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Saturday at the Beuel market is a great day to meet your neighbors, friends and the like for a coffee and do your quality shopping at the same time.

The produce

The market has only 8 stalls covering meat & sausages, flowers, fruit & vegetable (organic & regular) and some street food: a coffee stall and a chicken roaster. A good cheese & milk product stall is missing, then things would be perfect. The traders are more of the jolly kind, helping their customers to make the right choice. Me personally I like a lot the owner of the organic stall who is very willing to share his knowledge as he is a farmer himself. I once had a long conversation over potatoes, as they are one of my favorites. The poultry guy is certainly the most jolly one of the pack. His assistant and him are also selling game meat from the nearby Eifel region. The game bratwurst is truly beautiful with a great aroma.

Community building

As the square where the stalls are located is big enough, it is very easy to see and to be seen. And to bring along baby strollers which makes it very family friendly. The mobile coffee shop is then the communication center on the market day. The stall has newspapers laying out, a good choice of Italian coffee specialties and pastries. There is also hot chocolate for the kids, who also can bike and run around without too much to fear. This relaxed ambiance creates the right opportunity to stay a little longer and chat. Certainly a good chance for community building.

A bit of history

This market is approximately just a couple decades old. The story says the Beuel people did not want to cross the Rhine river to shop at the Bonn city center market. At the time the reputation of that market wasn’t good. Therefore a quality market was on the wish list of the citizens. Even though I believe that the Bonn market is better than it’s reputation, the Beuel market is a great asset for the city. And for the local producers and traders it is also a nice business opportunity. At least the traders do not change that often.

All in all: a good combination of quality produce and a great place to meet your neighbors and friends

A little link list:

• Other markets in Bonn on this site
• Listing of all the stalls at the market

The post Cozy – Beuel market, Bonn / Germany appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

How tiny can a market be to still be called a market?

Well the one at the St. Josef church in Bonn-Beuel has only three stalls. So is it worth a visit? Surprisingly yes, at least for the many regular customers. And yes, then we should call it a market.

What makes it so interesting?

Well there is large fruit & veggie stall with a wide range of products like herbs, fresh garlic, sweet potatoes, Mediterranean produce, wide range of salads and the like – basically everything for the day to day and more sophisticated cuisine. A large selection coming from the wholesale market I suppose.

When I talked to the lady from the game meat, poultry & egg stand, I got a nice introduction into her offering. But first she made an effort to present her game meat for a better photo. Then she told me that her game meat originates from the rural Eifel region. Friends of the stall owner hunt the game and he is preparing it into smoked ham, smoked Bratwurst, which is much lower in fat than the pork based one and with a very distinct character. Yummy.

Asking the stall owner if this small market is, like many markets in Germany is having difficulties to maintain turnover, he vehemently denied such a trend for this little market. He mentioned that there is very diverse clientèle in terms of age and that not only old loyal customers as for many other markets. Furthermore his customers seem to be low maintenance, always ready for a friendly chat and jokes. His expression clearly indicated that they contribute significantly to his quality of life and motivating him to continue his market journey for many years to come.

And the third stall on the market is the Polish one. I did not check it out seriously enough, even though I am curious about the Pierogi being offered, a type of Eastern European ravioli. Next time hopefully.

All in all: The number of stalls is not a barrier for being a market worth making purchases from

A little link list:

• The other markets in Bonn I blogged about: the one in Bad Godesberg (my favorite), the organic one and the busiest one
• A recipe for a type of Pierogi or Varenyky the Ukrainian version from the Food Perestroika blog
• Another tiny market: Castanheiro at the Place de Paris in Luxembourg by akihart (German) … and even tinier the, one in Saarbrücken
• … and here in Rome by marketsofrome.com

The post Tiny – St. Josef market, Bonn-Beuel / Germany appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.