“Start by doing what’s right”

We meet Michael Pfeifer in one of his gardens on the hillside by the road up to Eisathhof farm. Dozens of onions sit stacked in wooden crates and a small mound of hay in the vegetable patch is rising and falling rhythmically, as if it were breathing. “There could be a mole or perhaps a frog,” he guesses. Summer is drawing to a close and much of the harvest is done, the season is coming to an end, the fourth that 28-year-old Michael has spent working full-time on his parents’ farm, although he’s been growing vegetables here, on the edge of the village of Deutschnofen, for much longer. In recent years, he’s started earning a living from his crops – thanks, in part, to a project set up to bring produce from farmers in the Eggental valley into local restaurant kitchens.

Michael grows around 500 varieties across 4,000 square metres at 1,350 metres above sea level. All his crops come from open-pollinated seeds that he propagates himself and grows into seedlings. “Open-pollinated varieties aren’t all that common in vegetable farming,” he explains. Despite being short-lived like mayflies and only guaranteeing one harvest, “hybrids are more suitable for monocultures and produce more uniform plants to meet commercial requirements”.

But Michael doesn’t grow vegetables for retailers, so he hasn’t chosen to seek organic certification, despite working in harmony with nature and not using any chemicals. The only fertilisers he uses on his vegetable patches and fields are grass and dung from Eisathhof’s own sheep, chickens and pigs.

Pests like the Spanish slugs are kept at bay through regular mowing and little helpers like the frogs that spawn in a specially dug trench beneath the gardens. The vegetables are also protected by close-meshed nets.

Michael began experimenting with vegetables when he was still at school. “I once came home from a seed festival with 50 varieties,” he recalls – tomatoes, lettuce, white cabbage, lentils, linseeds, grain and potatoes (known in the Eggental valley as “Erdäpfel” or “apples of the earth”).

A farmer friend later put him in touch with Michelin-starred chef Theodor Falser in Welschnofen/Nova Levante. He became Michael’s first customer, and the pair have now been working together for almost a decade. As the number of vegetable varieties increased, so too did the number of chefs on Michael’s books, and today he supplies ten chefs directly.

Some of them found him through the Eggental Taste Local project, launched in 2022, which makes it easier for farmers in the Eggental valley to sell their produce to local restaurants. “As the project’s coordinator in Deutschnofen, I collate all the farmers’ offers for the coming week and post them in our WhatsApp group, so the chefs can place their orders,” explains Michael.

Both sides benefit: the restaurants receive fresh, seasonal, locally grown vegetables, while the farmers gain an important sales channel. “The way we all work together as equal partners is what makes the project special.”

As an experienced, retired gardener, his father, Roman, is a great source of support and assistance. Michael also uses the platform Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms to connect with volunteers known as “WWOOFers”, who come to work on the farm in return for room and board. Every year, he welcomes up to three volunteers from spring until late autumn – like the couple from Germany we spot shelling peas. For Michael, hosting volunteers is about more than the extra pairs of hands. He doesn’t have as much time to travel these days, “but I can still explore different cultures by bringing travellers to me”.

Michael also gives farm tours to explain what he does and share his knowledge and passion with others. He doesn’t care whether tomatoes are big or carrots are straight. “The most important thing about vegetables is how they taste.” While the young farmer’s gardens and fields have given him a degree of freedom and independence, he also sees his work as a way of bringing about necessary change by promoting new, healthy benchmarks for natural products and fair prices. “I always start by doing what’s right and then what makes economic sense,” says Michael. Luckily, he’s found a way to combine both.

Excerpt from: Eggental Magazine, 2025
Text: Lisa Maria Gasser                                              
Photos: Gabriel Eisath                                             
Editorial team: Exlibris,  Bozen