Tim Engelbrecht and his brother have founded Cookit 5 years ago and have stalls at three farmers’ markets: Cologne, Troisdorf and in Bonn where it all started. Their motto: one recipe, all ingredients, one bag.

We meet early Saturday morning before the crowds arrive. Tim had a short night as he had to work a bit longer than usual to prepare the Saturday sales. I am a bit nervous, as I conduct my first interview ever, but I know Tim and he is a fun guy, making it easy to me.

Interview

Askan: Hi Tim
Tim: Hi Askan

Askan: How long have you been at the Bonn market and what did you do beforehand?
Tim: We are now for almost 5 years at the market, we started with the asparagus season 2013. I went directly from university to the market.

Askan: You went directly from university to the market?
Tim: Already during my studies I worked on the Cookit concept. We opened the stall and then I finished my bachelor thesis. Somehow it just happened.

Askan: How would you describe your stall and what is being offered?
Tim: This is easy to explain: we always have six recipes to try. The customer chooses the recipe and gets a bag with all ingredients in the right amount needed. One can try it without having to buy extra ingredients or producing food waste. The underlying idea is to cook with regional ingredients.

Askan: Which recipes are the most popular with customers and which ones do you prefer?
Tim: Myself, I prefer hearty food, autumn & winter cooking is really mine, I love cabbage, cheese, everything which has a lot of power. With customers it depends on the weekday. During the week they prefer a light and quick cuisine, whereas at the weekend there is a tendency to cook more elaborate recipes.
Askan: So, the Sunday roast is still alive?
Tim: Yes indeed, meat based recipes sell more at the weekend.

Askan: When do you have to get up in the morning and how many hours do you make per week in average?
Tim: In average? Hmm … Let’s say it this way: we are lucky when we work less than 80 hours. The Bonn farmers’ market is unlike other markets open all day long. Everything you have to do besides selling, like filling up the cart, set it up and clean it you do outside the opening hours. I get up between five and six o’clock.

Askan: In all my conversations at various markets across Europe I got to know that it is very difficult to find successors for market stalls, due to the long and hard working hours.
Tim: Yes this is the case. We have the luxury that we start at the markets on Wednesday, we use the time until then to develop recipes.

Askan: What is fun in your work and what is not fun?
Tim: Hard to tell, this depends how the week is evolving. It is great to develop new recipes, to photograph and sell them afterwards. And what we all love is sales, on Saturdays, when the crowds come, the buzz never stops, and we have stress for 8 hours in a row, this is when we have fun. You realize that all your efforts work out and there is a real flow, this is fun. Less fun is of course when after 14 hours you have to clean up everything. Or the anti-day: you have prepared everything for the day and the local radio station announces a severe weather warning! You know instantly that in the evening you go back home with half of your prepared stuff.

Askan: How would you describe the Bonn farmers’ market?
Tim: I think it is a classic market, centrally located, full of buzz, a nice market. Meanwhile we have a nice diversity of choices. I also like that the market is managing the stretch between street food and classic offering. Here in the heart of the city, it is easy to get a good lunch at the market, and then buy some produce. It is a market I really love.

Askan:  What should be improved or changed?
Tim: Well, … I don’t know. The market as it is now is around since a while. One may appreciate this one way or the other. I like changes a lot, especially visible ones. This creates incentives for people who walk by every day to join their work places. I like the fact that there is now more street food available. I would appreciate some additional delicacies, as something new is very interesting for customers – and for us as well (laughing).

Askan: Who are your customers?
Tim: Regulars, absolutely. We have customers who purchase from us since 5 years, and they have not left out any single recipe. We have customers, whom we are handing over our recipe cards they have missed during their vacation. The majority of the customers come at least once a week. We are not the kind of stall, where you walk by and say: great lets try it. Most people come by several times, and when the moment is right for them, they buy.

Askan: Bonn is an international city (e.g. United Nations etc.), do you have many international customers?
Tim: Rarely. There some international students who practice their German with our recipe cards. Generally our concept focuses on the local, regional cuisine. This has to fit your own taste and cooking scheme, which varies depending where you are coming from. But we speak English, whereas my French I learned at school is rather limited (laughs).

Askan: Thanks for the interview Tim.
Tim: Pleasure, it was fun!

