Mayerlehenhütte on the Gruberalm - the everyday life of a dairymaid
The Mayerlehenhütte has been family-owned since 1900 and has mainly been run by the women in summer ever since. Even Emperor Franz Joseph has savoured his beloved Kaiserschmarren here! Find out more about life on the beautiful alpine pasture in Hintersee today!
Gripped by alpine fever: 30 alpine summers are far from enough for organic farmer Lisi Matieschek!
Lisi Matieschek just can't get enough of life on the mountain pastures. If there is an ‘alpine gene’, then Lisi Matieschek has certainly inherited it. She laughs when she admits: ‘Winter is quieter, but summer is more beautiful. Every year in March I get alpine fever. That's when I start rummaging through the drawers and preparing the jewellery for the cows. There's no remedy for that.’ There doesn't have to be, because without the dedicated and hard-working organic farmer from Hintersee, the Mayerlehenhütte on the Gruberalm would only be half as beautiful. And hikers would not be able to enjoy the fine farmer's doughnuts or the delicious ‘organic-fair’ alpine breakfast at the 1,036 metre high alpine pasture at the head of the Lämmerbach valley.
Emperor Franz Joseph was once served his beloved Kaiserschmarren at the Mayerlehenhütte!
Lisi Matieschek has already spent thirty alpine summers at the Mayerlehenhütte, one of the Holleralmen in the Fuschlsee region, the first of which was when she was just 14 years old in 1978. She has never felt lonely up there, nor has she ever feared it: Neither on pitch-dark nights nor during thunderstorms. ‘I was already happy on the mountain pasture as a child. I had trouble concentrating at school because my thoughts were always on the mountain pasture. Of course, that wasn't so good for my grades,’ smiles the mother of five. ‘My great-grandfather bought the mountain pasture in 1900, it has been in the family ever since and has always been farmed. It was always the women who spent the summer on the mountain pasture. My great-aunt - the Moarleh'n Nani - even served Emperor Franz Joseph a Kaiserschmarrn when he went hunting in Hintersee.’
In the first few summers that Lisi Matieschek spent on the mountain pasture, it was mainly hunters, lumberjacks and foresters who paid the young girl a visit. ‘I gave them something to drink and we chatted,’ she remembers. ‘Apart from that, I had a lot of time to crochet and knit. I miss that completely now.’
Memories of hard times: Without electricity, light and telephone on the Gruberalm
Life on the mountain pasture has always been associated with a lot of work. ‘The early days were formative. I set two or three alarm clocks so that I was really awake at half past one in the morning. I had to drive the cows in and milk them by hand - whatever the weather. We didn't get the generator until 1995. My father then came to the alpine pasture at five o'clock to collect the milk,’ she remembers. ‘As a teenager, I was still in the band. I travelled to the mountain pasture in the night on the tractor.’ When Lisi needed help, for example when a cow was calving, she would walk from the mountain pasture to the nearest farm: there she was allowed to make phone calls to her parents. Because there is no electricity, light or telephone on the Gruberalm. During the long holidays, her little sister came to help with the haymaking. Otherwise, the girl was on her own. That never put her off. On the contrary: at some point, she cancelled her career plans to become a seamstress and took over her parents' farm. She became a farmer. She also met her husband Werner on the mountain pasture. The first time he came to the ‘Hirschlos'n’ with a few friends, the other times he came because of Lisi.
Alpine pasture farming in transition: from alpine pasture farming to hiking tourism in Salzburger Land
In the past, ‘going up to the mountain pastures’ mainly meant saving feed and labour for the farmers in the valley, but from the mid-1980s onwards, hiking tourism developed in Salzburger Land. ‘Hikers have become very important for us to be able to maintain the alpine pasture,’ emphasises Lisi Matieschek. ‘We need the guests up here. With our offer, the ‘School on the Alm’ adventure programme and the herb hikes, we want to convey how important alpine farming is in the Fuschlsee region.’
Authentic cuisine on the mountain pasture: from farmer's doughnuts and liver dumplings to Sunday roasts!
Since nature lovers, holidaymakers and hikers have discovered the alpine pasture as a ‘place of longing’, Lisi Matieschek has far less time for knitting or crocheting. The work is just as arduous as it was forty years ago - there is still no light and electricity only for milking. But in addition to milking and processing the milk into cheese, butter and yoghurt, she now also ensures that the hikers are well fed every day. And the Mayerlehenhütte is known far and wide for this: For the delicious farmer's doughnuts, the elderflower soup, the wild garlic soup, the oven-fresh potato pancakes, the alpine herb pesto, the liver dumplings, the platter snack with bacon from their own Mangalitza pig and the roast pork, which is only available on Sundays.
Nature experience for little explorers: the ‘School on the mountain pasture’ adventure programme
Lisi's husband Werner is a qualified herbalist and nature and landscape guide. As part of the ‘School on the Alm’ adventure programme, school classes enjoy spending their project days up here: they help with milking, learn how to make yoghurt and sleep in the hay. Guided alpine herb hikes for children are offered as part of the ‘Via Culinaria 4kids’ gourmet trail: The collected herbs are then used to make pesto. ‘The children learn how important it is to manage the alpine pastures,’ emphasises Lisi Matieschek. ‘If we didn't have any animals up here, you would very quickly see nothing more of the pastures: The cows, but also the goats, ensure that this ancient cultural area is preserved.’
The mission of Lisi and Werner at the Mayerlehenhütte on the Gruberalm in the Fuschlsee region is to preserve an ancient cultural area. (quote)
These are the topics that move Lisi and her husband: And they always find time to chat with their guests about them and many other things. Only in the late afternoon does the alpine farmer disappear for an hour to milk her dairy cows a second time. And when the daylight fades in the evening, she also starts to feel the fatigue of a long day. It's a good thing there is no light in the Mayerlehen hut.
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Mayerlehenhütte - Hintersee
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