Gut Eichethof

Overlooking Gut Eichethof

A stroke of luck

Gut Eichethof has been around now for a few hun­dred years – long be­fore the now om­nipresent “sus­tain­abil­ity” was even born. The word Eichet comes from “eich (oak)” and “et” (a re­mote place), thus, oak trees that were sit­u­ated in a re­mote place. In the early days, the es­tate served the cast­le as it once again does today: as a source of food and en­ergy, a cen­turies-old prin­ci­ple of sus­tain­abil­ity, which was just com­mon sense back then.


We are participants of the “Baye­ri­sches Kul­tur­land­schafts­pro­gramm” (KULAP, Bavarian Pro­gramme for Agri­cultural Land­scape).

Therefore, we receive fund­ing for the listed measures.
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The new estate

Sustainability as a principle

In 1992, when the future of Gut Eichet­hof was being re­con­sid­ered, the ob­jec­tive was clear. The es­tate should once again be an autarchy, mak­ing the cast­le en­sem­ble an agri­cul­tur­ally and en­er­get­i­cally in­de­pen­dent en­tity – just as in old times. Sus­tain­abil­ity as a gen­eral prin­ci­ple was self-evident.

Helmut Steber, the master farmer at Eichethof, has suc­cess­fully turned this con­cept into re­al­ity by pur­su­ing two sus­tain­abil­ity goals: the meet­ing of en­vi­ron­mental re­quire­ments and the sus­tain­able eco­nomic manage­ment of the es­tate, both in bal­ance with each other.

The oper­a­tion shows how he has suc­ceeded. Gut Eichet­hof is a mod­ern, prof­itable com­pany in which dili­gence and well thought out in­no­va­tions are felt in every detail.


Eichethof belongs to “Naturland”

Since 1993, Gut Eichethof has been a mem­ber of the farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion Natur­land e.V., a net­work of or­ga­nic farm­ers whose com­mon credo is a holis­tic approach and en­vi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able eco­nomic ac­tiv­ity. The Fed­eral Min­istry of Agri­culture ac­cepted the es­tate into the “Öko­land­bau Offen­sive” (Or­ga­nic Agri­culture Of­fen­sive) in 2002 as an ex­em­plary farm. The farm also re­ceived the dis­tinc­tion of practic­ing ‘sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture fit for the future’ from the DLG (German Agri­cul­tural Society).


Schloss Hohen­kammer GmbH
Gut Eichethof
Eichethof 4
85411 Hohenkammer, Germany
Phone +49(0)8137 93 45 00
E-mail

Since 1993 member of the farming as­so­ci­a­tion Naturland e.V.
Website

In constant use

Master farmer Helmut Steber

Cultivation

The estate farms what the castle needs

Besides organic seed production, farm­ing is tailored to meet the needs of the castle. The estate is home to cattle, pigs and chickens who happily thrive here, while some 30 varieties of vegetables and potatoes are grown in the fields. Bees produce honey and also pollinate some 1,500 fruit trees, whose harvest is used to produce fine brandies and vinegars. A biogas plant generates more electricity than is used, as well as heat, which when combined with a wood chip heating system, meets 98% of the castle’s entire heat demand.


Acreage:
295 hectares, 195 of which for seed production

Crops:
Corn, legume, root, vegetable


500 hectares of mixed forest


Vegetable and fruit

Organic crops

Organic tastes delicious

Just a simple green salad can make our chefs rave – so fresh, so fra­grant, so re­fined in taste.

Gut Eichet­hof is truly a “pur­veyor” to the court when it comes to the cul­ti­va­tion of veg­eta­bles and fruit. All the kitchens at Schloss Hohen­kam­mer get their sup­plies here. This is as fresh and “or­ga­nic” as it gets.


Meat

Ethical husbandry

If meat, then good meat

The same rule applies for the fowl, the Angus cat­tle, the Swabian-Hall pigs on the es­tate that ap­plies for the “veg­eta­rian de­part­ment”. The best bi­o­log­i­cal con­di­tions for the live­stock, all of which are raised hu­manely. All an­i­mals re­ceive the ap­pro­pri­ate amount of ex­er­cise for their spe­cies, and their slaugh­ter is car­ried out as gen­tly as pos­si­ble. Also with re­gard to the farm’s meat prod­ucts, the cas­tle’s kitchens are the pre­ferred customers.


Seed

First-class seeds

Grain business as a core business

In reaction to the emphasis on eco­logical agri­cul­ture, a change has oc­curred in grain pro­duc­tion. The focus is no longer on mass pro­duc­tion, but on qual­i­ta­tive­ly de­mand­ing seed pro­duc­tion – the new core busi­ness. Seed prod­uced by Gut Eichet­hof is a bi­o­log­i­cally first-class prod­uct for cus­tomers, who, in turn, run high qual­i­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tally friendly agri­cultural op­e­ra­tions.

