Thursday, 26 September 2024
While thriving during the covid-19 pandemics, package-free supermarkets have been facing hard times thereafter, and in big cities with high rents we've seen a wave of shop closings.
Even the beautiful grocery Wunderbar unverpackt ("Wonderfully devoid of packaging") which opened in May 2018 wasn't able to survive and closed for good in 2023.
To refill dry food supplies from gravity bins pay a visit to the Naturalia grocery at Wöhlerplatz, a traditional crammed organic corner shop which offers a small assortment of dry food (pasta, cereals, nuts, rice and the like) in self-service dispensers. Apart from this eggs, bakery items, fruits, veges and cheese can be taken home in your own jars and bags. In addition the place is also a tea shop – so bring your tea boxes for refill. If you stay in town for a longer period of time consider to collect stamps on the Göttingen Climate Card ("Klima-Karte") here each time you use your own bag or box. When you collect 16 stamps from a number of (not necessarily organic) shops, market boothes and restaurants in town you will be rewarded with a climate-positive goodie bag and earn support for climate projects in town.
The shop-keeper seems to run a small farm herself as she asks for apologies in case she'd appear in the shop past 10 am, to help sheep giving birth.
The second organic grocery to collect Climate Card stamps from is the Bioladen an der Burgstraße, a dedicated anti-fascist neighbourhood grocery next to Cafe Inti. A few years ago this cosy full-retailer replaced a
branch of an organic bakery based in Klein Lengden with shops both there and in Göttingen, delivering to many organic markets in the greater region. The Sunday-open place has the air of a traditional organic corner shop and makes an extra effort to offer products packaged in returnable glasses, among others wine gums. More liquorice and jellies can be bought by the piece, and together with the cheese and bakery counter (which fills about half of the entire location), the racks with fruit and veges and the dairy products and drinks in deposit glasses and bottles my estimate is that more than half of the goods can be bought without disposable packaging. You can fetch a coffee in your own mug or a deposit cup.
The shop also has an innovative approach to keep away wasps from ripe fruits: small trays filled with over-ripe fruit juice on a window sill a little apart from the entrance attract the insects which are occupied there as long as you don't disturb them.
The second and much larger organic supermarket in the inner city belongs to the
Alnatura chain. Although it doesn't have an explicit focus on zero waste the staff at the bakery cum cheese counter is happy when you come with your own boxes and bags, and there's a good selection of products in deposit glasses and bottles. There are no cafe tables and chairs, but you can take out coffee drinks and tea (in deposit mugs) and choose from a great selection of sandwiches. Even in the evening hours you will usually still find a sandwich.
Geismar and Diemarden
The Gemüseladen in the Western suburb of Geismar, near the church of St. Martin, is not participating in the Klima-Karte scheme. However, this organic greengrocery is offering an abundance of regional produce which you can take home in your own bags.
On the other side of the street you'll find
Le Bol, a bio-dynamic organic French-German artisanal sourdough bakery – according to locals making the best bread in town. Needless to say that you can come with your own bag and that the bread keeps fresh much longer than ordinary fare. Given that the baker has to rise early so you can have fresh bread in the morning, opening hours are restricted to the morning ihours except on Thursdays.
If you are on a bike tour or stay in town a little longer consider a visit to the
Naturmilchhof Gartetal organic dairy farm. To get their continue from Geismar to the village of Diemarden about four to five kilometres away. Buying fresh milk, oat drink, yogurt, kefir or cheeses from the farm's own dairy is unfortunately somewhat inconvenient as you must register at the farm's web shop to use their self-service farmshop guarded by surveillance cameras. Then you would use the computer inside the shop to register your purchase, and your debt will be detracted from your bank account. I haven't checked whether this works with any European bank account. All liquid and semi-liquid products come in returnable plastic bottles and jars with a deposit. The shop is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Non-food
Household items supporting a package-free lifestyle can be found at the factory outlet of the eco postal order shop Waschbär near Geismartor. Here you may also refill cleaning agents, liquid soap and detergents to get a stamp on your Climate Card. Unfortunately the shop is going to close for good by the end of October, 2024.
Tea
In the 1990ies owner-driven tea shops offering a great selection of loose-weight teas, herbal and fruit blends were quite a thing, and fortunately they have been surviving in Göttingen so far. With the years, their assortment of organic teas has increased, and I haven't found one who refused to fill my tea boxes (even though you may ask for it verbosely).
The
Teehaus Kluntje isn't just a nice shop for teas and everything you need for tea ceremonies or small recreational everyday tea breaks, it also serves you a good cup of tea. However, it's a bit too focused on being a gift shop if you prefer tea shops with a reduced atmosphere.
