Kattendorfer Hof, Germany

Give and Take

by MAREN PREISS

“Everything is interaction.”

Alexander von Humboldt

The Farm

The biodynamic Kattendorfer Hof, founded in 1995 by Mathias von Mirbach and two partners, is situated in Schleswig-Holstein, 35 km from Hamburg. The farm with its 80 staff members cultivates 435 hectares of land on two different farmsteads, one in Kattendorf, the second in Neverstaven, of which 40 hectares are used as pastures and meadows.

The farmers grow vegetables and grains and keep dairy and meat cattle, and pigs. Part of the food, such as dairy products and meat, is processed on site. The farm practices a six-year crop rotation. Soil fertility, biodiversity and animal welfare are key.

985 members are committed to the CSA, 635 of those subscribe to the full product range (as of mid summer 2023). For some of them solidarity goes beyond the subscription: they help with planting and harvesting, and invest money to support the transition to sustainable energy.

The farm can rely on agricultural subsidies, the capital of private investors and the support of the BioBoden cooperative, which as a new shareholder helps to manage generational change. The land is leased. The food is distributed through member-organized cooperatives, seven farm shops and farmer markets.

When asked, why the founder, managing director and master farmer Mathias von Mirbach has chosen to combine the biodynamic approach with the CSA model, he answered:

“Every human on Earth has the right of access to clean water, clean air, and good and healthy food. But people often forget that this right is closely related to their own responsibility. Industrial agriculture will not be able to feed humanity, because its resources will be depleted in 50 years. Community Supported Agriculture, based on organic farming and circular economy, by contrast, has the potential to solve the global agricultural crisis: it preserves our natural resources, and consumers and farmers are closely connected, treating each other fairly.”
— Mathias von Mirbach, farmer and founder of the Kattendorfer Hof

Circular Economy

The organic Kattendorfer Hof is based on the circular economy according to which no more resources may be withdrawn than can be returned. That’s why the number of animals is linked to the available amount of hectares and thus the available food. From spring to autumn, the 70 cows graze on generous pastures. Twice a day they are driven back to the milking parlour through the meadows of Schleswig-Holstein.

The cows give high quality manure, and the grassland on which they graze is an excellent carbon dioxide reservoir. To maintain the balance of the circle, the animals are fed with fodder exclusively grown on the farm, mostly grass and clover. The fodder is only supplemented with salt and mineral feed.

A primary benefit of clover is its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen via symbiosis with root nodule bacteria, Rhizobium, contributing available nitrogen to grasslands. This helps maintain soil fertility and increases yield. Clover itself is a valuable animal feed with a higher nitrogen content than grass. In addition, clover benefits flower-visiting insects by providing them with a rich source of nectar and pollen in summer.

Community Building I

CSA members enjoy a great variety of vegetables at the Kattendorfer Hof. Together with their teams the farmers Julia Hinrichsen in Kattendorf and Lukas Fröhlich in Neverstaven sow and plant more than 60 different types of vegetables over the year, among them greens you would never find in a supermarket. The black kale, which originates from 18th century Tuscany, Italy, has not just a high nutritious value, with its long leaves it also offers one of the most photogenic scenes you can find on the fields of the farm at the end of summer. The coloured chromolithography with some vegetable classics is taken from an old German cooking encyclopedia, the “Universal-Lexikon der Kochkunst”, Leipzig 1909.

What we rely on: Healthy Soil

Farmer Lukas Fröhlich with his son Paale on the tractor, preparing the field for a new season by means of shallow tillage. This gentle form of tillage helps to maintain soil structure, fertility, and organic matter while minimizing soil disturbance. The added chain is designed to crush bigger clods of earth

Healthy soil is one of the greatest treasures that was given to us. It is said that there are more living things in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are humans on Earth. But this treasure upon which we all rely, is becoming increasingly scarce: Estimates indicates that in the last 40 years the world has lost a third of its cropland due to poisoning and erosion. We are about to destroy the basics of our lives.

Before the groundbreaking contribution of German scientist Justus von Liebig and his Haber-Bosch process (a method for synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen, crucial for the production of chemical fertilizers), humus, the rich, dark organic material found in fertile soil, was considered as something mystical, a sort of divine essence, akin to a life force. It was chemistry that stripped the soil of its soul, luring the farmers with the promise of now being able to control and enhance crop growth. Today we face the consequences: unsustainable mass production, unhealthy products, depleted and eroded soil and an immensive biodiversity loss. The Haber-Bosch process is responsible for around one per cent of global energy consumption and 1.4 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions.

