Page 49 - Dez2017

Guests and cows satis ed
The guests are pleased with this development, because now and then he occasionally nds time to sit down with visitors at the table and tell old stories about his long life and to strike up a song after a few pints. He used to like doing that in the past; guests used to enjoy it, and the evenings became longer and time grew shorter as they used to sing in the courtyard in charming Bensheim. The cows used to chew the cud with a satis ed look from the stable into the courtyard and the guests used to glance over at the stable.
„Ourewäller Handkäs“
Meanwhile, Mother Emma Jäger stood in the kitchen, hammering the schnitzel, mixing the potato salad and adding a dash of oil, setting up a slab of meat (Schlachtplatte) or cutting the onions for sour milk cheese with music (Handkäs mit Musigg), as the “Ourewäller” (Odenwälder) call their favourite dish. We‘ll come back to this later.
Father Willi has long handed over the company to his son Michael. Mother Jäger still stands in the kitchen; the family-run business is thriving. Michael brought new ideas into the business, giving it a new economic basis with the restructuring of the wine-growing business. The cows have disappeared, otherwise, almost everything else has remained the same - except for the stable, which has become “Café Kuhstall” (Café Cowshed)
From cows to viticulture
Nevertheless, there were dif cult years before the former dairy farm became a top wine-growing business, but it was well worth it. Michael Jäger recalls the years until 2002 somewhat wistfully when he put an end to milk production, and the last cow was moved out of the barn. „Work became too much for us,“ Michael admits today. Despite everything, it was a great time having the cows. In doing so, today‘s innkeeper and winemaker thinks, in particular, about the ten-day Bensheim wine festival, which was and is celebrated at the „Jäger-Willi“. The guests sat in the courtyard; mooing and the stable smell came from the cowshed, which bothered none of the guests.
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