Personally I prefer the wooden interior
of Teehaus Schmidt
which nicely brings out the timber frames of the old house. Here the focus is clearly on tea and spices. An interesting fact: The place was a students' start-up in the 1970ies.
In a city with as many tea lovers you won't be surprised to find a branch of the
Tee Gschwendner franchise. Just like other franchises of this brand they sell more conventional than organic teas, but the shop assistants will show the right types when you ask for "bee-o" (bio) teas and place your tea box on the till.
Fortunately Göttingen still has many cosy carefully curated owner-driven shops. When I tried to visit the traditional confectioners' shop cum delicatessen
Alfred Ewert on recommendation by locals it was too late to find it open, and the products on display in the shop's windows weren't organic. So I decided not to list it here. However, pink@norden.social recommended it as a veritable loose tea shop, so I suggest that you pay a visit and check for organic labels and the "bio" keyword.
Closed
2024-09-26 13:30:00
[Goettingen, Geismar, organic, vegetarian, zero_waste, unverpackt, grocery, supermarkets, bodycare, household, tea, bakeries, sunday_open, farms]
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Monday, 23 September 2024
Both touristically attractive historic towns have direct hourly local train connections with each other and to Göttingen. You can also
continue your bike tour along the
Werratal bike route from Eschwege via the spa town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf to Hannoversch Münden (partially on the iron curtain corridor), and from there on to Göttingen.
Eschwege
Although Eschwege provides medical and cultural facilities for many smaller (and in the past often more important) small towns around and moreover is one of the few (West-)German towns where people transport by railway was discontinued in the 1980-ies and re-opened (with a new railway station) by the end of 2009, I couldn't find any cafe, restaurant or eatery serving at least a few organic items.
Even the organic convenience store
Biotop
on the premises of the former mutual savings bank ("Sparkasse")
does not have a cafe corner. But you can order a roll with cheese of your choice to take with you from their bakery and cheese bar. The friendly and well-assorted shop with its archetypal wooden interior offers all you need of organic food and household necessities, and, as delivery service "The rolling organic shop" ("Der rollende Bioladen") also serves the neighbouring municipality of Bad Sooden-Allendorf.
If you cannot find all you want here, the town's
Reformhaus (health food shop) and the Tegut supermarket offer a good selection of organic products alongside with their conventional fare.
For organic eggs you may also take a bike tour to the "Regiomat" vending machine of the nearby organic
Werragut farm. There you can also order and collect bread and rolls from the farm's bakery; their
hens are butchered and sold by Frischgeflügel Roth in Witzenhausen.
Bad Sooden
The medieval spa twin-town with its beautiful half-timbered houses does no longer have an organic corner store, but it sports a Sunday-open shop selling herbal teas, organic skincare, natural perfumes and incense, books on wellbeing, a selection of fairly traded sweets and more:
Eden – gesund & mehr in Sooden.
For organic food on the Sooden side of the Werra river (including unpackaged organic bread and rolls) head to the (conventional) Tegut supermarket in the Sooden industrial area (more or less a lifeless parking lot). A branch of the drugstore chain DM a five minutes walk from the train station is offering a huge range of pre-packaged organic dry food and preserves as well as certified natural bodycare.
Spa guests and patients of the various rehab clinics in the medieval salter town are the main target audience of
Café Feldmann, the spa town's grand cafe and confectioners' shop by the spa gardens (Kurpark).
The cafe used to be a customer of the no longer existing organic Bäckerei Schill, but the breakfast rolls you get when staying overnight in the attached bike-friendly bed & breakfast place or have breakfast at the cafe are no longer organic in 2024. The milk used for coffee drinks and tea are organic, and eggs served for breakfast or lunch, too. The waitress had to find out herself when I inquired, so there's still a chance that more organic ingredients are (occasionally) being used in the kitchen, but I can't tell.
Allendorf
On the other side of the train line and the Werra river, in the older town of Allendorf (in the medievals Sooden was the "industrial area" while everyone, from the salters to the owners of the salt pans lived in Allendorf) you'll find a fully organic wine shop cum cafe, the
Laden 41. In addition to the
wine, you'll find honey, greek olive oil and preserves, local cheese, and bread and rolls from the Werragut farm. The latter you have to order upfront, but since the shop keeper always orders a little more you may buy a bread spontaneously.
Unfortunately it's open only three half days of the week. Whether you are interested in having an organic coffee, beer, lemonade or a glass of wine, or are in the mood for a chat with locals, mark them in your calendar.
