Sunday, February 11, 2007

Sepp Holzer / Krameterhof

Sepp Holzer describing his technique of prepping strawbales, by soaking, for inoculation with mushrooms. Sepp is a microclimate-managing genius with 70 ponds on a complex food forested (30,000 fruit trees)100A landscape at 4000ft in the Alps of Austria with a 1000 ft elevation change from top to bottom of his site. He manages it mostly with pigs and a few highland cattle.
Visit his site at http://www.krameterhof.at/

(photo by Keith Johnson)

9 comments:

  1. Can you get any of his books in english ?

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  2. You can read Sepp's story in his book Rebel Farmer at http://astore.amazon.com/booksptp-20/detail/3702010548/102-4983545-4001700

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  3. I'm really curious about his yields, I haven't found any data about the amount of food he is able to produce. If anybody finds info on that, please post here, I'll check back every so often...

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  4. With 30,000 fruit trees you can imagine the yields. He also harvests tons of several species of fish annually while providing electricity for himself and most of his immediate neighbors. He has so much food being produced that he can't pick it all and tithes 50% of it back to nature.
    As far as detailed numbers, I'd have to do some research and inquiry. He's been speaking and teaching in the US NW recently and some the folks who attended these events may have more data.

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  5. I just came back from a couple day workshop with Sepp in the Washington area. Let me say that every Permaculture Designer should here what this man has to say. He did not learn his techniques by reading theory's out of a book, but instead learned everything through direct observation and experimentation with nature.

    His teaching style is not filled with details on how to do something exactly the same as it was done somewhere before, but he encourages you to start small and experiment to learn what works best where you live.

    He never mentioned his yields, he doesn't keep those figures, but like Keith said, he grows so much food that he harvests what he needs and lets the rest go back to nature. That way, he never has any pest problems.

    That man is my new hero.

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  6. i watched a dvd about his farm and it said that he was self-sustaining and didn't need any government subsidy - he also sells fish & trees and rents out a couple of cabin type homes on the farm.

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  7. I would love to know what 40-50 plants he sows. It was mentioned in the dvd movie which was an eye opener for me but I was wondering if anyone has a list of what plants he uses in what types of families. Is this information in his book?

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  8. I am going to Austria in a few weeks and I want to visit the Krameterhof. Does anyone know if it is open to the public?

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