In my blog a wide range farmers’ markets, market halls and the like have been described.

Meat

On my inward journey to the market I made a stop at the butcher Wiskirchen, where there is always a long queue waiting for service. Queues are not my cup of tea but today I decided to stay in line. I asked a couple people ahead of me why they were queuing but did not get a satisfying answer. When it was my turn the butcher explained: “well, we are just working too slow”. The laughs were all around. He is sourcing his meat and sausages from several producers with trustworthy quality he knows since a long time. My eyes caught a whole rabbit, something I always have been interested in but was always to shy to buy. This was my chance and together with a glass of rillettes it got into my bag.

As I was too lazy to find uncomplicated rabbit recipes, I just took the whole animal, fried it a bit on all sides, added a bit of thyme and rosemary and then put it into the oven at 80°C for a three hours, as I like low temperature cooking a lot. After having eaten the rabbit, I will be queuing again: the quality of the meat was really great.

Having the chance to buy a whole rabbit made me realize that nowadays the way meat is being presented and sold (in supermarkets) creates a disconnection to the fact that an animal had to be raised and killed to fill our stomachs. Instead it rather looks like something which could come out of a factory like any other consumer good. I guess this is a good entry point for artificial meat.

Vegetables

I moved on to one of the vegetable & fruit sellers, Mr. Raditzkys stall. His family enterprise sells on several Bonn markets and they have been featured in local newspapers and TV. The produce is sourced from the wholesale market in Cologne. I needed tomatoes and they had only one variety: the “Tasty Tom” ones. The sales lady convinced me that they were honoring their name, so I was willing to pay the premium even though it is was not the right season for great tomatoes.

I needed some salad, and here I have a favorite trader Mr. Henschke who is a producer himself as well and adds from other sources when necessary. I once bought some great Italian radicchio and since then he is the guy. He did not have this original one anymore (wrong season?), still he got me as a customer, and in addition the new harvest potatoes from Cyprus went into my shopping bag. They ended as roasted potatoes next to the rabbit.

Bread

Bread is something I cannot live without. Having lived a great portion of my life in the Würzburg area in Germany, where great bread is being produced, I am quite picky about it. So far in the Bonn area, I have never found the “right” one and I am always on the hunt for it. I had never bough a bread from the organic bakery “Tillmann” at the market, so I had to give it a try. And I found a keeper! Now there is one more reason to make the trip to the Bad Godesberg market.

Cheese

At the market it is very easy for me to stretch my budget to the very limit and to have too much food in the fridge. The choice is just so tempting. With a little discipline I allowed myself one more purchase at the Cilinaria Espania stall, which sells cheeses and antipasti with a Spanish touch. Mr. Linnemann refines cream cheese and other ones to his tasting with different spices, dried tomatoes and other condiments. Those dips are hard to resist. As we know each other a bit, we had our conversation, also about his quest to find a space at the main market in Bonn, where he could also sell some street food, which is not permitted at the current spot. I hope he will be successful, it will be an enrichment. He is a good sales person, very generous in giving samples, alway chatting and recommending new creations. This charm makes you overlook your budget and enjoy the good food side of life. Together with the ciabatta type of bread he sells, it was easy to overcome the time until the rabbit left the oven.

Experience

In an older post I described the market as a relaxed one. I have to add that it is a welcoming one as well, who is able to offer great quality and discoveries. And the traders are certainly a bunch of people to feel comfortable with. Shopping here brought smiles into the kitchen.

A little link list:

• My post on the Bad Godesberg market
• The Bad Godesberg market traders

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The setting

The centre of the Bad Godesberg outdoor market is dominated by a modern style type of fountain where kids are playing around. The parents can easily watch them while having a coffee from the mobile stall or in a café next to the market. Bicycles can be seen all around where there is space, some of them with carts to take children along.

Everything is relaxed, people are meeting and talking with each other. A very picture book type of setting especially when the sun is shining. And the audience is fairly international.

No rush for shopping.

The shopping experience

You get everything when it comes to daily food. There is fresh fish, meat, sausages, game meat, bakery goods, vegetables, fruit, honey, organic food, Spanish delicacies, flowers etc. A large variety indeed. Is there a stall sticking out of the couple dozen or so? Not really, most of them have really friendly vendors who give good advice on their products. Not all the stalls sell own products, but the quest for quality is visible. And only a few stalls provide food ready to eat, like the one which offers fried Spanish snacks.

As it was pumpkin season, there were a lot spread across the market. Some were painted with smileys. A discovery was the new variety “microwave pumpkin” (see picture gallery above). The lady selling them indicated that she just named them like this as they are really good for microwave cooking. Still she prefers them out of the oven.

The Spanish delicacies guy

The owner of the Spanish delicacies stall had enough time for a chat. I knew him from the Bonn main outdoor market. As that market was started being managed by a private company (Marktgilde) instead of the city itself, he preferred to leave it, as he did not like is new location within the market.

For him being at a market gives him more flexibility than having an own shop with fixed opening hours. He has also reduced over time the number of staff and as an end result he has a better work life balance. Something market vendors will probably have hard times to actually find in their lives, as most of them work hard.

He sells a lot of cream cheese type based delicacies nicely mixed with other ingredients, but also Aioli, warm tapas, filled peperoni, wood oven bread and more. He is great at giving generous samples. Maybe this is the reason why even children come and spend their pocket money.

Distinguishing from the supermarkets

The Bad Godesberg market is rather focusing on quality than price. And this is how the vendors are trying to distinguish themselves from supermarkets, which they clearly see as competition.

The lady from one stall explained that she specializes on potatoes and onions only, as she can clearly provide quality through this focus. She has established relationships to some farmers in the area who are able to provide the right products. The stall is already handed by the 3rd generation of owners. Somehow they must have an idea on how to keep their business successful as both products are rather commodities.

Another vendor, purchases his vegetable & fruits on the wholesale market in Cologne at selected dealers (similar to the guy at the Porz market) to ensure quality. This is being done in the 4th generation. He offers a rather very wide choice instead of being specialized as the potato/onion lady. The larger main market in Bonn wants to gain him as a vendor in order to increase the overall quality, but so far he has resisted.

And there is again the Spanish delicacy guy who offers is own unique food selection, since around 10 years on this market. His selection is certainly not be found that easily in supermarkets, therefore attracting a crowd longing for something different.

These are three different strategies of vendors on how to stay successful. The mix of classic, if not traditional products and some innovations like Spanish specialities or “microwave pumpkin” will (hopefully) help to keep the loyal customers and attract new generations.

All in all: The Bad Godesberg market expresses a very relaxed ambiance where people have a coffee, meet friends and shop for good quality products.

A little link list:

• The vendor website managed by the fish monger with the listing of all the vendors: www.unser-wochenmarkt.de
• List of the markets in Bonn (pdf)
• More pictures on my photo site

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