Matthias Hollenstein
Co-founder HofLabor
Founder and managing director SlowGrow
About us
HofLabor was founded to make mosaic farming scalable. It grew out of the original pioneering farm SlowGrow. SlowGrow is an independent farming operation with which HofLabor works closely.
Our team
Petrissa Eckle, PhD
Co-founder HofLabor
Evelyne Bücheler
Project lead
Board
Catharina Bening
Board member
Jakob Limacher
Board member
Where we come from
2016
SlowGrow
Matthias was already experimenting with mulch mixed cropping during his apprenticeship. When he built his network under the name SlowGrow in 2016, he was farming about 2000 m².
Since 2018
Large-scale experiments
SlowGrow took over about 15 ha at the Eichhof in Mönchaltorf. The first large-scale experiments took place here, yielding many insights into what already works in regenerative agriculture and what does not. As a former precision mechanic, Matthias soon developed hypotheses about the machinery still needed.
2021
Mosaic farming
Petrissa joined the team and the idea of HofLabor as an on-farm innovation project emerged. The term mosaic farming was coined at the same time.
2022
Founding of HofLabor
Petrissa and Matthias founded HofLabor with a focus on developing robust machines and methods and sharing them with others. That year SlowGrow and HofLabor jointly won the PrixClimat. In the following years, in-house technical developments made the methods increasingly practical and efficient. More research collaborations also emerged, with the aim of making the impact of mosaic farming measurable.
Since 2024
Adlisberg vision
Since spring 2024, SlowGrow and HofLabor have jointly managed the city-owned farm on Zurich's Adlisberg. A demonstration and innovation farm is being created there, where mosaic farming is further developed and made accessible to interested people.
More about Adlisberg →