Link list & map

• The cookit website
• My post on cookit on this blog
• The interview in German
• The other stalls at the Bonn market

The post Sometimes hearty, sometimes quick – Interview with Tim from Cookit at the Bonn Farmers’ Market appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

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

The post Discoveries – Shopping at the farmers’ market appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Scroll down to the end for the map

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.

The motivation

One thing is clear: farmers’ markets are not only a hobby, but a passion to me. I Iove to encourage people to visit markets. Markets have so much to offer: a large variety of produce, learning from the traders a lot about the produce and what to do with them, the buzz making it easy to have conversations with friends and strangers alike and a great place to have a coffee or a snack with some friends and enjoy the day. In short: markets are places where joy of life becomes real.

Talking to friends, colleagues and traders I discovered that there is a need to show rediscover the beauty of markets. This is how I started this blog, which covers markets I visited across several continents.

The starting point

Then came along Sascha Foerster from Bonn.digital, the company Johannes Mirus and him are running. Bonn.digital is doing social media consulting, community management and digital events. Sascha and I got to know each other through various social media and decided to meet over a coffee and chat a bit. Well the chat went well, and Sascha bought forward his idea with a charming smile: “Why shouldn’t we set up together a site, where Bonn people and visitors alike can discover the goodness of the Bonn markets?” He caught me a little off guard, even though the idea seemed very logical: if I wanted to make people go more often to the markets in Bonn, I had to do something about it.

One night of sleep and the deal was done. Sascha set up the infrastructure aka. website and I started to key in the first traders with their offering, contacts and trading hours on the market. I tried to contact some market managers to get the information on the stall a bit faster, but apparently without enough persistence. So I had to visit all 11 markets of the city, some of them for the first time, a pleasant discovery for me as well. To my delight this lead to many conversations with traders and also the discovery of many good food products.

Collecting the content

Contacting in person every stall is a cumbersome way of collecting all the data, especially since this task has to be done next to the “real” job in the free time. And not all traders choose to be on the market on days convenient for casual collection of details. But we are getting there. The good thing is not to work alone, Sascha always comes up with good ideas, improvements on the site, which keeps me going.

The whole job made me become critical of all my pictures I took of the stalls and their offerings. A good starting point to get more serious about photography. As such building up the site becomes a great learning experience.

Another good side of all these efforts is that I get to know the producers and traders individually. As I better ask them if they want to be published in our directory, there is always a chat beyond this topic, I get much deeper insights on how markets work. Great. So far we have more than 70 stalls with photos, contact etc. Probably there are 20 or so to go.

So what is it about?

Well, first and foremost a directory of all stalls at the 11 markets in the city of Bonn to help finding the right produce at the right time at the right location. So for each stall there is information :

• location incl. map
• trading hours
• contacts incl. web and social media presence
• some photos, a few from the traders themselves
• possibility to comment on individual stalls

And now?

Setting up and optimizing Bonn.market is one thing. Promoting it the other. So far Twitter has worked, but this is not enough. Let’s see what consumers and traders think about the site and improve it continuously. To make it easier for expatriates living in Bonn, there is already a possibility to get it translated on the fly via Google translate (check at the bottom of the page).

We are just at the beginning to get people more excited about farmers’ markets. A goal worth being persistent. let’s try to make it happen. I am very curious about the journey and about the ideas and activities coming along.

A little link list:

• The site we are talking about: Bonn.market
• The guys supporting and sponsoring it: Bonn.digital
• Sascha Foerster the guy who ignited it is on Twitter, Facebook and here as well
• The map we incorporated is from wo-ist-markt.de (where is market day) based on growing open data from German municipalities
• My posts on markets in Bonn
• A post which describes my passion for markets on Marjorie R. Williams blog

The post Helping people discover the markets in Bonn appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Scroll to the end for the map

The market

Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, has 11 markets distributed across the city. The one in the district of Duisdorf is located in the pedestrian zone on a square just in front of a larger supermarket. The surroundings are pleasant, no car is disturbing the peaceful ambiance and people are staying in groups for a chat. The tall trees around and a donkey statue give it almost the feeling of an Italian piazza.

With it’s 6 stalls the market is rather small, but covers most of the daily needs, except diary products. Fruits & vegetables, bread & cake, fish, eggs & jelly, meat & sausages from Silesia/Poland and flowers. That’s about it. It made it easy for me to do some shopping and chat with a few traders.