Thursday in general is the weekday when many smaller shops in the region open for the first time, and so does
Café Clown, a cosy small cafe directly located at the Werratal bicycle route, with a beautiful view at a branch of the Werra river with the picturesque "Tiny Venice" ("Klein-Venedig") neighbourhood (in the past the houses of the local fishermen). Here you can have comforting home-made cake (including the filling Westphalian Pickert, a sweet potato cake), coffee, and frozen yoghurt
often made from regional, sometimes organic ingredients. Tea, milk and eple juice are generally organic, and if not asked specify that you want the organic variety of sugar beet syrup on your Pickert.
The cafe's name derives from the owner's charity work as a clowndoctor. Her partner is an architect and urban planner who has been planning and conducting social house and neighbourhood building projects with natural materials for decades. The two also offer accommodation in their adjacent tiny house, carefully restored with natural materials and equipped with a rain shower. Ring them for booking even though you find the place on AirBnB.
How can a bookstore survive in a once important medieval smalltown? The
Buchhandlung Frühauf in Allendorf has found a way by offering more than books and stationery: The bookseller added regional products to his assortment, both, books with a regional context, and a shelf with drinks and preserves from the region (some of them organic) and a few organic wines to go with your book. Until autumn 2023 they also sold organic bread and rolls by the organic bakery Bäckerei Schill until the baker retired without finding a successor to take over the workshop.
Oberrieden
However, there's still an organic bread bakery in Bad Sooden-Allenberg: The organically certified community-supported agricultural (CSA) collective
Höhberg-Kollektiv in the village of Oberrieden (which is a part of the municipality) runs both, a dairy and a bakery in addition to a market garden and a school farm. First of all they distribute their products to their subscribers, but from Monday afternoon to Wednesday evening you can buy excess produce by leaving cash in an honesty box. How frequent you can find bread or dairy products there I cannot say.
Dietzenrode
The vicinity to the Witzenhausen department of Ecological Agricultural Sciences certainly plays a role in the comparably high density of CSAs and organic market gardens in the region. Just across the border between Hesse and Thuringia, the
Gemüseinsel ("vegetable island") in Dietzenrode is the one closest to Allendorf, about half an hour by bicycle. This CSA market garden has a booth cum fridge where you can buy freshly harvested vegetables 24x7 without being a member. You pay by putting your money in an honesty box, so come with sufficient cash.
The Gemüseinsel is located on grounds formerly used by the
Inselhof, a more than 30 years old organic farm, established by Witzenhausen graduates after the reunification of Germany.
The farmers couple is gradually about to retire: They gave up mixed farming recently, but are continuing with a vegetable garden and fruit
orchards. The latter provide ingredients for the farm's distillery. You can order their special small-scale spirits on-line or buy them from the farm shop which in summer 2024 still offered frozen and preserved meat and sausages from the last flock of animals, vegetables from the garden and apple juice from the orchard, cheeses from farmer friends and a small selection of organic bodycare.
Their products are all organic, but no longer certified.
Closed or no longer organic
When the artisanal baker Schill closed his workshop in October 2023 the region lost its only organic baker. He also delivered to Café Himmelspforte, the parish café of Allendorf's Lutherian St. Crucis church, with its beautiful outdoor seating next to the "bible garden" with a display of plants mentioned in the bible. Nowadays the only organic item the café offers is one type of organic tea bags.
2024-09-23 13:00:01
[Eschwege, Bad_Sooden, Allendorf, Dietzenrode, Werratalradweg, organic, coffee, lunch, cafe, supermarkets, grocery, accommodation, sunday_open, Regiomat]
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Thursday, 20 July 2023
Bavarian opening hour regulations are far from liberal, hence your shopping options on Sundays and after 8 pm are limited to, uhmmm, petrol stations, more or less. Not the kind of place you'll expect to find organic food, toiletries or other necessities in eco-conscious quality.
But the times, they are changing, and for the organic Munich traveller or inhabitant, there's no reason to despair anymore. Your best bet are railway stations, namely Hauptbahnhof (main station) and Ostbahnhof.
At the Hauptbahnhof enter the basement from Elisenhof in Western direction, following the S-Bahn signs (if you come from the trains head straight ahead to the Eastern exit to enter the basement). Opposite the entry to S-Bahn (urban trains) you'll find Biokultur, a full-fledged organic supermarket. It's your only choice for fresh organic fruit and veges on Sundays and offers everything you'll expect from a full retailer (including wine, household cleaning items, toiletries, ...) as well as a pleasant shopping atmosphere. Before the covid-19 pandemics, this organic supermarket kept open after 8 pm, but shortage of staff applies here as well, so in 2023 the shop still keeps open on Sundays, but without extended opening hours.
There's a second branch in the neighbourhood of Riem, without a permit to keep open on Sundays.
