Working, discovering and enjoying together
After months with hardly any significant rainfall, our summer event happened to choose the perfect day for a little cooling down. The morning at Silberdistelhof farm in Holderbank, in the canton of Solothurn, was wet and unusually chilly – but that certainly didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.
It wasn’t long before small groups were chopping, kneading, stirring, blending, seasoning, caramelising – and, of course, tasting. Together, we made sausages, baked fresh bread, created galettes with a variety of fillings, and prepared vegetables and gazpacho. To round things off on a sweet note, we made delicious homemade caramel custards.
But the day was about much more than cooking together. At the different stations, we learned a great deal about the food we were preparing ourselves: about buckwheat and how it is grown and processed, about baking bread in a wood-fired oven, and about what really matters when making and seasoning sausages. We worked together, experimented, asked questions – and learned plenty of new things along the way. And after all that work, the lunch we had prepared together tasted twice as good.
Experiencing agriculture up close
In the afternoon, a guided farm tour gave us the opportunity to discover Silberdistelhof and its distinctive approach to farming. One particularly fascinating aspect was the farm’s rotation principle: many things are mobile and regularly change location – from the chicken coop to the vegetable garden. This allows the land to be used in different ways over time, integrating animal husbandry, vegetable growing and soil management into a carefully designed cycle.
Of course, a visit to the farm wouldn’t have been complete without meeting its animal residents. Alongside the chickens, we met the Distelschweine, the farm’s own pig breed – and their curious piglets brought plenty of smiles.
To finish the day, we enjoyed our homemade dessert and a relaxed end to an eventful day.
We worked, learned, discovered, laughed and enjoyed ourselves together – and it was precisely this combination that made our 2026 summer event such a special experience.
A heartfelt thank you to the Silberdistelhof team for their hospitality, the many fascinating insights and for guiding us through the day – and, of course, to everyone who joined in, cooked, contributed ideas and shared plenty of laughter.
The weather may not have felt particularly summery – but the atmosphere certainly did.
