This year the surroundings of his company do not look like climate change, but he is prepared for it: Moritz Schäfer in a field with green lentils
Image: Lucas Bäuml
Healthy things from the field: 60 years ago the lens disappeared from the fields in this country. Now it is being grown again. A farmer in Hessen has recognized its potential for the climate and jobs.
Dhe lens doesn’t like to grow alone. At least not when it is on the field in our part of the world. And so, together with green lentils, naked oats and camelina also thrive on Moritz Schäfer’s sunlit, slightly sloping field. The farmer has gradually converted his business in Schwalmtal in the Vogelsberg district into a Demeter farm. And a large part of the fact that the almost forgotten lens is now growing again on Hessian fields.
Unlike wheat, rye or corn, which can be grown in monocultures, the lentil plant needs plants to support it, otherwise it will lean too much downward. Without support, it would be difficult to harvest in midsummer. At the beginning of June the plants are still small. The light green branches with elongated oval leaves protrude about ten centimeters from the earth. Moritz Schäfer points to the individual long stalks that can be seen around the lens: they are camelina and naked oats. For the untrained eye, they can hardly be distinguished. The field is lush green; for a few weeks it glows yellow. Not quite as bright as a rapeseed field, but similar. Not because of the lentils, but because of the camelina: it towers over the white-purple flowers of the legume.
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