your qualification is not listed, but you are still interested?
Just give it a try!
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Hey sleepyheads, wake up! Come on out, we’ve discovered a beautiful piece of fresh meadow and delicious bushes – not so far from our pasture! Goats and fences, you know how the story goes … What do you mean, not interested? Stay-at-home! Well, we have to go anyway, we can’t miss this tasty treat …
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