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Maike and Christian Siglbauer have made their dream come true in the middle of Ruhpolding. In their “Pöschl ’s Hoamat und Schmankerl Ladl”, they offer the best food from the region.
Thursday is dumpling day at "Pöschl’s Hoamat und Schmankerl Ladl". Sometimes there are bread dumplings, sometimes cheese dumplings, sometimes beetroot and other times, like today: delicious fluffy spinach dumplings. Boss Maike Siglbauer and assistant Erika prepare them freshly. If you want to be sure that you get some, you better be quick. Like this customer. "Four of the spinach dumplings please and can you wrap them up well for me? They’re heading straight to Hamburg by express post." The lady explains, that she has been a customer in Ruhpolding for many, many years. The package is for her daughter who lives in the Hanseatic city. “You simply have the most delicious dumplings, they’re like a piece of holidays that you can send,” she bids farewell and heads towards the post office.
For Maike and Christian Siglbauer, that's the greatest compliment. In addition to their Schmankerl Ladl deli, they also run a farm, the Pöschlhof in Brand. They took this over from Christian’s parents. It has been in the family for many generations. “Since we took it over, we first stopped keeping animals and leased the business. Then we started with Galloway and Highland cattle again and today we primarily farm chicken and poultry there,” says Christian. As well as cattle, laying hens and broilers, turkeys, ducks, geese and even a peacock cavort on the property in Brand.
He gets the broilers at just one day old. Christian also raises the male chicks, with his own feed and water and without any use of antibiotics. His approximately 300 laying hens each lay between 250 and 300 eggs per year. A handsome amount, but the Pöschlhof is still a very small business by comparison. And that's exactly how it should be. No mass husbandry and production – instead animals and nature all treated appropriately.
»For us, that means: everything has to come from a distance that could be cycled to and back in one day, with a normal bike, not with an e-bike. The only exception we make is for organic wine, which we purchase from Austria.«
A few years ago, Maike and Christian started selling their products from the Pöschlhof directly, initially from the farm and later at the farmers' market in Ruhpolding. "We didn’t have a proper farm shop, it was more like doorstep sales. But there was already a lot of demand back then. And then we decided that it didn't make sense for everyone to come to us individually and have to make a trip especially. When the opportunity arose to rent the shop on Hauptstrasse, we grabbed it,” Christian recalls. The Siglbauers have carefully built up their range. The main criterion is regionality. "For us, that means: everything has to come from a distance that could be cycled to and back in one day, with a normal bike, not with an e-bike. The only exception we make is for organic wine, which we purchase from Austria." The couple provide eggs and pasta themselves, as well as, chicken, turkey, duck and goose – when pre-ordered.
The latter are only available seasonally, so in autumn and winter. Christian carries out the butchery himself on the farm. He has completed the training for this and has the right equipment, everything has been approved by the veterinary inspection office. The next thing he would like to get is a permit for pasture slaughter; the applications for this have already been submitted.
While Christian mainly takes care of the farm, Maike runs the Schmankerl Ladl. She produces unusual spreads such as dandelion blossom spreads and various spiced salts in the industrial kitchen in the shop or on the farm. Of course, the different kinds of pasta are also handmade, as are the dumplings on Thursdays. And the sausages comes directly from the neighbouring butcher, who in turn is supplied by the local farmers. There are different types of cheese, including from the Naturkäserei St. Georg dairy, the finest flours and baking mixes from the nearby Mühle St. Johann, real Bavarian honey from the valley, organic tea from the Bioteaque tea factory in Chiemgau and organic rice from Chiemgaukorn, sprouted bread, fresh organic vegetables and much more. The whole store is lovingly decorated and furnished, and Maike has a lot of support from her colleague Erika, because the youngest Pöschlhof offspring is just one-and-a-half years old and demands all her attention. His two sisters are already bigger. The eldest is currently training at Hotel zur Post and likes to call into the shop during her break. In general, everyone at Pöschl’s helps out; it’s a real family business.
"When we started with direct marketing, it was pretty much like jumping into the deep end, we didn't expect so much demand and positive feedback," says Christian. With their concept of regionality, seasonality and sustainability, they seem to have struck a chord with what people want at the moment. Customers and consumers are increasingly valuing transparency in food production and Christian can guarantee this, as he knows each of his producers and suppliers personally. "We really enjoy our work and we get so much back from it. And when our dumplings are sent to Hamburg as they were today, then that of course makes us very happy."