Biodynamic agriculture puts nature back in its place. Its holistic approach considers the farm as a self-sustaining ecosystem. Master farmer, founder and managing director Mathias von Mirbach sees himself as part of a long stream of predecessors and hopefully many more successors. ”We are working on land that has been used for arable farming for quite a long time, around 200 generations have worked the land before us. That’s why we see it as our mission to preserve the land entrusted to us and to develop its fertility by increasing the humus content of the soil.” According to experts a humus increase of 0.1 % per year results in a storage of approximately 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare. Mathias von Mirbach: “This clearly shows the global dimension of humus-building. Nowadays, unfortunately, the humus content of soils is declining globally and carbon dioxide is being released instead of being bound.”

As an organic farm the Kattendorfer Hof doesn’t use any pesticides, chemical fertilizers or genetically modified seeds. Instead, the farmers rely on a six-year crop rotation and on remedies provided by nature such as green manure crops, cow manure, slurry and biodynamic preparations. The latter are vitalizing additions for soil and plants to promote their growth and quality. For their production, plant, mineral and animal substances are combined and exposed to natural forces, after which they are returned to nature.

Farmer Lukas with a hand full of healthy soil

Farmer’s pride: Lukas Fröhlich examines the humus in Neverstaven. Earthworms are an indicator of soil health, they improve soil structure by dragging down organic matter and aerate the soil by creating tunnels which also improve drainage

The Kattendorfer Hof does not follow the “No tillage” law, popular with many of today’s organic farmers. Instead, the soil on the two farmsteads is worked shallowly to disturb the soil organisms as little as possible. “Tillage is only a means to an end”, says farmer Lukas Fröhlich. To prevent erosion and the leaching of nutrients, the fields in Kattendorf and Neverstaven never lie fallow as the plants on the fields feed the soil organisms. “Every ray of sunshine that we can bind through photosynthesis, nurtures the soil and its organisms and helps our atmosphere ”, Lukas Fröhlich said.

Photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replaces it with life-giving oxygen. This supports the communities of microorganisms in the soil to regenerate the topsoil, restore the water balance and improve the nutrient density of food. Without photosynthesis no topsoil.

Community Building II

Stefanie Maaß, biologist at the Freie Universität Berlin, was kind enough to examine the soil of the farmstead in Kattendorf. What she saw through her microscope after she had extracted the organisms from the soil was a rich biodiversity: beetle, beetle larvae, predatory mites, springtails, thunderbug larvae, barklice, horned mites, diptera larvae, turtle mites and homoptera.

She also determined the hydrophobicity of the soil: the amount in which its particles repel water. Good news for the farmers: it was low. "For a soil used for agriculture, this is pretty good", Stefanie said. In times of drought the farm uses water from its own wells.

Photos by courtesy of Stefanie Maaß

As the weather in times of climate change becomes more and more unpredictable and therefore the time frames farmers need to accomplish a specific soil care treatment are getting smaller, the farmers on the Kattendorfer Hof work with undersown crops. Lukas Fröhlich sows cabbage together with grasses and white clover. The growth of the undersown crops temporarily ends when the cabbage leaves cover the soil and stop the light supply. After the cabbage harvest is finished, the time for the undersown crops has come: It can continue to grow, providing the desired effect to nurture the soil and prevent it from erosion.

Lukas Fröhlich also uses companion plants to control pests. Each spring he sows white cabbage together with corn flowers. Does it help? “Creating a habitat for beneficial insects can never be wrong”, he said. “But I still wouldn't dare to dispense with the protective nets”, Lukas said.

But like on every farm, not everything is sunshine and roses in the life of the farmers of the Kattendorfer Hof. While in 2022 the weather conditions for the grains were perfect (“We had moisture and sun exactly when we needed it”, Mathias von Mirbach said, after he had brought in a record harvest), 2023 turned out to be a disaster: “We not just had a low rye yield, we harvested less than half of the amount of a normal year. The grain also lacked its baking quality. We weren’t able to supply our bakeries and the mill with wheat, spelt and rye. The grain that we have sown, cultivated, harvested and dried with a great deal of labour can now only be used as animal feed”, Mathias said. This year it was the other way round: The farmers had moisture and heat when they needed it least so that the grain on the ear began to germinate. A real bummer for an experienced farmer like Mathias who initiated the generational change on the farm some time ago.

One of his successors, the young farmer Lukas Fröhlich, is well aware of the challenges climate change poses for him: “You have to be vigilant and flexible, you have to adapt your work to the changing conditions and experiment a lot.”

