Bremen: Sunday and late-night addresses for organic stuff

Organic and eco-conscious trade in the city of Bremen is still dominated by smaller shops and supermarkets closing between 6 and 7 pm, and between noon and 2 pm on Saturdays. Although outlets of the Alnatura and Aleco organic supermarket chains keep open until 8 pm, you might end up quite frustrated if your schedule doesn't allow for day-time-on-weekdays shopping.

Big conventional supermarkets and discounter shops in Bremen like Rewe and Penny often keep open until 10 pm Monday to Saturday. The latter puts green labels on the shelves in front of organic products which help to find organically certified food.

There's a cluster of Sunday-open shops inside Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, and these usually keep open on public holidays, too. So unless you're longing for fresh veges or frozen food, you should be safe, even on Sundays and in the evening.

A small selection of fresh fruit, dairy products and non-dairy alternatives, drinks, dry food, sweets, natural cosmetics and a full-fledged range of bread, rolls, and pastries (both, sweet and savoury) can be found at the Reformhaus Bacher health-food shop (before 2021 its name was "Betterlife"). All fresh bakery products are organic, but you have to check for organic labels on pre-packaged items as about half the products on offer aren't certified as organic food or natural cosmetics.

With their own brands "Alterra" (certified natural cosmetics), "Eco-Freude" (sustainable household detergents) and "Alverde" (food) Rossmann drugstores are an alternative for the small purse. The branch inside Hauptbahnhof keeps open 16 hours a weekday, and 14 on weekends and bank holidays. It's easy to find: Climb the stairs to the right after entering the central station from the Bahnhofsplatz tram and bus hub.

What's unique for a German city is that there's a Sunday-open package-free convenience store: Selfair at the Steintor.

Vending machines

For pre-packaged organic sausage and meat products, predominantly in the jar head for the Lebensmittel-Punkt inside the Markthalle 8 food court at Domshof. When you enter the building there's a 24x7 open vending machine at the right hand side where you can buy a lot of regional sausage specialities as well as ready-made meat stock. You can also put orders of fresh meat at their webshop and collect your order on Fridays and Saturdays between 11 am and 6 pm from the dish counter of the food court. The name "Lebensmittel-Punkt" is a play on words – the composed noun can mean both, "place to buy food" and "centre of vital interest".

At the organic farm of the Kaemena family in Blockland you'll find 24x7 open vending machines for local organic products. Here you can tap raw or pasteurized milk into your own bottle, the liter for 1.20 EUR. If you did not bring one you can buy a returnable milk bottle for the price of 2 EUR the Regiomat vending machine which also stocks jam, drinking yogurt and cheese from the farm as well as cheese, eggs, honey and sausage in the jar by organic farms in the vicinity. In addition there's a little freezer with iced lollies at 2.50 EUR the piece for which you pay into the honesty box next to it – all worth the bicycle tour on the dyke as cars need a special permission to come here. Don't forget to bring cash.

Both, the jam and jogurt glasses can be returned here for re-use (there's a separate "waste-bin" next to the vending machine), but to get back the deposit for the milk bottles you have to turn to the farm cafe during its opening hours.

In 2022 a second milk vending machine and a Regiomat found their way into the city: In front of the Friedenskirche in the Viertel you can however tap pasteurized milk only, no raw milk. As the milk has to come here by car the prize for the liter is higher than the one next to the milking parlour.

And last but not least: The Kaemena's newly (in 2022) established ice-cream cum farm shop in the Neustadt part of town keeps open on Sundays and public holidays and sells jogurt, cheese and naturally milk.

Reformhaus Bacher, Hauptbahnhof between stairs to tracks 3 and 5, Mon–Fri(Sat–Sun) 7(8)–21
Rossmann Drogeriemarkt, Hauptbahnhof, Mon–Fri(Sat–Sun) 6(8)–22
Regiomat Lebensmittel-Punkt, inside Markthalle 8, Domshof 8-12, open 24x7
Regiomat bey Kaemena, Niederblockland 6, daily 24x7
Milchtankstelle Friedenskirche, Humboldtstr. 175, daily 24x7

In and around the Euganean Hills: Organic farmstays

An hours' bicycle ride from Padua (optional with an ice-cream or coffee break in Selvazzano Dentro) or one and a half hours from Vicenza gets you to La Buona Terra near the village of Cervarese Santa Croce, an organic farmstay, popular party location with families, educational farm for kindergardens and farm restaurant. You can stay either in one of the clean, rustic guest rooms and holiday homes located inside various farm buildings (advanced booking required), or on the camping site on the farm. A popular place with children -- there are not only cows, chicken, horses, donkeys, dogs (no cats), and frogs here, but also a spacious swimming pool. (Less popular among the kids: to ask the farmers, Luisa and Domenico, to remove the cleaning robot in the mornings.)

