Agricultural Education Trail along the Lorze River in Zug

(This Post done on December 20, 2021)

Between our home at the western edge of the city of Zug and the next town over called Steinhausen, is a strip of agricultural land with a few long-standing farms, which gives us the feel of living in the country instead of the city (lots of cow noises!!!)

When we want to get out of the house for some fresh air and a quick 1-hour walk, we often walk in this area, mainly because there are barns with baby cows! And I never get tired of ooohing and aahing over the baby cows... The walks usually include sections of the Old and the New Lorze Rivers.

Three of the farmers here have banded together to form part of the Swiss "Agricultural Education Trail", allowing access to their farms to see how farming works in Switzerland. (This is particularly fun for the children!). There are many information panels along the way with loads of information about ethical animal husbandry, bee-keeping, cherry cultivation, the use of farm machines, "where food comes from", and so much more.

Here are photos from two short tours we did in the final week of February 2019.

Saturday, 23 February 2019 -- We started at 4 p.m for an hour's walk, following the New Lorze River to the Landolt farm, one of the farms involved in the Agricultural Education Project. From there we joined the Old Lorze River at Schochemühle, and followed that South before crossing back to our home. 

Here we are heading away from our neighbourhood toward the Old Lorze River, and looking back at the Freimann Farm and Mt. Zugerberg in the background

This panel shows the three farms involved in the project, and the topics you can learn about

This is the Landolt Farm. It is a large farm, with a large variety of products, including a farm shop where you can buy the products they make here. 

Information panels inform us about raising free-run chickens, and the use of voltaic cells to produce energy to run the farm

The Landolt Family claims to sell eggs from Happy Chickens!! (This photo was taken from a walk we did here several years back)

Landolt Farm: We're going in to look at cows!

Oooohh and Aaaahh! So cute!

Here they also have bees

And here we've reached Schochenmühle. The Old Lorze River runs behing this building, which is a restaurant. 

At Schochenmühle we join the "Alter Lorzenrundweg", i.e. the "Old Lorze Round Trail" and head toward Kollermühle (Mühle = Mill, there were probably many around here!).

Following the Old Lorze River South toward Lake Zug (but not all the way). 

This section of the Old Lorze River is also part of the "Industry Education Trail" (see also this LINK). In the 18th Century there were wool and silk spinning mills here

Heading back toward the "New Lorze" Canal

First signs of spring!!

And these are the farms directly across from our neighbourhood

Roger Iten's Farm, also part of the Agricultural Education Project

One-hour late afternoon round-tour in our neighbourhood

Tuesday, 26 February 2019 -- As we had missed visiting two of the three farms on the first walk we did on Saturday, I returned three days later to document the rest of the "Agricultural Education Trail". This wasn't meant to be a long walk. In fact, it was only about 2 kilometers! But I wanted more photos of the farms.

As you cross the New Lorze River, the first farm you come to is the Roger Iten Farm. They have a very nice newly-built shop on-site, where you can buy all kinds of their home-made products

The modern Farm Shop at the Iten Farm. They offer a large variety of produce and baked goods, as well as sirups etc. which they produce themselves. I have purchased home-made "Birnenbrot" (dried pear bread) here which I brought to my Dad in Canada in 2017! We also often buy our milk here, from the outside vending machine. 

The barn at the Iten farm is a beautiful open and airy structure. The walls can easily be closed in bad weather or when it is cold, to create a totally enclosed building. 

Here at the Iten Farm you can learn about raising calves

Ooooohhh and Aaaaah, can't get enough of these cuties!

Next farm: Philipp Freimann

Old barns: Here they keep pigs and chickens

Chicken Pen at the Freimann Farm

Information about raising pigs, and rules of conduct for visiting the farm: No entering into the cow pens, and no petting of the baby cows, as their mothers are nearby, and very protective!

I was very careful not to pet the baby cows, as per the farmer's request!

And yet just standing looking at the baby cows got me the "evil eye" from one of the mamas! She was making sure I wasn't going into any of the pens...

A farm that one can visit

A large agricultural region between the communities of Zug and Steinhausen makes us feel like we live in the country.

The Freimann Farm also has a beautiful building that doubles as a restaurant. This house is over 450 years old and has been in the family for 14 generations. It is also under National Monument Protection.

A look at the cherry orchard on the Landolt Farm. They also keep bees here

The cherry trees in spring. 

Just a little afternoon walk to document the farms involved in the "Agricultural Education Program" for a report that I was writing at the time.