The traders & their offering

Mr. Mallon is in the fruits & vegetable business since the 70s, since 1988 on the Duisdorf market and you can truly experience his knowledge. His produce are nicely selected, very appetizing without an “industrial” look. I saw some grapes and got the recommendation to take the ones from Sicily with seeds as they taste better than the seedless ones. Perfect recommendation, the grapes had an aroma I hadn’t experienced in a long time. And I tried rapini as well which is not so widely known, still have to find a good recipe for it.

The bread stall is owned by Mrs. Felber who is producing in her family bakery about 30 km away. She is also catering for a market in Cologne and her own shop as well. This was probably the most crowded stall, and when I came the shelves were almost empty. I should get up earlier. Nevertheless the rye bread with walnut was eaten up at home quite quickly.

Mr. Weber, on the market since 35 years, is selling eggs, egg liqueur and his wifes’ jelly. In earlier years he sold meat as well, but his hands cannot deal anymore with the cold so he had to give it up. He is retired but still enjoys to be a trader at the market and wants to continue until the end. His wifes’ raspberry jelly was really nice and definitely much better than the ones from the supermarket.

The type of meat and sausages from the Bonn area are often lacking the spices I am used to from Franconia region of Germany where I spend important years of my life, not only from the culinary perspective. Mr. Opaszowski shared this opinion and this was the reason why selling products form Silesia in Poland with its own cuisine is still a business to be in. He is on the market since more than 20 years. And there are still a lot of Germany with roots in Silesia and Polish living in the area. I bought some smoked Mettwurst and frozen Pierogi, Polish dumplings. Still have to test them.

I did not want to buy neither fish nor flowers, but covering two thirds of the stalls is not bad either.

Decline & its reasons

The market, despite being pleasant, is in decline. The good times are over as the traders told me.

The reasons are the same as many of the traders across Germany tell me: women do not stay at home anymore, but pursue a professional career thus having less time for cooking. And the young generation prefers quick (ready made) meals instead of “real” cooking. I do not think that this is a sufficient reason, especially since some are still thriving and even attracting culinary tourists. But the decline is also observed in other countries. According to a report by Mission for Markets in the UK there is a decrease in footfall but revenues have increased in 2016. In the US farmers’ markets are still on the rise.

One trader told me that even evening operating hours did not lead to success as he could observe in one case. This surprised me, I would have expected a positive outcome. Apparently there is no easy recipe for a market success.  I hope one of these days to have a collection of success stories.

And I think that the Duisdorf market improves the quality of life in its district, it still have pleasant memories of it.

All in all: a small neighborhood market with an interesting offering in a pleasant surrounding

A little link list:

• A map of all Bonn markets with hours of operation
• The other Bonn markets on my blog
• The market with vendors and more details

The post Slow decline – Duisdorf market, Bonn / Germany appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Theme markets in Bonn

Every few weeks there is a theme market at the Bonn main market. Basically it is either a French or an Italian one. In both cases the vendors celebrate foods & produces or their original countries. And for the first time I took a closer look to the Italian one.

The offering

The dozen or so stalls are lined up in two rows back to back. Each one is representing a different region of Italy like Tuscany, Lombardy, Sicily etc. thus giving broad insights into the regional delicacies.

Still the main offering is about cheeses, hams and salamis, all in large varieties and quantities. Salami with fennel, wine, truffles, or from wild boar; cheeses from cow or sheep milk including the famous ones as Parmesan cheese but also great mountain cheeses, all of those were present.

I also had the opportunity to discover some new produce like the nicely spiced wild boar fillet jerky called Coppiette (see picture gallery) or a gorgeously smooth but distinct mountain cheese from Tuscany – a surprise to me, as I only think of hills in Tuscany, not mountains.

To be fair the variety went far beyond ham, salami & cheese, but I needed to look a bit closer. Yes, there was plenty of olives to buy and obviously olive oil. Sicily showed it’s marzipan style sweets but also many other ones I am still not familiar with (check the pics). Bread was available and I was told that it was even baked in Italy – nevertheless still looking fresh after the transport. At home the quality did not convince me, especially considering the price.

One stall offered Italian street food and of course I could not resist to buy myself a little lunch. The Bruschetta was simple and delicious, no idea where the tomatoes came from, they had real taste, something I am not used to anymore. Besides the bruschetta, antipasti samples cooked at site, sandwiches and Foccacia were available, all looking delicious.

This theme market offered a very nice round trip through regional Italian products, sampling was generous.Prices were rather on the higher end, I cannot judge if always justified.

