Rural Europe on the move English_chap7_13 | Page 44

CHAPTER 10
Lesachtaler bread
as intangible
heritage
too - it is much more than just a from just two to the ten we have
foodstuff. The culture of making this today. We have new cooperatives
bread was one of the first initiatives for the harvesting, a new association
in Austria to be listed on the national for brand protection, the ‘Lesachtaler
It takes courage to do things UNESCO inventory of ‘Intangible Brot Verein’, and several women
differently, to buck the trend … but Heritage’. I was fascinated by this active in baking and marketing their
much of why Lesachtal is known concept of intangible heritage, how homemade bread. This is all thanks to
beyond its place is because of could we go about measuring and those few individuals who held on to
its resistance to global trends valuing traditional knowledge? This the traditional bread making practices.
of industrialisation, agricultural includes oral traditions and cultural So today’s Lesachtaler bread is a real
modernisation and mass construction heritage but also social customs and meeting of innovation and tradition.
of tourist infrastructure. rituals, traditional crafts and songs It is part of the reason why our region
The Lesachtaler bread is a good
and knowledge of the natural world. became one of the first Slow Food
example of this. It is made using These are intertwinings of ecological, Travel destinations, a scheme which
traditional agricultural techniques social and cultural aspects and all tries to encourage tourists to be not
which use water mills, associations are relevant for sustainable rural just consumers but also to actively
with the local linguistic heritage, development. experience the production of local
and it has a real spiritual dimension
It is astonishing that the Lesachtaler
bread has survived at all. It is the
is about the future and not about
continued making what others the past, it is about looking after
had abandoned a long time ago: what we think is valuable for future
cultivating cereals in a high alpine generations, not about preserving the
valley, maintaining old water mills ashes but ‘passing on the flame’. Some
and producing their own wheat. A few things we let go and move on and
individuals were inspired and began some things we decide need to be
replanting their own grains, excited passed on to future generations.
grow wheat at such altitudes. The
number of cereal farmers increased
120
Here we begin to see how tradition
product of a few individuals who
to take on the challenge of how to
5. Lesachtaler bread as
intangible cultural heritage
food.