Thanks to a suggestion from my first friend in Switzerland who has been living here for three years, I was able to do an exciting activity on my first Friday in Switzerland. It was also my first hiking trip, with a pair of cheap sneakers from H&M and a handbag. Obviously, I was not expecting a 45-minute hike from the nearest train station. But the hike wasn't so bad. I was sweating a lot since I'm not an athletic person, but I made it!
The farmer's brunch, or le brunch à la ferme, is a yearly event organized by farmers in Switzerland on Swiss National Day (1st of August).
You have to book the brunch at least 2 days in advance, but the earlier the better, because there might be no more places available at the farms for the brunch. In my case, I was lucky that I could book it the day before because I just arrived on the 30th of July to Switzerland. Phew!
To see the available farms, go to brunch.ch. It is in French, but Google Chrome translated it pretty well.
I chose a farm in Alpage du Temeley (Temeley Alps) owned by Annie and Alain Cornamusaz. Luckily, Annie speaks English, and I was able to book the brunch over the phone.
To reach this farm, you can first take a local train to Aigle, which is also blessed with beautiful landscape. From there, take a funicular. A funicular is a train that can climb slopes, and with that comes beautiful views. If you don't know how to reach it from your place, just go to the Swiss train website SBB.ch and enter Leysin-Feydey gare as the destination if you want to take a shuttle bus to the farm. If you are up for hiking a little bit, enter Leysin-Grand-Hôtel instead because it is closer to the farm. I think you can also hike from Leysin-Feydey, but it will take much longer.
Supreme view of Aigle
Found a castle in Aigle! Maybe I'll go there next..
Hiking view from Leysin-Grand-Hôtel funicular station
Once you arrive at the farm, you have to first find your name from the list, and then pay for the brunch in cash. My brunch was 30 Francs, and compared to the price of McDonald burger in Switzerland (9 Francs), this amount is very reasonable.
Once you paid, you will get a sticker, and then you may begin your feast.
Vegetables, cured meat, cheese, salad, fresh fruits, desserts... the variety of the selection was pretty good.
But my favourite was the hot chocolate drink made from fresh milk. It's so fresh that you need to still use a sieve to filter some residue. My guess is that this milk has been pasteurized (maybe manually in a pan?) and has not been homogenized.
And speaking of milk, the meringue was awesome.
You have to eat it with freshly prepared creme. With the meringue melting in your mouth, releasing sweetness that compliments the creme... oh, it was so delicious!
When you feel so bored of munching and gulping calories, you can visit the shop for some local produce like cheese, jams, syrups and meringue.
You can also see the process of traditional Swiss cheese-making, starting from warming the milk to the right temperature, adding the enzyme rennin to produce the curds, stirring, pressing and aging.
The owner of the farm checking the degree of curding by looking at how much the milk coats the stirrer. He must have been very trained to do this kind of check manually!
Interested for the hike? Here's the location:
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