It's dreach and the kine* are frustrated

Dreach. The Scottish expression for a grey, overcast, dismal weather puts into sound the atmosphere of such a day as today. What makes things worse is that the winter just won’t let go.

In December we welcome the snow, it brings light and heralds the Christmas season. It also brings the ski season and the adrenalin rush driven by a good run down a steep white slope in bright, crisp sunshine.

By the end of March most people have had enough. But almost every day there are snow flurries, followed by the mud, slush and general unsightliness of snow reluctantly shrinking away to leave puddles, and piles of grit. Good things come to an end but it is better they go quickly rather than this drawn out retreat and feeble last-gasp attempts to prolong the season.

Spring is poised ready to burst through. The other day crocuses were poking purple heads out of the snow. Kine* are frustratedly waiting to get out of the stalls and into the meadows. Bicycles and mopeds are beginning to appear on the roads and this week the tall poles to show the snow ploughs the edge of the road, were removed.

Some spring-time treats, still awaited, include going out for the first time in “ordinary” lightweight shoes, seeing the grass in the garden for the first time in months, putting scarves and gloves away and fishing out clothes that had been relegated to the bottom drawer for the winter.

Higher up on the mountains, things are still different. There is skiing in warm sunshine, the snow still thick and crisp in the morning, heavy and wet by the afternoon. But the lifties and catering teams are getting tired of a long stint without a break and they are pleased that the season end is in sight.

So, as the clocks change and the calendar tells us it is spring, here in Embach we are still waiting for the winter to check out and everyone wishes it would get a move on.

* Kine - and old word for cows (plural). It is also rare because there are so few plural words which contain none of the same letters as the singular form

Secret passion of the off-duty postman

Everyone in Embach knows Gerhard...or they think they do.  Gerhard is the man in the yellow van who brings the post; brings news good and bad. But when he steps out of his van at home, what then?

 

When Gerhard asked if we would like to see where he makes his schnaps, we weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary as he isn’t the only schnapsbrenner in Embach. Distilling schnaps in Austria isn’t illegal, but there are restrictions. The fruit should be self-grown and not purchased and not more than 100 litres of alcohol per year may be produced.  So it is a cottage industry with each making his own specialities of varying quality.

At Gerhard’s home, where he lives with his wife Regina and daughter Judith at the end of the village, we walked in the snow from the house down to a former farm building and went inside…it was almost a shock!

There, taller than a man, gleaming in the corner, looking like some historic vehicle for exploring the depths of the ocean, was Gerhard’s pride and joy: his still.  Through thick glass portholes one can see the process inside, lit up like something out of a Jules Verne adventure, outside there are dials, gauges, valves, outlets, pipes and tubes and an air-lock door worthy of a space ship.

“This is the Mercedes of stills”, says Gerhard proudly. It is clearly, for him, more than a hobby, it is a passion as is the schnaps he produces. Rather than go for quantity, he aims for quality. His bottles have the fruity nose of a good wine rather than the chemical sharpness of product where, through an extra run, the last drops are extracted from the fermented mash.

Gerhard makes schnaps from peaches, apricots, plums, pears and rowan berries – the premium product, from fruit grown at 1000m in the orchard adjacent to his home.

The glowing copper still stands in a cosy room, the walls of ancient brick, a wood fire burning in the stove, music quietly playing and a corner bench-seat and round table as found in almost every home, where Austrians love to meet and socialise. This is pure gemütlichkeit the Austrian word which encompasses cosiness, comfort and style. Here visitors can sit comfortably and watch the production of traditional Austrian good cheer, made with passion from home-grown fruit.

Prost!