Next to the Biokultur at Hauptbahnhof you'll find a branch of the local organic Hofpfisterei bakery chain, the only one open on Sundays. As all of their branches it also stocks a small range of organic drinks, dry and dairy products as well as organic cold cuts. On weekdays they offer a selection of yummy organic sandwiches to take with you,
both, vegetarian and omnivore, most of them with gorgeous German sourdough bread – perfect provisions for train travellers. On weekends only buttered prezls ("Butterbrezn") are available for take out.
Unfortunately the Hofpfisterei branch at Ostbahnhof train station does no longer keep open on Sunday mornings, but a five minutes brisk walk from the station you'll find one of those family-owned bakeries that are becoming so rare these days. Leave the station at Orleansplatz exit, cross the square and follow the tram tracks along Wörthstraße. At the end of Bordeauxplatz square, corner Metzstraße, you'll find Cafe Reichshof run by the Neulinger family, a lovely coffeehouse cum pastry shop. Treat yourself with their delicious organic cakes, icecream or a savory organic snack like the traditional Bavarian Weißwurst (sausage) breakfast. If you don't feel intrigued to stay shop from a huge range of organic bread, rolls, and cakes. You can also buy a small selection of prepackaged cheese and meat cuts, butter, milk and jams from the fridge opposite the coffee machine.
Starting in 2022, the other Neulinger branches in Neuhausen, the meat-packing district of Ludwigsvorstadt and the wholesale market area in Sendling have been keeping open on Sundays and public holidays, too, though some only for breakfast.
Everything you need for a sumptious breakfast or cold snack (except fresh fruit and veges) can be bought from Fritz Mühlenbäckerei near Rosenheimer Platz. Between 1987 and 2010 this cosy artisanal baker's shop was the headquarter of one of Munich's eldest organic bakeries. Now the scent of warm bread fresh from the oven is gone – all the production takes place in modern facilities in the outskirts of Aying. The shop however is still here and open on Sunday mornings, including a small grocery section equipped with a large fridge.
About ten years after the Fritz bakery moved their bakery from the Haidhausen backyard to Aying the bakers came back to town with a bread bakery in Glockenbachviertel. The former cafe re-opened in June 2020 – buy your daily artisanal bread and watch the bakers at work.
If you happen to be in Grünwald on a Sunday morning (or another day of the week during working hours) make sure to buy the best German sourdough bread in the entire Munich area from Lokalbäckerei Brotzeit. Their bread workshop is located on the premises of the Alter Wirt hotel, with a separate entrance and a small lunch cum cafe counter where you can choose a roll and from a range of all organic spreads, coldmeat, cheeses and more to get your customised sandwich.
Back at Ostbahnhof trainstation, directly at the southern exit of the U-Bahn station into the Ostbahnhof building you'll find the place that will save your life after 8pm: This branch of the DM-Drogeriemarkt chain does not only stock the usual excellent range of natural bodycare, organic dry products, vegan alternatives and eco-friendly household helpers, but boosts a capable selection of dairy products, eggs and even a freezer stocked with organic pizza, berries, icecream, ... Unfortunately – and unlike other DM branches – organic choices and certified natural cosmetics aren't clearly marked on the shelves, so watch out for organic and natural cosmetics labels, and brands.
Vending machines
A few steps from the urban train stop Johanneskirchen, directly located at the bus stop "Johanneskirchen Bhf" there's an 24x7 open vending machine selling Bavarian produce: Not everything from the so-called Regiomat is organic, but you can buy organic eggs, UHT milk, cheese, chocolate pudding, cream and ready-made tomato sauce.
By the summer 2020 the concept of vending machines for products of smaller local farms finally had made it into Munich town, too: The Erntebox vending machines offer eggs and chicken meat, sausages, cheese, pasta and fruit jam, not everything organic, but most likely from farmers around Munich with a focus on sustainability. There's one at the Grünspitz in Giesing, a hotspot for urban agricultural and greening projects, and another at busy Berg-am-Laim-Straße in the Eastern neighbourhood of Baumkirchen. To find the latter isn't easy: Follow the shop windows of the (conventional) Aumüller bakery in in city (Western) direction and stop when the house turns at an angle. Unfortunately the number of certified organic products has been decreasing here: When I re-checked in summer 2023, the organic sausages were gone, but there's again a good selection of organic cheeses.
2023-07-20 22:00:01
[Munich, Gruenwald, Johanneskirchen, Haidhausen, Sendling, organic, coffee, gifts, snacks, lunch, breakfast, bakeries, grocery, supermarkets, trainstation, Regiomat, covid, corona, sunday_open]
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Thursday, 25 August 2022
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.
2022-08-25 12:00:02
[Bremen, Blockland, organic, supermarkets, grocery, bodycare, trainstation, farms, Regiomat, sunday_open]
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