Let’s bake some bread!

From the field to the breakfast table

Where does the bread on our breakfast table actually come from? Get ready for a culinary journey – from the golden cornfield to the fragrant loaf.

Mmm, that smell! Lovely. There’s hardly a better smell than the aroma of freshly baked bread. Before the bread ends up on the breakfast table, however, it has come a long way: from the grain to the oven. In South Tyrol you can experience how fresh bread is made.

The golden cornfield
It all begins in the great granaries of South Tyrol: the Val Pusteria/Pustertal valley and the Val Venosta/Vinschgau valley. Here, as well as in the Valle Isarco/Eisacktal valley and in Tschögglberg, farmers have cultivated local cereals for centuries. These include spelt, barley, buckwheat, and, above all, rye – the hardiest of the cereals, which is largely unaffected by poor soil and dry conditions. Pluck an ear of grain, rub it firmly between your palms, and blow: the light chaff flies away, leaving the hard grains in your hand. The local grain even bears its own seal, called “Regiokorn”, so you can tell right away that it really does come from South Tyrol.

The mills are grinding …
To make flour from grain, you need a mill. Today, there are several large mills across the region. You can see what they used to look like on the “Terner Mühlenweg” trail in the Val Pusteria/Pustertal valley: water mills dating back up to 500 years line the stream, and in summer some of them are still turning. The water drives the wheel, the wheel turns the heavy millstone, and the millstone grinds each grain into flour. You can try this yourself between two smooth stones: rub a few grains until they turn to dust. First coarse, then fine. Hard becomes soft. Feel the difference!

Baking as they did 800 years ago
The flour becomes bread. You can watch it being baked at the Bread and Strudel Market in Brixen, which takes place every year at the start of October. One of South Tyrol’s most famous breads is the “Vinschger Paarl”, two round, flat loaves that fuse together into a pair during baking. This delicacy has its origins in the Marienberg Abbey. The monks were already baking it there some 800 years ago. The secret to its unique flavour lies in three spices: fennel, caraway, and bread clover. If you prefer your bread crispy, there’s the famous “Schüttelbrot”.

At our Familienhotels Südtirol, we serve a wide variety of bread specialties for breakfast.

The Gamper family
Familienalm & Almchalets Taser Alm

back to overview