The dungheaps are about to disappear from German villages. At the Kattendorfer Hof, the farmers know well about its value

Community Building III

Each morning at 9am the farmers meet for the daily morning round in the courtyard of the farm in Kattendorf. Before everyone gives a short report on the work to be done on that day, the group sings together. When I made this photo, in October 2021, the farm crew started their working day with the “Irish Travel Blessing”: “May the road rise to meet you / May the wind be at your back / May the sun shine warm upon your face / The rains fall soft upon your fields…”

Field Work

  • Julia Hinrichsen, head of horticulture, during the tomato harvest

  • The hands of Julia after the harvest. The green, bitter-tasting substance is solanine which the tomato plant secretes to protect itself against predators

  • Farmer Lukas Fröhlich on the potato harvester. In 2022, he and his team harvested 90 tons of potatoes of two different varieties. The potato harvester is owned by a contractor

  • Rubber Boots and muddy trousers from kneeling on the wet ground: farmer Lukas next to a box of freshly harvested beetroot

  • Bending down until all boxes are filled: Julia Hinrichsen with her team during the harvest of Brussel sprouts

  • Assistant Petra on the tractor, gardener Leif (left) and his colleague Sebastian on the trailer, planting leeks. Some time ago Sebastian left his well paid job as an engineer and joined the farm team in Neverstaven where he finally found his professional fulfillment

  • The same field after the leeks have just been planted

  • Some months later: Farmer Lukas has cut some leeks. His wife Lena will use them later to cook lunch for the pumpkin harvesters

  • Twice a week Judith, who works as a project manager in the city, helps on the farm. On the photo she is harvesting beetroot together with her colleague Petra (in the background) who runs a tax consultancy company and shares Judith’s love for agriculture and the countryside

  • Farmer Mathias von Mirbach in a chest high rye field, checking the maturity of the ears to determine the right moment for the harvest. On that day it was 40 degrees Celsius. Many farmers keep their grains short to make the crop more resistant to pests and weather extremes. For that they use chemical growth regulators or genetically modified seeds. Mathias von Mirbach rejects both. "The fact that we don't just rely on three cash crops but on twelve different cultures makes our system much more flexible to bear calamities", Mathias said

  • Mathias on the combine, threshing spelt in the summer of 2022. As the farm practices a six-year crop rotation and also grows food for its livestock, the list of grains and legumes is long: winter barley, spelt, winter wheat, winter rye, winter triticale, together with winter peas, oats, summer rye, summer wheat, forage peas, field beans and lupins

  • The former rye field in Neverstaven after the straw bailing

  • Powerful legume: Mathias von Mirbach, opening a field pea. The plant binds nitrogen from the air to the roots by means of nodule bacteria and thus make a significant contribution to soil fertility. Field peas are also very well suited to breaking chains of infection from pathogens in the soil. The legume is used as animal feed

  • Julia Hinrichsen during the lettuce harvest, followed by her dog Rosi. In Kattendorf she and her team grow 40 different types of vegetables. Losses due to hungry mice and wild game animals are taken into account

  • Outer leaves of the oak leaf lettuce, which have been removed before being packed into the boxes. The freshly harvested lettuces and vegetables are often delivered to the farm shops on the same day

  • 9am in Kattendorf on a September morning in 2022. After Julia Hinrichsen has already harvested lettuce from the open field for two hours, she is taking breakfast, enjoying her cereals and a mug of freshly brewed coffee

  • Pumpkin throwing chain: The pumpkin harvest is still physical labour. The farm grows eight different kinds of pumpkins – from Hokkaido to Spaghetti to Butternut

  • As the Kattendorfer Hof doesn't use any pesticides, the gardeners regularly have to pluck out weeds by hand. The new solar weeder allows the workers to be more effective. Powered by solar energy, the weeder purrs slowly and silently through the bed rows, while Petra and Leif lie prone on the lounger, plucking the undesired plants

  • Many of the young plants are pre-grown on the farm. Here Petra is sowing cabbage which in a few months will have grown into capital cabbages

  • The power of nature: three-weeks-old pumpkins sprouts

  • Germinated seeds need protection from hungry mouths

Community Building IV

Outdoor lunch with the farmer’s team during the potato harvest in front of the house of farmer Lukas (in the red shirt) and his wife Lena (second photo) who provides for the culinary well-being of the farm workers in Neverstaven and helps wherever womanpower is needed. Lukas and Lena are two of the shareholders of the farm. They have two sons, Freede and Paale

