Right outside the gates of Vienna in the Vienna Woods and the neighbouring Mostviertel grows a rare delicacy: the serviceberry. A wild fruit that refines savoury and sweet dishes and is also popular with muesli. Serviceberries have been cultivated in this hilly region for centuries.

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Autumn is harvest time. The small berries are not easy to harvest. You need patience and should be free from giddiness. Service trees grow up to 30 metres high and very old. They are among the rarest tree species in Europe. There are still a few hundred trees in the Vienna Woods and the neighbouring Mostviertel. That is why this region is also called the "Service Tree Kingdom". The serviceberry is related to the mountain ash, whitebeam and sorb trees. It is used both fresh and dried. In Austria, it is traditionally used to make expensive brandies. Only in recent years have the fruits also been experimented with in the kitchen. The sisters Anna Leodolter and Veronika Mayer have grown up with the serviceberries and cook with it in very different ways. The one with meat, the other vegetarian.

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Veronika Mayer came up with the recipe idea for "Camelsbert": a medieval Camembert is filled with a wild serviceberry cream, giving the cheese a fine marzipan aroma. She prepares a pesto from walnuts and serviceberries with homemade pasta. Her sister Anna Leodolter refines a game stew with serviceberries. She uses serviceberries instead of sultanas in the sweet Viennese Striezel. Some restaurants in the region have also included serviceberries in their menus and there are even serviceberry sausages. In the wild service tree groves of the Leodolter and Mayer families there are more than 50 giant trees. Their wood is hard and valuable. The trees only bear fruit after 20 years and then they are difficult to harvest. The farmers cannot live from the service trees alone. In addition to animal husbandry, they grow fruit and vegetables or do farming as a sideline.

As a second mainstay alongside agriculture, the Hochecker family runs a charcoal burning business in Michelbach. It is one of the last private charcoal burning businesses in Austria. After the service tree harvest, the part of the work begins that will last until deep into the winter and keeps the whole family busy. Every single little wild fruit has to be plucked from the stalks with the hands. In Lower Austria they call it "rebeln" or "oröwen". Friends and neighbours are invited to help it can be a long evening.

At our Neighbour's Table Vienna Woods | Season 2019 Episode 236
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