On my travels around the world, I have repeatedly encountered places that have saved themselves from economic ruin through surprising ideas and initiatives. But a village that has dedicated itself to poppy for this reason was not among them until we visited the poppy village of Armschlag in Waldviertel in Lower Austria There, everything really revolves around poppy seeds!
In the village inn, which – how could it be otherwise – calls itself the “Mohnwirt” (poppy seed host), you can try almost everything from traditional to newly created poppy seed dishes.
The village car park is adorned with the world's largest poppy painting – apparently, even this small village cannot function without superlatives.
Opposite is the Poppy Village shop, and a walk leads to the poppy garden. Anyone who arrives here unexpectedly feels like they've entered another world. We were invited to learn more about the Poppy Village and its history. And it's fascinating!
You have to like poppy in Armschlag, Mohndorf in Waldviertel
You have to like poppy seeds if you visit Armschlag, though, because you can't help but try them. Since we've always loved poppy seeds, we're excited to discover what we'll discover at the Mohnwirt. The Mohnwirt's innkeeper herself, Rosemarie Neuwiesinger, welcomes us and tells us the story of her village. She and her husband, Johann, were the ones who had the idea of getting the struggling little village of Armschlag and its residents to inscribe poppy seeds on their village flag, figuratively speaking. Like many villages in the Waldviertel, Armschlag suffered the same fate: Young people migrated to the cities, there were no jobs, and agriculture didn't generate enough income to make a living.
Johann and Rosemarie Neuwiesinger then decided to base their village inn entirely on the poppy, which various farmers in and around Armschlag grew in the high-altitude fields of the Waldviertel region. And they set about convincing the villagers to adopt this motto for the entire village. It was difficult at first. "Shoemaker, stick to your last" is the motto of the people in this region, and so it took several years for the idea to take hold. However, if you visit the poppy village of Armschlag today, you can't avoid the topic of poppy.
Delicious poppy specialties at the Mohnwirt
"And that's a good thing," says everyone we meet on our tour through the village. The tables in the Mohnwirt's garden are just as full as the ones in the inn itself. Rosemarie Neuwiesinger tells us that she's expecting a larger bus group today who also want to enjoy her poppy seed specialties. And they're something to behold—or rather, tasted. We order poppy seed noodles and poppy seed dumplings. A true delight! My poppy seed noodles are potato noodles in poppy seed butter and rum, and they taste so good that I now make them again and again at home. And Petar eats his poppy seed dumplings with elderberry stew as if he hasn't had anything to eat for days. A sure sign that he likes something!
If you want, you can refine your entire menu with poppy seeds: there is poppy seed soup, poppy cheese salad with apples and pumpkin seeds, carp fillet in a poppy-seed coat with potato salad or herb-cheese-poppy-seed melon, and dessert with poppy seed noodles and poppy seed dumplings, poppy seed ice cream with eggnog, Poppy tents and poppy seed cake with cherry sauce to choose from. And there's, as it should, poppy seed coffee or a stamperl poppy seed. You should bring only an empty stomach, because the delicacies fill you up fast.
The whole village "lives" the poppy
After our delicious lunch, we go on a tour through the poppy village and are allowed to look into the barn of the poppy farmer. Its interior walls are filled with shelves filled with hundreds of poppy seed mills, in all shapes and colors. The windows of the inn's outbuildings are decorated with poppy capsules that hang like garlands along the roof.
Who is Mohni?
A few steps further on, we see on a map that all the hiking trails, which, of course, also lead to poppy fields, are led by "Mohni," a figure who shows hikers the way. Right next door is the poppy farmer's shop. It sells everything from empty poppy seed capsules to cookbooks for poppy-based dishes to poppy-dressed dirndls, which the village ladies had specially designed. Today, they represent their village in these dresses.
The Poppy Garden
Here, they're truly serious about poppies. Just a few meters further, we finally reach the poppy garden, where poppy varieties from all over the world are grouped around three oversized wooden poppy capsules: from Californian poppies to Afghan poppies, you can see all the varieties found worldwide. The only thing we missed during our stay in Armschlag was the blooming poppy fields. But we were too late for that in September. We'll have to come back in the summer to see that. Because Armschlag, a poppy village in the Waldviertel region, has more than impressed us with its specialization in poppies. A good reason to come back.
Current information from Armschlag can be found on this website.
Do you know this?
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Further Destinations can also be found here. Discover other Places in Austria.
Source: Armschlag: own research in Armschlag, Mohndorf in the Waldviertel region. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Waldviertel Tourism for their support. Our opinions, however, remain our own.
Text Armschlag: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
Photos: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
Video: © Copyright Petar Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
