diff --git a/haystack/version.py b/haystack/version.py
index 5d9e899fa..68b18404f 100644
--- a/haystack/version.py
+++ b/haystack/version.py
@@ -1,13 +1,6 @@
 from importlib import metadata
 
-# haystack is distributed as a separate package called `haystack-ai`.
-# We want to keep all preview dependencies separate from the current Haystack version,
-# so imports in haystack must only import from haystack.
-# Since we need to access __version__ in haystack without importing from
-# haystack we must set it here too.
-# When installing `haystack-ai` we want to use that package version though
-# as `farm-haystack` might not be installed and cause this to fail.
 try:
     __version__ = str(metadata.version("haystack-ai"))
 except metadata.PackageNotFoundError:
-    __version__ = str(metadata.version("farm-haystack"))
+    __version__ = "main"
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/fix-version-47afaec913788a01.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/fix-version-47afaec913788a01.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9e657c7a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/fix-version-47afaec913788a01.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Fix Haystack imports failing when using local development environment that doesn't have `haystack-ai` installed.