For today a bicycle tour has been planned „organic & bike“. But because of the heavy rain we resigned. But took the organic.
In Schmilka which is nearly at the end of the world – not really, but directly at the boarder to the Czeck Republic exists for just under one year a bio project. Hard to believe – but true.
Old buildings have been rebuilt to a bio hotel, bio café, bio brewery and a bio bakery. We started at the Café Richter. That lies at the bank of the Elbe and at the ferry Schmilka. So it does not matter on which side of the Elbe you are hiking or biking. You can either way visit the bio café. The even offer quite a few vegan things. The view is on to the Elbe and the ferry. And there is a huge terrace.
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From the café the mill is only 263 steps a way. That’s at least what the sign says. It is not true, because we needed fewer steps. 166 to be correct.
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Before the bakery there is first the brewery. Doesn’t matter. They make two different beers at the brewery: a blond one and an amber one. All ingredients are organic and the brewing tanks are in the middle of the room. So that you can watch the brewing while drinking a beer. Exciting! The bottles are filled by hand and are not long-living because the beer is all natural. So you better drink it immediately. It is produced with an open fermentation. So everything is as natural as possible. Because of the old buildings the space is restricted and so is the brewing amount. That’s the way with bio products: when it’s gone it’s gone.
The beer is served at an outer booth which looks quite medieval and you can drink it at the beer garden or in the brewpub. For take away there are small 3l barrels or bottles. Finally we were actually allowed to taste the beer… I liked the amber one more.
Right beside is the old bakehouse. It is also restricted in space and therefore it is at the same time the shop. The huge wooden fired oven makes it warm and cares for a rustic flair. To use the heat of the oven in the best way first the quiches are baked and after that the bread. There are also cakes and in fact they are in cartwheel shape and size. Here also everything is bio and a lot is vegan. Here the vegan cookies for the Café Richter are made. When we visited the vegan raisin stollen was made. The bakery uses a special form of wheat which is alike spelt. It is supposed to be well tolerated.
Standing in the bakehouse you constantly hear a dull hammering and rumbling. No wonder. Across the street an old mill booms and mills the flour for the bakery. For example whole-grain spelt. The mill-wheel is powered by the classical mill stream and leverages the millstone. It takes a fortnight to mill one sack of flour. So it is real slow food!
Right next door there are some rooms to hire and on the area another building is just rebuilt. The bath house. Here you will be able to take a beer bath. A non-medical practitioner and physiotherapist is also in the combination. Everything fits together.
At the garden booth you can get bratwurst and co. And of course juices and lemonade. Again everything is bio.
You can feel clearly that somebody gave a thought and cares about sustainability. Energy is also an issue. The waste heat is used for other processes. A really good project. More of that please!