How does the theme market work?

As this Italian theme market moves in a weekly rhythm from city to city like a traveling circus, I got curious on how the whole thing works.

It seems to be fairly simple. There is a company called Athena International owned apparently by an Italian and a German which manages the whole tour. This means finding the locations in German cities (in 2015 28 cities), providing the infrastructure for the stalls, e.g. permissions, tents, banners, and acquiring Italian traders who manage their own stall and profits. The company is always looking for new vendors.

The Italian traders themselves need to be able to source their own high quality produce from the various regions. German language knowledge is not really a prerequisite, but all vendors know how to offer samples, explain some basics on their offering and closing the deal. Somehow it is comforting that the vendors are “real Italians”, it certainly improves the credibility of the market.

Hard life

For the traders life is not easy. Changing location every week, not being able to settle and put down roots is strenuous. As the caravan moves for months within Germany, the – mostly male – traders are separated from their families at home. Doing this for years in a row, partly due to lack of job alternatives in Italy, is a true burden. So I hope they make a decent profit to get off the circuit after a while. I am grateful to their service as it gives me the possibility to dig deeper into Italian food lifestyle.

All in all: This traveling theme market “circus” is a nice way for a focused discovery of regional Italian delicacies.

A little link list:

• The organizers of the traveling Italian theme market Athena International
• A short video on the Italian theme market

The post Traveling circus – Italian theme 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.

Cookit, a new kind of market offer

Yes innovation is possible at a food market!

It is not only about new products, presentation, street food, opening hours and the like. This time it is about convenience by helping the customer to make the best out of regional products.

How does it work?

A couple years or so ago two brothers and a friend have created something new: instead of selling produce individually they sell those necessary for one serving of a proposed recipe only. They called their enterprise “Cookit” and opened a stall at the Bonn market.

How does it work? Let’s take a current recipe: a summer cherry tomato risotto with feta cheese & arugula. All the necessary ingredients including a little wine, vegetable stock, spices etc. are packed together on the spot in the right amount per serving. And the servings are generous! As the owners said: we have to be satisfied otherwise it is not enough. Looking at them gives the impression that they have a rather good appetite. At least bigger than mine.

As the stall has always a wide enough selection of recipes including vegetarian ones – haven’t seen vegan yet – the likelihood to find something appealing is high. With each purchase comes the respective colourful and straight forward recipe card with all the instructions (see photo gallery). The recipes can be performed by almost everybody and they do not take much time. Still there is always a twist in the ingredients which makes them just superior to many other food experiences.

I had the chance to purchase several times from them and I have to say that I was happy with all the purchases. The quality of the products was really good and you can taste it.

Where do the products come from?

The products are mainly regional and the suppliers are listed at the stall. They are seasonal by default. This creates restrictions on the recipes but ensures great taste. I have no clue how the logistics of having the right stuff in time for any given recipe is being managed, but it seems to work. Along the seasons the recipes change and are being published on their website, Facebook and of course on their stall.

Who is buying?

At first the owners thought that they would mainly attract a young crowd. But the mix is diverse and reaches everybody from student to retiree. Some of the retiree do not want to make big purchases and may have, due to the size of the portions, a meal for two days which they appreciate.

Facebook and the website are important to the Cookit team as they are able to announce new recipes as an incentive to their customers to come back to the market. And this way they get immediate feedback to their recipes.

And the price?

The servings are priced around 5 to 7 Euros ore more. There is certainly cheaper ways to create a meal, probably not so easily with the same quality or with less time consuming grocery shopping. And the pantry stays empty as there will be no remainders.

For me buying there means a sure winner meal at home, so far. And I do not have to plan ahead for tasty and healthy food which is a big relief to me.

All in all: a very professionally executed innovation at the Bonn market which makes sure that customers are able to have a fresh and satisfying meal on the table without wasting anything

A little link list:

• Cookit Facebook presence
• Cookit website
• My post on the Bonn market

The post Innovation at the market: Cookit, Bonn / Germany appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

This market does not have a good reputation but is still successful – for some vendors.

Location

This outdoor market is right in the city centre of Bonn – former capital of Germany and city of Ludwig van Beethoven. This is the main shopping area, thousands and thousands of people are walking by everyday.

