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Where does the hemp for Trees products actually come from?
Anyone who has read our FAQs carefully knows where the hemp for our BIO-CBD products comes from. Namely from the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park. This national park is something very special in Europe. For this reason, we are devoting an entire blog article to our growing region. Too much you think?
Not if you delve a little into the topic. The location and the exceptional climatic conditions affect the quality of the soil and therefore the quality of the plants that grow on it. In Austria, fruit and vegetables from this region have long been considered particularly aromatic. Of course, what applies to fruit and vegetables also applies to other plants, including hemp.
Location and landscape
Lake Neusiedl seems so big, that one can easily confuse it with the sea. Depending on the water level, the lake area is an average of 320 km² and about half of it is covered with reeds. 230 km² of this are in Austria and 90 km² in Hungary. The Austrian part thus forms the largest lake area in Austria.
We have bad news for those who come to Lake Neusiedl to swim, though. It is just as deep as a deep water-based paint. The deepest point is not even 1.80 and the water level drops every year.
Lake Neusiedl, like Lake Balaton in neighboring Hungary, is a steppe lake and the largest lake in Central Europe with no outflow. Its water level fluctuates between completely drying up and flooding. The situation is similar for the 40 or so salt lakes surrounding it. The largest and best-known of these is the so-called Lange Lacke. In winter these pools are up to 70cm deep and in summer they can dry up completely, leaving only white salty soil.
The lake with its reed belt, extensive meadows and pastures and salt lakes was recognized early on as a unique natural area. The first protected areas began to be designated as early as the interwar period. In 1993, the region was finally declared the Neusiedler See – Seewinkel National Park.
Why is the national park so well suited for the cultivation of our hemp plants?
- Climate: a looooooooot of sun
Burgenland is the federal state with the most hours of sunshine in all of Austria: more than 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, on 300 days.
For comparison, in Baden-Württemberg, the sunniest federal state in Germany, the sun shines for around 1800 hours.
Many call Lake Neusiedl a huge energy storage facility that transfers the sun’s energy to the ground. As one of the warmest regions in Austria, the Seewinkel region has an annual mean temperature of 10 °C. In addition to the hot and dry summers, the winters have little snow and fog. What is still very typical for Burgenland are the refreshing winds.
The growing season is also particularly long. It lasts around 250 days.
2. High quality soils
The Seewinkel is a mosaic of different soil types. In addition to the dominant saline soils, there are calcareous sandy soils and nutrient-rich steppe black soils, which are particularly characterized by a fertile humus horizon and are therefore perfect for growing vegetables.
Thanks to the unique climate and the nature of the soil, the region has established itself as a country of indulgence. The fruit and vegetables from the Seewinkel are no longer an insider tip. What is good for tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, lettuce and co can therefore not be bad for hemp either.
3. Organic farming and sustainability
Organic farming has a long tradition in Burgenland. Already 37% of the agricultural land is managed by organic farmers and by 2027 it should be 50%. We inscribe ourselves in this tradition with our CBD products by making them from hemp plants that are cultivated organically in the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park and are certified with the Austria Bio Guarantee.
Since hemp is a deep root and pulls pollutants and pesticides out of the soil, it is particularly important for it to be organic. The hemp plant also improves the quality of the soil and promotes the yield of the following harvest by binding CO2 in layers of the earth below due to these deep roots.
The hemp farms that Trees collaborates with are also sustainable in various areas. For example, one hectare of planting absorbs 13 to 14 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, which roughly corresponds to the efficiency of a rainforest of the same size. In addition, the farms use natural irrigation systems and no pesticides.
We are very proud to be able to grow our hemp plants in such a special ecosystem as the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park.
Just as we do not want the vegetables we eat to be grown next to the highway, we would not want to ingest CBD from questionable sources either. Because the quality is often also a question of origin.
