Culinary experiences

The Kladje tourist farm lies at an altitude of 1,020 metres in the Upper Savinja Valley, at the fringes of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, in the hamlet of Ter. The locals also call this area ‘Cold Peak’ owing to the once very harsh and snowy winters. It is surrounded with woods and mountain pastures, which offer many opportunities to feel nature to the fullest and recharge your batteries for new challenges. The family has lived in harmony with nature by following organic farming principles for ten years.

A visit to the farm is a sheer delight for all the senses. At dawn, the night silence is broken by the sound of the rooster and the chirping of birds, and the kitchen is filled by the aroma of white coffee and home-made bread. There is greenery everywhere, the mountains offer a soothing view and rambles in the area energize the body and soul.

Visitors will feel the warmth of a farming home in the ground-floor room with a bread oven. Upstairs, there is a dining and a living room, and two double rooms and a quad room in the loft. Each room has an en-suite bathroom with a shower and toilet. You can also opt to stay in the apartment for four persons, which has a kitchen, bathroom and balcony. All the furnishings in the living spaces are home-made from local timber.

Programme

In the embrace of pristine nature, you will find out about organic farming and two Slovenian indigenous breeds of domestic animals. You will also get to know and taste typical local cuisine.

No need to take a single car ride for three whole days!

Day 1:

Arrival at the farm late in the afternoon. The friendly hosts will receive you and make you welcome with a shot of schnapps or a glass of home-made juice and some home-baked cookies, and then show you to your room or apartment. You can spend the rest of the afternoon until dinner time on a short walk and look around the farm.

This will be followed by dinner, prepared largely from foods produced at the farm. After dinner, you will be told more about the farm and the two-day programme.

Day 2

Rather than an alarm clock, you will be roused by the singing of the rooster and birds. For breakfast, you can get deliciously smelling white coffee or tea from locally picked herbs. You can top the home-baked bread with home-made jam, honey or cheese spread with chives and home-made pâté, and sample farmer Henrik’s cured meat specialities: the traditional stuffed pig’s stomach, sausages, shoulder of pork, etc.

After breakfast, the farmer will take you out to meet the farmyard animals: the ducks, geese, chicken, pigs, goats and a pony, and of course the cats and a dog. With a little luck, one of them might have some young for the children to feed, perhaps stroke and take a picture with. In the pasture, you will see cattle of the Slovenian indigenous ‘cika’ breed and sheep of the indigenous Jezersko-Solčavsko breed. On the way, you will also be told the names of the mountain pastures surrounding the farm. You will be able to pick some herbs for tea. When the fruits of the forest are in season, you can pop into the woods to pick a basketful.

Once back at the farm, there will be some time to rest and work up an appetite for a lunch basket prepared by the housewife: bread from the bread oven, pork roast or deep-fried chicken, home-made pâté, boiled eggs, seasonal vegetables, pickled home-grown vegetables, apple pie or strudel, apple juice and cider (tolkec).

In the afternoon you can go for a hike. The family will show you the way to Stari stani, and after two hours of moderate walking you will get to this mountain pasture, which offers grazing to cattle and horses and a broad view of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. Or, you could simply stay at the farm and, in the season for picking spruce tips, press the tips into pure spruce juice, or let the family help you prepare any herbs you have picked for drying. As for any fruits of the forest, you can either enjoy them fresh or make them into jam and pickle the mushrooms. In the evening, children can join the farmer in the animal shed to help feed the animals.

Dinner will include one typical local dish.

After dinner, you can sit on the bench in front of the house or by the oven over some tea as the family tells you about organic farming and indigenous animal breeds, and chats with you about your day.

Day 3:

After breakfast, the housewife will show you around her organic garden. You can help her sow or plant some garden crops if the biodynamic calendar says the time is right. If the weather is bad, you will learn to bake bread. Together, you will bring in the firewood, light the oven, sift the flour, prepare the yeast mixture and knead the dough for small loaves of bread, which can be taken home.

The programme includes:

2 half-boards and a basket lunch on day 2, and a tour of the farm with guided activities.

The price is EUR  per person and EUR 1.5 tourist tax per person per day.

Free stay for children aged 4 or less, half-price for children from 4 to 9, deposit for the basket: EUR 10.

Information and reservation:

Tourist farm Kladje

Andreja Podlesnik

Ter 53, 3333 Ljubno ob Savinji

03/5841 031, 051/825 988

tkkladje@gmail.com

www.tk-kladje.si