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# 7 / 4th of Dezember 2020
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Finn’s friends. Sometimes we get messages like “Today the orioles were raising hell. The boys are probably all fledged now and are exploring the surroundings. Or: “A friend of mine whom I always meet in the same place near Darchau.” These are from our birding team, Denisse & Finn – and now Dorian, who document the bird life around Sammatz. Recently they have been on the other side of the Elbe, around our farm Banratz, where the above “friend” – a kingfisher –- got captured by Finn’s camera.
More than 130 species have been documented – welcome to the bird paradise Elbtalaue! Birding is the basis for the big task of securing or recreating habitats for threatened species. We stay tuned!
(For more birding please see below!)
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Michaelshof at a glance!
Öffnungszeiten:
Arche-Hof: Mon-Sun 8 am – 7 pm
Café am Michaelshof: Only TO GO service
Sat, Sun 2-5 pm Uhr
Hofladen Arche-Hof: Mon-Fri 9:30-12 aam, 15-18:30 Uhr
Sat-Sun 9:30 am – 6:30 pm
The WAGEN: Wochenmarkt, Lüneburg
Wed & Sat 7 am-1 pm
We kindly ask you to observe the safety regulations applicable in Lower Saxony.
Events
The 2020 event season is over. We hope that the next seminars, concerts and experience days will take place from March 2021!
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Hooray, hooray, it’s Wagon day!
The weekly farmers’ market in Lüneburg. From now on we will always be there for you: With our sensational products, which you are surely already familiar with from our online shop. There you will find freshness, fresher than fresh. Hopefully you’ll be fresh too when you read our newsletter. Because always fresh is how you want a newsletter: namely refreshing! Fresh from the beginning is our motto – so then: When you are in Lüneburg, go to the weekly farmers’ market, from far away you will see our food truck with snacks and shop and all together. It tastes so intense that you will never forget it – either fantastic or – yuck – crappy.
You will be served by our three great guys from the petrol station, uh – I mean from our office, who also need fresh air, but who are extremely charming, especially to women when they can palm their last stuff off on them.
Otherwise I hope that the apples you bite into don’t drip too much. Sometimes they are a bit sour, then you have to have a nice tea afterwards, which we also prepare for you. In any case, we hope that you’re easy when you’ve been with us. If not, our three boys might get a little sad …
Next week: Progress is being made, the range is ready, and our mouths are already watering!…
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DER WAGEN – on Wednesday and Saturday on weekly farmers’ market, Lüneburg!
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Organic for gourmets
– own production!
• Demeter bread (rye, spelt, wheat, walnut, olive …)
• Demeter baked goods (nut corners, marzipan plait, lemon tartlets …)
• Demeter cheese (farm type, herbs, Feta type, fresh cheese, sheep’s cheese …)
• Herbal teas various sorts
• Jam, preserves
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A delicious bite to eat
– the organic snack bar
• Breakfast (breakfast box, muesli to go, sandwiches …)
• Soups (pea, potato, pumpkin, goulash soup)
• Bratwurst, chips, burgers (sweet potato chia fries, gyros, veganburger, hamburger)
• Sweet stuff, cold & hot drinks
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Let’s get down to business with …
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Emmanuel (26), member of the agriculture and gardening team at Michaelshof, soon to be one of the salesmen in the WAGEN
Emmanuel, have you ever imagined working in such a beautiful food truck at some point in your life?
Emmanuel: To be honest, no, but I’m enjoying all the preparations so far and I’m really looking forward to the start!
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Would you prefer to shop at your own stall, or would you rather shop at the other conventional market stalls?
Emmanuel (laughs): Of course only with us, because there I know where the products come from and how lovingly we make them. And anyway, I hope that the food will be the best on the market!
How do you prepare for your market barking? Do you also sing in your free time, or what do you do?
Emmanuel: Yes, singing is the top priority. I have to make myself more familiar with language exercises, expressions and new, clever words that are perhaps not yet common in my language.
That sounds wonderful, and also like a lot of work. I wish you lots of luck!
Emmanuel: Thank you very much!
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Christian (42), a cook and food fan at Michaelshof, is currently tinkering with the WAGEN menu and will also sizzle on site.
Christian, could you have imagined that one day you would be standing in such a wonderful market stall and swinging the ladle yourself?
Christian: I have sometimes watched the people at the market
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and saw how they were freezing, and thought that this is definitely not for me.
What measures do you think you should take to warm up nice and fresh for the market stall during the winter months?
Christian: First of all I have to dress warmly, I hope that will be enough.
What would be your favourite place if you could sell wherever you wanted to, to bring the goods to the men and women of the world with your market stall?
Christian: I think it’s good that we have a permanent location in Lüneburg. Then I would like to go to different festivals when we are ready for it. Showing up spontaneously at places where nobody expects us.
I’d like it best if we had a few more employees who walk around with vendor’s trays and sell snacks. I think we could do a lot with that.
How important is charm? Does a food truck like this have to be sexy?
Christian: That is the beginning. You need not start without it. It’s important not only around the market stall, also important inside.
That means, in the summer months swimwear will be standard for you?
Christian: If at all! (laughs)
All right, for now I thank you very much and wish you all the best of luck!
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The Webshop of Michaelshof Community. Specialities from our own production and more beautiful things from Sammatz
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In the communication team, ‘old staff’, volunteers and new co-workers work together on the media presence of Michaelshof. Here is an interview with Fabio (Brazil) and Lucia (Spain) about advertising for the Online Market.
There is a new advertising campaign – why wool?
Lucia: Christmas, time for presents – everyone needs socks or toys for a child they want to give as a present. And we have the products.
Fabio: Yes, and Michaelshof is one of the few places that sells and produces wool and combines it with social & ecological projects. So why not put everything into a campaign? During the season you also have your heart a little bit more open for charity – and of course it’s also cold.
Lucia: Wool is a must in Germany in December! (Laughs)
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«Wool you like to help?»
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Fabio: It is fitting that we belong to the so-called ‘third industries’. We are not a competition for the big producers of organic wool, we are a social project. But not with the attitude ‘We are so poor, please help us’, but ‘Buy from someone who does good for the world! We are not yet conveying this message enough, but slowly we are working it out – the social side of capitalism, so to speak.
And what exactly is the social side?
Fabio: In detail, that should not be the main focus. We just want to connect the messages ‘Buy our wool – support a project’. It doesn’t have to go deeper than that, people can go to our website and get information.
Lucia: But we want to arouse people’s interest in our social side through this campaign, many people know us primarily as a tourist destination.
Fabio: So an approach to the social process through wool.
Lucia: And vice versa.
Fabio: Right, and vice versa. ‘If you already know us, buy the wool. If not, buy the wool anyway (laughs) and get to know us! And in this direction we want to do more in the future, we want to combine other products with the social side of Michaelshof.
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What’s flying over there?
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The team of ornithologists at Michaelshof has been mapping the areas in and around Sammatz for a good year and a half now and has been able to collect a lot of data in the process.
Now we have extended our radius of action to the areas north of the Elbe river, around our farm in Groß Banratz. It did not take long and we were able to add 9 new species to our total species list, which now includes 132 observed bird species.
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Among the exciting new species are the Hen Harrier, the Rough-legged Buzzard, the Great Grey Shrike, the Barn Owl and the Corn Bunting.
We are very excited about this new rich area with many beautiful semi-natural habitats and are looking forward to seeing what else we will find there next year.
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Hof Banratz, situated 1 km from the eastern bank of the Elbe in the biosphere reserve
Elbtalaue
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