Strange hadron production at SIS energies: an update from HADES

We present and discuss recent experimental activities of the HADES collaboration on open and hidden strangeness production close or below the elementary NN threshold. Special emphasis is put on the feed-down from φ mesons to antikaons, the presence of the Ξ- excess in cold nuclear matter and the comparison of statistical model rates to elementary p+p data. The implications for the interpretation of heavy-ion data are discussed as well.