Last month it was the turn of the citrus plants, now it’s the turn of the palm trees and the many laurel bushes. Daniel and the vegetable team are getting the last of the red and white cabbage from the field and the radishes in the foil tunnels have to make way for the pots. Kale, savoy cabbage and Brussels sprouts are the tough guys in the vegetable section and can withstand the cold so well that they can still stay. The pumpkins get a visit from us every other day, are checked and brought to the kitchen for delicious pumpkin dishes.

Marc takes care of the outside taps and the gardeners check whether everything that needs to be sealed is really tight.

The grazing season for cows, sheep and goats is now over and the animals are making themselves comfortable in our well-bedded open stables.

And in addition to all the winter work, there’s also a hard-working garden team who is still tidying up the last leaves in the snow flurries.

First of all, many thanks to all of you for your great support!  By the end of November, we had already raised over €200,000, more than 2/3 of the required amount. We are very happy!

It would be great if we could raise the last €100,000 this year via the crowd-investing platform Xavin. Together we can achieve great things!

The Advent season and the upcoming Christmas festivities could be the best occasion for you, your family and friends to do good with money. The sooner the total amount of €300,000 is raised and paid out, the sooner the project can be completed.

Therefore: we are happy about any Christmas support through your loan, whether big or small! Because our hearts will simply beat faster if we can complete this great project soon. We wish you all a happy and light-filled Advent season.

See you soon

Janet Haacke for Peronnik, Tobias Ungerer for Xavin

Claudia: ‘Well, we already had a lot of medicinal plants in the field, lavender, rose petals, calendula petals, lots of St John’s wort, which produces a particularly beautiful red oil. I quickly asked myself what to do with it. You have to make something beautiful out of it! I then experimented a lot and finally came up with rhythmised warm extracts with almond oil as the best, but also complex and altogether quite special process.

‘As a layman, I imagine it’s super complicated to make a cosmetic cream.

‘Like everyone else, I started very simply, with a small mixer, and did the simple things first, really tried them out. But I don’t make the cosmetics alone, I work with Bruno, a chemist, and Sara, a biologist. Without this team, we would never have come up with our great products.

‘Are the cosmetics organic?

‘It’s all organic, and the medicinal plants are all from our own fields. But we can’t officially say organic yet because it’s not yet certified. We’ll do that this winter, then we’ll be able to really launch outwards and sell the cosmetics in organic shops, for example.’
 

‘What are your flagship products?’

‘One is our unscented face cream with organic marula oil from South Africa. It’s wonderfully light and provides the skin with lots of moisture. Then there’s the hand cream, which was our first product, and the rose petal face cream, which people from 20 to 100 years old love, naturally with Sammatzer rose petals. The hand cream is really nourishing, with healing larch turpentine. I originally designed it for gardeners with very stressed hands. More products will follow as they go through the official approval process.’


‘How can people order your creams?’

‘You will soon be able to order them via the new online shop.’

‘And for the ones that don’t want to wait that long?’

‘Just write us an email or come to the farm shop at Michaelshof.

‘Thank you very much for the interview and your great impulse – and good luck!’

Who is already looking forward to our atmospheric Christmas market? Our special Christmas market will get you into the festive spirit right at Christmas, from 23 to 24 December. You’ll find lots of delicious organic food and good things to give as gifts at various stalls, from Sammatz products to the Peronnik craft stall and beautiful sundries. We’ll also offer various activities for the kids – tombola, candle making, petting animals and much more. The Sammatz Christmas choir and other live music will ensure swinging Christmas feelings!

Psssst! Don’t miss the performance of the Oberuferer Christmas play! On Saturday at 6 pm and Sunday at 4 pm, we will be performing an almost 400-year-old rural Christmas play in the House of Nature, which is equally popular with children and adults, with guests from the neighbourhood or from the other side of the world. With its rustic language and heartfelt spirituality, it touches us deeply every year.

You are also welcome to celebrate Christmas or New Year’s Eve with us. Just send us an email or give us a call on 05858 970 30.
 

Attention! Our café has new winter opening hours! From now on we are only open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays with all kinds of treats for you! As a winter special, we have our much sought-after waffles with warm punch on offer. As always, of course, with our delicious homemade cakes and the savoury menu including feta dishes and the burger menu.

Why don’t you drop by, the café atmosphere in winter is cosy, warm and internationally friendly.

No question about it, we’re here for you! Every Wednesday and Saturday we offer you delicious farm produce, cakes and organic fast food! During the Christmas market in Lüneburg, you’ll find Gaby, Jakob and the market cart in Bäckerstraße.

Is there a spiritual world that is always there without us knowing about it? Sleep and death point to another existence, but isn’t that beyond universal knowledge?
 
More than 100 years ago, Rudolf Steiner claimed that there is only one truth in relation to the spiritual, invisible worlds and called it ‘spiritual science’. Was he a fraud or a brilliant storyteller? Or a knower, as there have always been in the past?
 
It is a pleasure to discuss this topic with you. It encourages us to take a closer look at the world, to reflect, to ask questions. Anthroposophy rethought – exciting, crazy – simply amazing! Let’s go!

Free admission, donations welcome

Simply trusting as a Christmas present?