After breakfast (organic with a few exceptions, and usually with freshly home-made cakes made with the farm's own organic flour) you may pre-order lunch and/or dinner (around 8 pm), except on Mondays. Expect hearty home-made farmer's kitchen, home-made pasta, left-over soups, a grilled chunk of home-made bread topped with olive oil and an equally thick slice of sopressa salami from the farm's own pigs, freshly grilled vegetables, rustic meat courses from the farm (you may even be served a hearty stew of chicken necks) and (often) organic wines from nearby wineries. On weekends the farm restaurant is open to the public, but you are asked to phone in in advance (+39 328 077 0977). Vegetarians are gladly catered for with the four-courses "menu verde" while the omnivore one is dubbed "menu rosso", and as the farmers' daughter is a vegan, do not hesitate to mention if you are, too. Children are equally welcome and pay less. On summer weekends dinner is often served in an informal garden party style with antipasti plates and pizza-style foccachia bread, often accompagnied by life music.

There's also a farmshop selling the farm's home-made products: eggs, sopressa, preserves and liquors. Officially it keeps open on weekends between 15:30 and 19:30, but unless there's a bigger party of visitors around take this with a grain of salt and ask Luisa or an employee if you want to buy something.

One of the bicycle tours may lead you to the South-Western slopes of the Euganean Hills, to Ca' Orologio in Baone. Among vineyards and olive groves you will find Maria Gioia Rosellini's dedicated organic winery, producing natural wines of exclusive taste. You may enter the 16th century Venetian villa to taste and buy, or decide to rather stay in these magical surrondings and make use of the bed-and-breakfast offer (better book in advance, though). The breakfast itself is only partially organic, depending on the availability of organic products in the village supermarket (which is rather limited). You have the opportunity to cook lunch and dinner yourself, and serve it with a glass of Ca'Orologio wines.

Agriturismo La Buona Terra, Via Repoise, 73, Cervarese S. Croce
Ca' Orologio, Via Ca' Orologio, 7a, Baone

Esslingen: Zero Waste and Supermarkets

A serious university city Esslingen sports a small package-free self-service supermarket where you can fill your boxes, bottles, bags and jars yourself, and any pre-packaged item either comes in glass or paper packaging. Ohne Ebbes (the Swabian dialect word "ebbes" refers to "anything", hence the name can be translated as "without anything") is located near Hafenmarkt, with its entrance facing Milchstraße. Missing a glossy window front it can appear nearly invisible. The clean and welcoming shop offers dry food, sweets, cleaning detergents, household items, and sustainable body care. All non-packaged items are organic, but since the shop is missing an organic certification it is not allowed to advertise this. Only some pre-bottled regional beverages are not organic. The shop follows a German tradition among organic shops in university cities to offer a 10 percent discount to students on Thursdays.

For fairly produced gifts, fashion and dried food fair-trade world shops always are a good bet. But the Weltladen in Esslingen is even better: At its left-hand site it has a small zero-waste shop-in-shop with gravity bins containing nuts, cereals, pasta, sweets, coffee and more, not all of them certified organic, though. Bring your own jars, boxes or re-use clean paper bags from previous shoppings. As long as covid-19 requires stricter hygiene ask one of the helpful volunteers who are running the shop to fill them for you – and use the time for a chat. The shop also offers a small assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables.

To buy loose weight tea take a stroll over Germany's next to oldest stone bridge, the Innere Brücke ("inner bridge") over the Neckar canals and the Maille park: In a beautiful pavilion integrated into the bridge you'll find Esslingen's branch of the Tee Gschwendtner franchise. If you present your tea box to the shop assistant before you decide on the tea of your choice they are happy to fill customer receptables.

A few steps north of the train station you'll find a branch of the nation-wide operating Alnatura supermarket chain inside the ES shopping mall. It's far from being dedicated zero-waste but offers a basic assortment of preserved food, wine, beer, juices and soft drinks, dairy products and vegetable alternatives in retour glasses or bottles as well as package-free bakery products (provided you sport a bag), fruits and veges.

