Allram Daham

Stop being annoyed and do it yourself - with this decision, Martin Allram became a career changer in agriculture. Today, he no longer has to convince anyone - ancient grains are back on everyone's lips.

When Martin Allram stands in his field, he is at eye level with his forest perennial. The old rye variety with the long ears, which is also a Slow Food Presidio, reaches almost up to his chin. By harvest time, it will be between 2.5 and three metres high. Allram is satisfied and happy with what he has achieved here in Dietmannsdorf in the southern Waldviertel region between Horn and Waidhofen. Especially at the beginning, he was sometimes criticised by his colleagues: growing old, low-yielding grain varieties? And without any chemicals?

"I was just so annoyed by what was on offer in the supermarkets. At some point, I didn't want to be annoyed anymore and decided: I'll just live it now." And so, in 2005, he turned his passion into a profession and started growing ancient grains on his parents' farm according to biodynamic principles. Growing "only" organic produce was never enough for him. He wants to produce food for life in the truest sense of the word.

"If someone had told me back then how much work lay ahead of me, I don't know if I would have started," says Martin. After all, growing the low-yielding grain was not always profitable, especially in the beginning. Today, the old grain varieties are experiencing a renaissance. Martin Allram now cultivates 49 hectares of arable land and concentrates on around 20 varieties that thrive particularly well in the southern Waldviertel: from forest rye or St John's rye to Russian or Siberian rye, black emmer, einkorn, khorasan wheat, purple wheat, Erler Kolm and Attergau spelt. "You have to perceive the soil, learn from it and build it up."