Juliane and the Cowgirls

  • Cow manager Juliane Tantau takes care of the hoofs of cow Violine

  • Essential tool for the cow and pasture management: Juliane’s notebook

  • The herd on Juliane’s arrival at the grazed pasture. Soon the cows will be transfered to a new pasture with fresh green

  • Connected: Juliane gives a massage to nursing cow Tusnelda

  • Juliane on the tractor, waiting for the pasture gate to be opened by her colleague Sophie

  • Before loading the cows onto the truck, Juliane gathers them with a rope

  • Sophie has brought a tank with fresh water to the new pasture

  • Cows gathering in front of the truck before being transfered to the new pasture

  • After Juliane has loaded a bull onto the truck, Sophie drives him to the nearby slaughterhouse. The fattening bulls are slaughtered at 2.5 years of age. The farm does not fatten calves

  • The Kattendorfer Hof keeps the old cattle breed "Deutsches Schwarzbuntes Niederungsrind" which is a dual-purpose cattle, it delivers milk and meat. The cows keep their horns which are considered important for the communication among them. They are not artificially inseminated, but covered by the farm’s own breeding bull Retu

  • Managing Director and shareholder Katja Dungworth with intern Paul, driving the cows back to the milking parlour. Katja and her favourite cow Nolla always build the end of the herd

  • Cow manager Juliane next to cow Violine fixed in a cattle crush right before the hoof care starts

  • Juliane preparing the milking parlour. On this day she also takes care for their udders

  • Trainee Maya trying to tame a cow

  • A nursing cow feeding a foreign calf. At the Kattendorfer Hof newborn calves are nurtured by their mother for four days, after that they are suckled by the nursing cow for another four months

  • Trainee Laura peeking into the milking parlour

Julia and the Art of Cheesemaking

Julia Sonnet is the master of cheesemaking. To follow her during the production of mountain cheese is like attending a zen buddhistic lesson. lt takes a whole morning, from the fresh milk running into the copper vat to the pressing of the soft cheese mass into the moulds. After some hours of rest those will be transferred to the farm‘s own maturing cellar where the cheeses will remain for twelve months before being sold in the farm shops. Next to 22 different types of cheese, Julia and her team produce butter, yoghurt, sour cream and curd.

  • 8am on a sunny morning in July 2023. The tank, filled with 530 litres of fresh morning milk, has just arrived. Julia connects the hose to the tank, from which the raw milk directly runs into the copper vat

  • The fresh morning milk runs into the copper vat which holds 1200 litres

  • Another 670 litres are taken from a second tank which contains milk from the day before. Here Julia connects the hose to the tank

  • Julia chatting with her colleagues while the milk fills the vat. To the left cheese dairy worker Julia (there are four Julias’ working at the Kattendorfer Hof). To the right a CSA member who accompanies the farm for one week as an intern. The lady is a police officer by profession

  • Julia glances at the wall clock. During the cheesemaking process it is important to keep an eye on the time

  • Julia adds lactic acid bacteria to the raw milk, which is warmed up to a temperature of 32 degrees Celsius. The bacteria are essential for flavour and texture. In a second step the milk will be coagulated with rennet. The result is the so-called curd or jelly

  • No cheesemaking process without bureaucracy: Every single step of the cheesemaking process has to be documented in a table list

  • Julia brings the swirled milk to an halt by taking the stirring blade and wandering with it around the vat in the opposite direction before removing it. Now it's time for the milk to thicken

  • With a knife, Julia pokes into the curd to check whether it is ready for the next step in the cheesemaking process. She checks the clarity of the whey and the texture of the jelly

  • With two shovels, the so-called "Schufen", Julia pushes the amorphous curd together

  • Once the curd has the right firmness, Julia cuts it into pieces with a cheese harp. The finer the curd is chopped, the more whey is deposited and the harder the finished cheese will be. After that the entire mass will be heated up to 48 degrees Celsius and mixed again by the stirring blade for another 1,5 hours

  • Julia squeezes the cheese curd to test whether it has the right consistency for pressing it into the moulds. This one is ready for further processing

  • A large flax cloth is used for draining the curd cheese. The whey will be given to the pigs. They represent the kidney of the farm as they act as remains recycler in the circular economy

  • The drained cheese curd still misses the typical taste of the mountain cheese. Time will do the trick

  • Cheesemaker Julia cuts the curd block into pieces...

