The Schilcherland Styria is a Garden of Eden and hub of culinary powerhouses that can be experienced up close on the 40 km long Schilcher Wine Route.

The region’s biggest and sweetest treat is the Wiesener “strawberry”. The wonderful scent of the sun-ripened fruits and the sparkling Rosalia Frizzante rosé make your mouth water. If it were not a strawberry, you would have to address it like royalty.

Yellow, red, blue, dotted, small, large, round and oblong, waxy and floury anyway – potato varieties are like stars in the sky. For Hans Moser and Andrea, this is always an incentive to cultivate unusual “newcomers” in addition to popular standard varieties here in Salzburg’s Lungau region every year.

The whitefish innkeepers at Lake Millstatt do what their ancestors used to do: Every day they take the whitefish from the floating nets and process it straightaway. What the emperor used to enjoyed is still considered a delicacy today.

Specialities from Grey cattle, ham from the water buffalo or bacon and spreads from the Mangalica pig as well as fresh bread from the local baker.

Chef Stefan Csar serves extraordinary regional 3-Toque cuisine on international level. The icing on the cake of every visit to the Ratschen restaurant are the unconventional Wachter Wiesler wines.

When preparing his dishes, Toque-chef Michael Lohr places particular emphasis on regionality and seasonal products.

Free range eggs, handmade spelt pasta, homemade cheese, honey as well as seasonal products such as apples and homemade spreads characterise Maria Riepertinger’s Wastlhof farm. Best of all, the farm is located on the “Direct Marketers Bike Route in Prien”.

Every year at the end of September you can sample, buy and enjoy the best products and discover the taste of the region at the traditional Schmatz in Tatz gourmet market. Sampling the best wines, chatting with friends and experiencing living traditions – all under the motto “Slow down and relax”.

In my bag I have a surprise for leisure cyclists – a regional snack and a good Styrian wine. I won’t say when and where I show up with my picnic hamper.

The cheese dairy offers visitors the opportunity to look over the shoulders of the cheesemakers as they produce 25 different types of cheese. The different products can be sampled in the adjacent bistro.

Exclusively using natural hops, the specially developed method of open fermentation and the particularly long fermentation time according to the Slow Brewing philosophy make Trumer Pils a top representative of its genre.