In ancient times the Danube was a free lowland river. Water liked to linger on the plain. The river drew picturesque curves of its meanders and oxbows into the landscape, and deposited sand it no longer wanted to carry to the sea. The soil in today's fields is very varied, depending on what deposits the river left here as it moved across the landscape. Settlement of this patch of Earth is recent. A map from the 2nd half of the 18th century shows only fields here, and only to the north of today's farm. Mapping carried out a hundred years later already records buildings and describes the land as dry pasture.
South of those 18th-century fields, between the ancient bed of the Danube pushed to the north and its present course, lies the Herba Danubia farm. Near the buildings runs the regulated channel of an irrigation canal. Further south and east there used to be grassland on sand dunes. Today a fairly large part of it has been turned into fields, and what was not converted is steppe and forest steppe. No wonder: the area is one of the warmest and driest in Slovakia, and its surface is covered with fine sand that the wind plays with. In this interesting landscape we find protected sites – the Čenkov Site of Community Importance and the Jurský Chlm Nature Reserve.
Herba Danubia is a family business; the ancestors of today's owners started farming here back in 1925. In 1949 the business was nationalised, and of the farmstead of that time only a granary and a house remained. The current generation has been farming here for the last 30 years. Under socialism the land was farmed intensively with full use of agrochemicals, and erosion also took its toll. The humus layer is really thin, and finding the right way to manage it is not easy. Without ploughing, rodents multiply in the dry soils; with ploughing, the wind blows away loose soil particles. Because its soils dry out so severely, the area is classed as disadvantaged.
If, in such conditions, you want to protect the thin layer of soil that forms here with such difficulty, change established growing practices, stop using chemicals and cut the number of passes with heavy machinery, you need to test and choose crops very carefully. In dry, airy soil, organic matter clearly prefers to break down into minerals rather than form humus. After years of raising cattle and growing field crops, the owners decided on herbs and cereals. They are the largest rosehip grower in Slovakia, with 52 ha planted. They chose herbs to suit the conditions on the farm. Only the propagation area is irrigated. Besides their own seedlings, they plant only certified seedlings in the fields. Herbs grown without irrigation or fertiliser grow slowly, so yields are low - but the less plant matter there is, the more active substance it contains.
The market only really values this hard-won, high-quality material once the disadvantage becomes an advantage. Herbs that like light, sandy, dry and hot soil have even more fragrant aromatic compounds. They process them right on the farm using gentle steam distillation, so the quality of the hydrosols and essential oils is high. They sell them undiluted and without preservatives. The owners found inspiration and methods for processing herbs at the Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma in Hungary and on trips to Croatia. The hydrosols mature for 2 months in an old cellar, one of the few spaces here that survived socialism, and have a shelf life of two years.
„Herba Danubia is an original farm with a rare focus. Its perceptive owners have found the right direction for what they produce from the land, creating unique added value through products made from the medicinal herbs they grow. A conscious, progressive approach to processing and the development of their own technology underline the distinctive character of this farm. Medicinal herbs are grown not only as a commodity for processors but above all as raw material for their own organic production. The varied processing - drying for teas and spices, or traditional methods to obtain essential oils and hydrosols, as well as herbal syrups, jams, fruit spreads and other products in small quantities - is a truly original form of production. Specialising in medicinal plants and processing them so comprehensively is a rare form of land management today, which makes this farm truly unique„, said Farma živá committee member Ľubomír Marhavý
Soil and water are precious here, even though a river as big as the Danube flows just 5 km away. There is water in this area, but it fluctuates several metres below the surface with the rhythm of the nearby Danube. To give life room to develop, they began creating small ponds on the farm. Life responded joyfully to the water. The ponds and their surroundings were colonised by the most vigorous plants in the area, and a host of small creatures appeared. Two of the ponds are separated from the farm buildings by a long bank of spoil left over from digging the canal, the farm's only source of water. Here a darker, humic clay soil has come to the surface, and the vegetation on it is noticeably different.
The space created in this way is also different from its surroundings. The ponds and the undulating terrain offer the chance to enjoy an agro-eco holiday, camping in an interesting setting. The farm offers not only a place to stay but also basic facilities.
The farm's goal is not to produce as many of the cheapest products as possible, but to make enough good-quality ones with respect for nature. This conviction, together with a family photograph of great-grandfather Pavol Bottka from 1928 on the farm's website, speaks of roots sunk deep into the sands of the Danube floodplain. It smells of herbs blooming in the heat of midsummer. In it you can hear frogs croaking in the ponds, announcing the presence of a life that changes its surroundings so that life can go on.
„This farm lives the very approach we urgently need to discover and make use of Slovakia's uniqueness amid changing conditions in agriculture, society and the climate!„, added Farma živá committee member Lucia Baľáková.
The Krajina živá programme was financially supported by VÚB banka.
