It is sometimes hard to find new things to do with a small kid with a lot of energy, so I was glad to discover from Zug Families the Schluechthof Farm. No need for a full sunny day, we packed our bag, spotted the itinerary and went on a farm adventure.
The farm is the house and working ground for Family Hartmann-Loosli and a total of 3,5 staff. But apart from the farming activities, it is also a Landwirtschaftlichen Bildungs- und Beratungszentrums (LBBZ) for Zug Canton, i.e. an agricultural education and advisory center. The college infrastructures are directly connected to the farm: students can do their education onsite and learn about animal cares, agricultural production and farming management.
Apart from the farm itself and the adjacent learning facilities, the greatest advantage of this farm is the Schluechthof Adventure Playground which is fully privately funded. There you'll find a great sandpit with an amazing collection of toys to play in (meaning you do not have to walk around with yours), houses to climb and slide down, and a few picnic spots under the trees' shade. The highlight of our visit was obviously a tour of the green tractor and the stables.
The farm allows visitors to visit the stables and pay a visit to the animals around: cows, goats, pigs, bunnies, and if you are lucky you'll get to see a few of the cats around. Needless to say, the animals' spaces should be respected with limited noise and disturbance.
Should you need some snacks or feel like diving into local and regional fruits or veggie productions, have a look at the Hofladen, the little open shop within the farm. The range of products to buy is very broad, from free-range eggs, fresh apple juice, flours and even amazing ice cream.
Like so many places around, the Schluechthof Hofladen works based on the customers' honesty: you leave the money in the cash box (a machine making change for you is also available onsite so you can come with notes - payment with credit card not allowed though). The Milch Automat is available outside, at a little more expensive price per liter compared to other farms we have visited. Glass and plastic bottles are available for purchase inside the shop, too.
Beware, products are so fresh you get tempted to buy more than what you actually wanted, at first! And personal tip: the fresh apple juice is just amazing and mild, so perfect it is for the little ones' thirst. It can be bought by the glass, but price vs. quantity wise, it is surely more interesting to buy an entire bottle of absolute freshness.
To go there:
With public transportation, the trip to Schluechthof is easy and quick: bus 7 direction Cham Bahnhof to stop Städtli, or from station Cham with bus 42 to stop Löbernmatt will bring you there in no time.
For this first visit we took the S1 train line until Cham Alpenblick and the walk took 10 good minutes. Note that there are plenty of parking spots there.
For more information, you can refer to the website of Zug Tourismus.
What to know:
- toilets are available in the main building's facilities. I do not recall seeing any baby changing station/table, though, so make sure to bring your own mat just in case.
- The waste bin on the playground is for the farm's waste only (e.g. what you have bought onsite on the Hofladen). It is kindly requested that you bring your own waste back home, so make sure to have a bag with you, especially if you decide to picnic there or if you need to change our baby.