After a year of silence: Salvatore is back. The reason: he no longer knows how to get from door to door, from sofa to sofa in his flat. Why? The Christmas presents from all over the world are already piling up to such a height that they almost reach the chimney. What could be the reason for this, he puzzles: do people like me as much as I think they do – or as much as I wish they did? Or do they perhaps hate me so that the parcels only contain smelly egg bombs, roasted morels or something similar? You don’t know how people feel about you. They don’t tell you. In our modern society, where mistrust reigns, what else can you say?
 

Salvatore, for his part, has therefore decided to do something new: he simply gives the gift of trust. Christmas: perhaps a good occasion for this? A good gift? Salvatore believes that the child Jesus also trusted to enter this world. It may have been a little better back then than it is today, but it was bad enough. He thinks of Herod and his deeds. Sometimes this pictures doesn’t seem so far away from today’s world affairs. But, Salvatore decides, we should counteract that.
 

After all, what is trust? Setting out to listen to others, letting the world in, learning to love? The alternative: mistrust! Mistrust means putting a barrier between myself and the world, letting everything pass through a filter that is characterised by doubt and scepticism. Of fear? To put it bluntly: mistrust distorts reality! Mistrust keeps me away from the world, the world away from me. That’s an alternative, asks Salvatore?

Why aren’t thinking and perception enough? Why not alertness and common sense? Of course, Salvatore knows that too, it’s not a one hundred per cent guarantee. A breach of trust is inevitable, the closer the friend is to me, the stronger the breach. But is mistrust the right alternative? Perhaps ‘healthy mistrust’, even though that also cuts me off from the world? Mistrust remains mistrust. So do I have to take the full risk? Salvatore thinks about it. Yes, he thinks, the risk will be worth it. After all, every child takes such a risk when it is born on earth. Just like the infant Jesus, who was born into a poor family but ultimately only found refuge in a stable. And was persecuted…

Can’t we learn something from the trust of children? At least until we’ve broken the habit of mistrusting them? Ouch, that hurts, Salvatore feels. When he thinks about it, he feels quite different. Why do we take away the children’s trust in the world? Because we don’t believe in ourselves, don’t work on ourselves? Because we perhaps like to criticise others instead of looking at ourselves? Instead of asking our family, friends, relatives and acquaintances what they really think about us?

Well, says Salvatore, that’s a problem. Giving trust as a Christmas present? When I lost it as a child? Finding it again now, fully consciously?

But then, after pondering for a long time, Salvatore says: the world will only get better this way. And isn’t Advent the best time for that? It may be dark outside now, but I can still form bright, shining thoughts inside.

Salvatore, at any rate, has made the decision. He knows that his quality of life will improve if he doesn’t look suspiciously at the nearest and at the same time the most distant person. Not blindly, but seeing, while maintaining his alert power of judgement. Therefore: what is wrong, stays wrong! Because, as a wise person once said: ‘Love goes through the head’! If it doesn’t – as Salvatore has already seen enough – it’s easy to crash. That can’t be the case.

We don’t have to be at the mercy of the world in the same way as children, who are solely dependent on us as adults to set an example for them with our behaviour. As adults, we can walk through the world wide awake and aware, without letting the next breach of trust, the next small, unpleasant hiss from the other person dissuade us from our new resolution of trust. If we ourselves are convinced that only such trust makes the world a better place, then let’s go for it, says Salvatore, even if it certainly rattles and hurts sometimes. But does it hurt me so much that I want to do without it? That I’d rather continue to walk through the world with the hard barrier of mistrust?

Well, for my part, I’ll definitely give it a try. Salvatore thinks so and will let you know how he gets on. He enjoys igniting a warm light in the dark season. Giving trust on Christmas Eve? Perhaps even for the whole year?

After a long time, Salvatore greets you full of light (and sinks onto his nearest sofa from exertion)…

Born in Berlin, but having come to Michaelshof with her family when she was just 5 years old, Sammatz was and remained Antonia’s home of choice, even after school. Together with a few others, she really made the most of her time when the next generation arrived in Sammatz. Whether it was horticulture, academy work or simply getting to know each other – there was so much to discover back then!

Antonia is also a passionate planner, which is why she organises the work of all the volunteers and mentors at Michaelshof down to the last half hour every day – in summer that can mean up to 6xA4 sheets full of information!

Antonia also plays an important role in the leisure activities of our community: as a flute player in the Sammatzer Combo, as a folk dance instructor together with Gisela and Caro, or at one of the many small potlucks in the Blue House. Horses and books are two more of Antonia’s passions, which she enjoys spending time with, albeit rarely. Even carriage driving is on the programme from time to time!

Versatile, with a lot of humour, which not everyone gets to see straight away, but which is really ultra funny, and a lot of love for people, she is an important part of the community. Love you!

As every month, we take you into our musical world and link a few songs from the community: Music tips from…

…Anna: ‘One of my absolute favourite songs: Esperanto by Freundeskreis in the live version! Perfect for winter evenings in the cosy living room.’

…Asli: ‘I can’t get no Satisfaction by Dolly Parton, P!nk & Brandi Carlile is quite a work of art!’

…Anton: ‘My tip: Happiness is a butterfly by Lana del Rey – vulnerable, tender and very beautiful! Motherland on the piano by the French-Georgian Khatia Buniatishvili is also perfect for the time of year.’

… Hans Michel: Will the Circle be Unbroken or an Advent gospel feeling, and for nerds also this und this Dissatisfaction 😉

• Teacher
• Social Worker

• Accounting

• Gardening
• Construction
• Janitor
• Bakery
• Food-Manager
• Pharmacist