If you prefer a regional chain of organic supermarkets head for the Naturgut branch inside the old fire warden. Apart from diary products and beverages there's no focus on returnable deposit bottles and glasses, but you may of course buy package-free fruit and greens. For bakery items turn to the right at the entrance: The bakery counter is located inside the attached self-service day cafe, Brot & Cafe.

Although Germany's arguably largest organic bakery chain, Munich-based Hofpfisterei ("bakery with appointment to the (Bavarian) court") traditionally restricts its branches to Bavaria (and the German capital Berlin), there's a Hofpfisterei shop in the pedestrian area of Esslingen's old town, too. As in all Hofpfisterei branches, there's not need to argue with the shop assistants when you present a bag or box to take your breads, rolls and pastries home – they will happily comply.

Outside the city, in Sulzgries, you'll find the organic farmshop of the Eglisenhof farm, a grower of both, veges and grapewine. They also have a (local) delivery service. Unfortunately the vinification of their grapes by a local co-operative does not (yet?) seem to happen according to organic standards, at least I was not able to find any organic local wine and even met strong resistance when I asked for it at local wine specialists.

The farm also has a booth at the farmers' market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. However, you have to rise in time to get there as the market closes already around noon.

Ohne Ebbes, Hirschstraße 2 (no longer Unterer Metzgerbach 7) , Mon–Fri(Sat) 10–18(16)
Weltladen Esslingen, Küferstrasse 12 , Mon–Fri(Sat) 10–18(16)
Tee Gschwendner , Innere Brücke 19, Mon–Fri(Sat) 9:30(9)–18(15)
Naturgut, Adlerstr. 6 (inside Alte Feuerwache), Mon–Fri(Sat) 8–20(18)
Alnatura, Berliner Str. 2 (inside the mall "Das ES"), Mon–Sat 9–20
Hofpfisterei, Pliensaustr. 1, Mon–Fri(Sat) 9(8:30)–18(14:30)
Eglisenhof farm shop, Bergstr. 200, Tue,Fri(Sat) 9–19(13)
Eglisenhof market stall, Marktplatz, Wed,Sat 7–12:30

Stuttgart-Möhringen

Few tourists will ever find their way to the Southern suburb of Möhringen. A settlement dating back to between 1100 and 1300 the place has a history, but is a mixture of urban sprawl, industrial area and lots of obese cars, combined with the remainders of an agricultural past and a village infrastructure with farm houses, workshops and house gardens.

Directly located behind the old station building of Möhringen Filderbahn train station you'll find the main shop of a traditional artisanal bakery and confectioner's, Schrade. The family-run business dates back to 1902, and as many surviving bakeries of old, is organically certified. Most breads and many rolls are organic, made with Bioland-certified grains from the region and home-made sourdough if applicable.Unfortunately neither the pastries nor the artisanal chocolate truffles are made from organic ingredients (yet).

Further south, in the nicer part of Möhringen-West with its still visible village structure you'll find the Reyerhof farm, a biodynamic co-operative and community supported agriculture. Its homely farm shop is open to the public and sells raw milk from the farm which you can tap yourself into your bottle. A pleasant way to buy food and daily necessities, there's also a cafe corner with tables to sit down and relax.

There's a second organic farm shop in Möhringen-Süd: Bauer Klaus shares its shop with the suburb's package-free supermarket, Umverpackt. Unfortunately it is open on Monday and Friday afternoons only.

To complete your shopping there are also two well-assorted organic supermarkets, Naturgut in Möhringen-Mitte, and Erdi in the large housing neighbourhood of Möhringen-Ost.

Bäckerei Schrade, Leinenweberstr. 38, Mon–Fri(Sat) 6–19(13)
Reyerhof, Unteraicher Str. 8, Mon–Fri(Sat) 9–(8)18:30(13)
Umverpackt, c/o Hofladen Bauer Klaus, Lohäckerstr. 18, Mon,Fri 14:30–18:30
Naturgut, Vaihinger Str. 110, Mon–Sat 8–20
Erdi, Widmaierstr. 110, Mon–Fri(Sat) 8–20(16)

Kerala: Eco homestays

The following reviews origin from my last visit to Kerala in 2016 and all updates since have their source in remote contacts.