Today, Gut Eichethof is one of Germany’s largest pro­duc­ers of seed. In Bavaria, it is ac­tu­ally num­ber one.


Forest

From our own forest

A forest with a future

Natural regeneration and mixed forests are the cha­rac­te­ris­tics of a for­ward-look­ing sil­vi­cul­ture, and both focus on cli­mate change. Nat­u­ral re­gen­er­a­tion, i.e. self-prop­a­ga­tion or pol­li­na­tion, and more re­sis­tant mixed forests with­stand in­creased storms and heat waves far bet­ter than vul­ner­a­ble spruce cul­tures. In the forests of Gut Eichet­hof there are 15 dif­fer­ent species of trees grow­ing in the area’s var­i­ous soils and lo­ca­tions. A beau­ti­ful mixed forest also pro­vides more eco­nom­i­cally valu­able tim­ber, re­sult­ing in bet­ter sales. And, last but not least, sem­i­nar vis­i­tors es­pe­cially love to relax un­der the beech trees.

PS: The reception area and hotel rooms in Schloss Hohen­kam­mer’s new guest­house were all con­structed out of beau­ti­ful oak wood from our own forests.

Products

The taste of quality

As with everything we offer at Schloss Hohen­kam­mer, our qual­ity stan­dards guide us. This also ap­plies to our prod­ucts in liquid form. Whether these are brandies, vine­gars or oils – all are among the finest in their class. It is nice that visitors can take a piece, or a sip, of Schloss Hohen­kam­mer with them as a re­minder of their stay.


Gut Eichethof
Monday to Friday
9 am to 5 pm
Phone +49(0)8137 93 45 00
E-mail

Hotel reception
Phone +49 (0)8137 93 40
E-mail



Fine brandies

Exquisite spirits

More than 1,000 fruit trees and bushes grow on the es­tate and all these fruits are avail­able in liquid form. But more than that – they are pure, dis­tilled en­joy­ment. Ini­tially en­joyed as apples, pears, quinces and plums, they make up our proud as­sort­ment of brandies, five of them “bar­rique” (ma­tured and stored in Ital­ian oak bar­rels). Some of these spir­its are made of fruit grown else­where, pro­vided the qual­ity is right.

The estate’s distillery has quickly gained an ex­cel­lent rep­u­ta­tion. At the World Spir­its Awards 2013, it was ranked 15th – world­wide! – in first-class distilleries. In 2014 our three barrique brandies apple, grape and rowan berry were awarded gold medals. And in 2015 the damson brandy and hazelnut spirit received the highest distinction by Bayern Brand. And our pumpkin seed spirit was awarded the gold medal at Destillata 2021.


Vinegar and oil and more

A small selection of our huge range of products

The brandies are complemented by our se­lec­tion fine, aro­matic vine­gars. Again, you can choose from an exten­sive range, includ­ing a rare tomato vine­gar. As with our brandies, only the best raw ma­te­ri­als are used. You can enjoy the pumpkin seeds from our own organ­i­cally grown crops as high-qual­ity oil as well as roasted in many deli­cious flavors.

All of our blossoming trees and shrubs are fer­til­ised by six colonies of bees, which pro­duce an ex­cel­lent honey in the process. This com­pletes our cycle of delicacies.

Energy supply

Independence

Net products, which are sustainably de­signed and op­er­ated, create an ad­van­tage that is rarely ad­dressed: self-sufficiency.

In the case of Gut Eichethof, it is the fact that it is its own en­ergy sup­plier: Two co­gen­er­a­tion plants with a to­tal of 385 kW of elec­tric­ity and heat gen­er­a­tion, driven by meth­ane gas from the es­tate’s bio­gas – in ad­di­tion to a wood chip plant with 600 kW.

With this equip­ment, the to­tal en­ergy de­mands of Schloss Hohen­kam­mer are met. The power out­put of 385 kW is fed into the pub­lic grid.


Pure energy

Real estate

There are apartments for em­ploy­ees and trainees on the cas­tle grounds and Gut Eichet­hof. In ad­di­tion, var­i­ous com­mer­cial en­ter­prises, such as “Markt­ge­sell­schaft der Natur­land­be­triebe”, “Natur­land Lan­des­ver­band Bayern” and “Inter­Saat­zucht GmbH” are lo­cated on Gut Eichet­hof.


4 single family de­tached houses
4 two and more bed­room flats
10 one bed­room flats

600 sqm com­mer­cial premises – Gut Eichet­hof
1,000 sqm storage space

Gut Eichethof


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