A long weekend in Germany? Sure, who wouldn’t say yes? I was incredibly fortunate to be able to go to Munich, Germany, over Martin Luther King Day weekend. While it wasn’t a trip focused on agriculture, this farm girl was glued to the window of the bus, looking out at the snow-covered fields of a country I didn’t really know much about, and wondering what those fields would look like in the heat of summer instead of the cold of winter.

We stayed just outside of Munich. What really shocked me was the proximity of farm fields to the city.

Unlike in the United States, where big cities are often surrounded by miles upon miles of suburbs and concrete jungles, literally less than two miles outside of Munich, we were surrounded by endless snow-covered fields broken up only by occasional houses and roads.

I couldn’t believe it.

Farmers zoomed by the bus on their ATVs with the farm dog running alongside, checking frozen ponds, enjoying their land, or even chatting with other farmers. It felt almost like home, but only 4,271 miles away. So, after spending three full days in the heart of Bavaria and eating the most delicious food I have encountered in a while, I was curious to find out what kind of crops grow on the snow-covered fields I saw.

Bavarian agriculture is fascinating, as it turns out. As of 2020, approximately 223,000 people worked in the agricultural sector in Bavaria, and there are just over 100,000 farms in the Bavarian region. These farms account for almost 40% of all the farmers in Germany.

The average farm is 30 hectares, equivalent to about 74 acres in the U.S., and almost 40% of people derive their primary income from farming, while 60% are part-time farmers. Almost all of these farms are smaller, family-run farms, especially in forestry and animal husbandry.

German farmers produced cereal grains, potatoes, vegetables, fruit and milk. In fact, a quarter of all the milk produced in Germany comes from the Bavarian region. Specialty crops like strawberries, asparagus, hops, tobacco, wine, and spice plants are also grown regionally but in very specific locations.

Farming in Germany, especially in the Bavarian region, is not mechanized. Many processes are still carried out manually, especially in specialized crop areas such as tobacco, strawberries, asparagus and wine. Farmers in the Bavarian region also are limited by soil and weather conditions. Certain parts of the area, like the base of the Alps, receive too much rain to grow cereal grains.

Therefore, this area is home to many dairy farms. From what I could see, many of the farms near Munich tended to be more focused on row crops and mirrored the fields I see out of my window and around my home.

That sentence above is amazing to me. I’ve traveled to all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. I’ve seen Sydney and Brisbane, Australia; London, England; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Florence, Italy; Victoria, British Columbia; and countless other places, and everywhere I have gone, farming shares many similarities. I’m sure that if I had had a moment and spoken better German,

I would have found myself chatting away with a local farmer about the trials and tribulations that are inherent in farming everywhere.

It would have been fascinating to sit down to a weiwurst (white German sausage) and a kartoffelkloesse (German potato dumpling) with an Erdinger Weissbier and listen to the stories of these farmers.

In fact, I imagine it would sound quite similar to the stories told over steaming cups of black coffee, plates of fluffy eggs, and crisp bacon here in the U.S. every morning here.