Near Kochi (Cochin)

South of Kochi, directly situated at the backwaters in the village of Kumbalangi you'll find Gramam Homestay, a quiet, eco-friendly homestay which allows you to escape busy Indian city life. Its sustainably kept coconut garden by the water makes the surroundings for an old, nicely restored spacious farmhouse equipped with two twin beds and fans. The openness of the house allows you to experience all the noises of a tropical night. An outdoor bathroom attached to the cottage provides you with a roofed Western toilet and handwash as well as two showers under open sky. You'll stand on natural stones within some small bushes, and the used water from the shower percolates through the sand beneath the stones. Warm water is heated by the sun on the rooftop.

Breakfast (homemade Kerala food and/or prefab toast/"cereals") is complimentary, and lunch or dinner in the eating room next to the kitchen of the main house where your hosts, Jos and Lyma, live can be arranged on request. Some of the veges used in cooking may be "nadan" (i.e. from home gardens kept the traditional way without use of industrial chemicals), but there is no emphasis on organic food or drinks. Staying in the cottage you however have a kitchen at your disposal. An off season cottage night for two is Rs. 4000 (the two extra beds Rs. 800 each), but if you are on budget there are also two cheaper rooms in the main house.

Jos will happily arrange a tour on a punted boat, a visit to a shrimps farm, or a car with driver for you. For our trip to Abhayaranyam wildlife shelter with its elephant camp and well-kept botanical gardens he arranged an organic breakfast (Rs. 600) at a friendly brahmin family's of teachers who showed us around their traditional house, well and organic garden where we learnt about nutmeg, macis, Indian basil, curry leaves and other spices (as well as some useful Malayalam phrases).

Near Thodupuzha

Far bigger than the aforementioned ones – almost a simple hotel with 11 single and double rooms – is the farmstay of Dewalokam Organic Farm, run by a friendly family of teachers and their staff from neighbouring villages. The farm has been a family estate for about hunded years, and after serving as a rubber plantation for the last generation, todays owners Jose and Sinta have been reconverting it into an almost self-sustaining organic farm following circular principles. While the entrance to the modern, though traditionally built main house is opposed by a spacious park, the land around the houses are now being used as spice, coffee, cocoa, vegetable and fruit gardens interspaced by some fish ponds. Chickens, ducks and turkeys range freely in the Souther-Eastern part of the gardens next to the cow, buffalo and sheep sheds. The cows' mock is collected and fermented in an underground tank producing fertilizer and the gas burnt in the kitchen stoves.

As we were lucky to observe during our stay newborn lambs are kept together with and fed by their mothers. All the cows were born on the farm itself, and none of the animals was deprived of their horns.

The double rooms in the first floor of the main house are simple, but spacious, clean and light, with an adjacent dressing room next to (Western) toilet and shower. There are more rooms in the adjacent older house. A night for two comes at Rs. 10,000 (8,000 off season) including four meals a day and activities like yoga in the morning, walks in the garden and in the vicinity, or cooking demonstrations. The house and the rooms are always adorned with fresh flowers.

The swimming pool is filled by fresh (rain) water, and you can also have a swim in the river. Jose and Sinta will also provide you with well-maintained bicycles for a village tour.

Most ingredients in the home-cooked meals (North and South Indian, with a continental style soup without spices to start lunch and dinner with) come from the farm itself (if you travel with children: The french fries are prefab and not organic). Guests usually are served seafish instead of fish from the ponds as the bones of the latter may be an obstacle, but if you insist you will be served a truly locally sourced fish curry. You may also purchase spices grown on the farm.

A side note: Before you start criticising any of the aforementioned places for burning paper and plastic waste on their land hesitate a minute and think about what you were going to do without communal waste collecting and separating facilities which generally are not available in rural areas.

Confirmed closed as of 2022

Sylviander House, Blue Star Library Road, Chettikad, Pathirapally PO, Alappuzha (Alleppey)

(Temporarily?) closed

Their website was gone, their phone number no longer operating, and they did neither answer e-mails nor Skype messages. Finally I got an automated answer that they were closed due to monsoon repair and would reopen in August. We tried to call again from India mid of August 2016, and still the phone was gone. So some doubts may be raised whether the following eco retreat in Varkala is still operating:

Bohemian Masala, drive in entrance from Thiruvambadi Beach Road near Black Beach, Kurakkanni, Varkala

Mind you, there's a place with a similar name, the "Eco Bohemian Masala" which tries to fool tourists into believing it was the aforementioned eco stay. Don't fall for it – according to Tripadvisor posts it seems to be a place to be avoided. If you happen to actually stay at the real Bohemian Masala, let me know.