  • ... and puts them into the moulds

  • A pneumatic press squeezes the curd into the mould, providing for the typical wheel shape

  • Cheese exhibtion in the maturing cellar. The artist is present. Julia refines some of the cheese varieties with red wine or a mix of different herbs which Jolke de Moel grows in her garden in Neverstaven

  • Fort Knox of the Kattendorfer Hof: the maturing cellar

Community Building V:

The Beneficial Bond between Farmers and CSA Members

CSA members and village people, enjoying food and the Irish Folk Band Hepta Polka at the Strawberry Festival in Kattendorf in the summer of 2023

Many members support the farmers beyond their yearly subscription. They build cooperatives and distribute the delivered vegetables on their own, they help with planting and harvesting. Others invest private money to support the farm’s transition to sustainable energy. CSA members meet with the farmers online and offline to learn more about the ups and downs of the farm.

I myself became a CSA member 1,5 years ago. What I enjoy the most next to the healthy products, is that I gain insight into the challenges of running an organic farm in times of climate change and massive farm extinction. Estimates indicate that in Germany an average of 3.560 farms close their doors every year. By subscribing to the farm’s products, I contribute to preserving a form of agriculture that I consider essential and worth supporting: organic small-scale farming, working according to the rules of circular economy.

Anyone who has ever tasted the flavour of organically grown vegetables, anyone who has ever seen a shovel of dark humus pervaded by earthworms or cows grazing on generous pastures, anyone who, through a pair of binoculars, has ever spotted a Golden eagle on a television tower, spreading its wings and flying over the rye field in the peak of summer, will have no doubt about how important it is to preserve this treasure, that is our natural resources.

The same applies for the hard work involved in growing healthy food in these times of climate change and political uncertainties. Knowing who grew and harvested my food under which circumstances, knowing what it takes to produce nutritious vegetables, cheese, meat and grains, makes me humble and grateful.

I like to eat according to the seasons. I like it to be connected to the farmers, their products, the challenges they face. Proximity creates commitment. And in times of crisis and fragile supply chains I find it reassuring to know that “my farmers” will provide me with vegetables, milk, cheese, meat and grain at any time. It feels good to be part of a community that helps to preserve this cultural heritage of (organic) agriculture that is significant for humanity as a whole. Being connected with what keeps us and the planet alive is more important than ever.

  • During the carrot harvest the benefits of Community Supported Agriculture become obvious: healthy products, an uplifting sense of togetherness and solidarity, the smell of freshly harvested carrots lingering over the field. On this day about eighty CSA members helped with the harvest of the carrots.

  • This little girl knows well that carrots do not grow in the supermarket. She learns from her own experience how exhausting it is to pull the carrots out of the ground, to remove the green by hand and to put the roots in a box, one by one, until the box is filled

  • Jolke de Moel during a herb walk through the farmstead in Neverstaven. Each spring she shares her knowledge with interested CSA members

  • Touch, smell, learn: Each herb tour ends in Jolke's private garden on the farmstead in Neverstaven where CSA members are invited to take cuttings and transfer them into their own garden

  • Members of the CSA help with planting tomatoes while Julia Hinrichsen (in the background), the manager of the market garden, responds to questions of the Dutch television. During these community events, Julia likes to pass on her knowledge to interested gardeners and she for her part is thrilled by the commitment of the members

  • A CSA member (in the red shirt) helps Jolke de Moel to install the irrigation hoses for the tomatoes that have just been planted in the polytunnel

  • At the annual general meeting Mathias von Mirbach reports to the CSA members on the past year. They are also invited to participate in the regular online meetings

  • Twice a year the Kattendorfer Hof invites its members for a picnic into the garden of Jolke de Moel and her husband Mathias von Mirbach. Jolke runs the farm shop in Bad Oldesloe. Front left, in the blue shirt, Mathias von Mirbach, next to him, on the right, the ornithologist Mark Török, who regularly organizes birdwatching tours on the farmstead for the members of the CSA

  • The dishes they offer on that day are exclusively made with products grown on the farm

  • During the summer CSA members can participate in birdwatching tours through the farmstead in Neverstaven where they can observe the rich biodiversity. As below, so above

  • On occasion of the annual Strawberry Festival, members can explore the farmstead in Kattendorf. Here, a woman stands by the pond, watching visitors rowing a canoe

  • Vegetable fields often become an educational playground for children. This boy has just found a small toad in the green bean patch

  • CSA members are regularly invited to explore the farmstead and harvest their share on their own. This lady picked pointed pepper

  • Where there's a will, there's a pocket

  • A girl strolling the field during the carrot harvest

Photos and Text: © Maren Preiß, marenpreiss.de

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