Those who make the money – they are at the right location

Some fruit and vegetable vendors benefit heavily from the many shoppers. How so? Well, they are located along the pedestrian “highway” which is the sort of North to South trajectory across the city centre. Nobody can escape these vendors calling out their produce and prices like on an oriental bazaar. The constant flow of pedestrians allows them not to rely on the loyalty of customers. Instead they focus on deals and focus on produce in high demand: it is now the season of asparagus (white & green) and strawberries. With these dominant colours the stalls look like flags.

This section of the market is the one which contributes to it’s bad reputation. Often you will hear complaints that when unpacking the merchandise at home, there will be a couple of “bad apples” in the bag. There are many stories about its origins. Some say it was mainly one stall owner responsible for the situation, who had even to give back his license, some say it is still valid. I would not wonder if the focus on price is the main reason. As a result the vendors who mainly get their merchandise at the wholesale market in nearby Cologne, cannot afford to buy the best quality. So bargain rules and finds its demand.

Some time ago a vendor at the “highway” started to prepare bags with mixed fruit, e.g. a pineapple, a few oranges, kiwis etc. and to sell them for 4€ each. Very practical when you are in a hurry and have to save money. Therefore quite a lot of his customers are students who then purchase their weekly stock in one go. He does this mainly in off-peak times when he has some time to prepare the bags. I think it is a nice marketing idea and service, it reminds me of farmers who deliver produce boxes to subscribers’ doorsteps.

The street food stalls

Some food carts benefit from the same location as well. Amongst them is the obligatory and popular bratwurst and currywurst one. Some years ago the vendors changed as the licenses were renewed. I have my doubts on how the process was managed, for sure it did not improve the quality of the offering. Still it is hard to resist a brat.

A bit uncommon is the wine stall, where you can share a glass or two. Potato pan cakes, fruit juices, stews are available for a quick lunch. Employees of the nearby offices and shops take advantage of it. So no worries to leave the spot hungry.

So where is the quality?

Some stall are worth being visited regularly. They are not so easy to discover and they do not present themselves as something special – I will come to the exception a bit later.

Two stalls focus on products from specific culinary regions: the Swabian and the Alpine one. Unfortunately both are not everyday on the market. The Swabian cuisine of Germany’s South West is a hearty one, capable of doing nice stuff out of poor peoples’ produce as the region once was. The “Maultaschen” – similar to ravioli – are certainly one of the better known products as well as Spätzle.

From the Alpine region, in this case Vorarlberg (Austria) and South-Tirol (Italy), another vendor offers a large variety of smoked hams, sausages and mountain cheeses as wells as bread. Basically everything which can be stored for a week or more. I am a particular fan of the vendor’s butter, very smooth and refined in taste. All the products are being sourced from traders with direct links to small producers, who are capable of ensuring a high product quality. The philosophy of the vendor is that only small producers can ascertain this culinary level.

A stall with vinegars, oils and spirits displays his merchandise very nicely: little bottles marked with handwriting, larger glass containers with oil to fill smaller ones. Only own branding, everything looks handmade and cute. First I thought it could be a franchise as the stall label looked professional, but the owner sources his merchandise from different small producers of the larger region, some of them quite experimental and interesting. Apparently the stall is also popular by those look for a birthday gift – like me.

My highlight – an innovative stall: CookIt

Since a couple years CookIt is on the market with a small dark green cart different in appearance to all the other ones and much nicer or more modern – see photo gallery above. The two brothers and a companion have started the idea to propose simple recipes and pack only the ingredients needed to cook it. The produce are mainly regional and truely fresh. The price of the ingredients is by portion for one person and depends on the needed ingredients for the recipe. Asking the owners how big the portions are, they answer that it fits their appetite – they are not the thinnest bunch.

I chose a chard-bacon-pasta with ricotta. All the ingredients were included, I needed only to add olive oil, salt & pepper from my pantry. Even though the recipe was neither very sophisticated nor complicated, the fresh ingredients made it a great meal.

As they started the brothers thought that the clientele would be mainly a younger crowd. But apparently the offer is welcomed by retirees as well, who do not want to store too much at home to reduce waste. And with one time cooking they have enough for two days.

Besides having a created a unique offer, CookIt is also active on social media where they present their newest recipes. For those who are not on Facebook, they have a web presence as well. When we talked a bit about the Bonn market and the lack of social media presence they believe that it rather depends on the vendors and their affinity to modern stuff. Themselves they see it as a tool to stay in contact with their clientele, to announce new recipes and make customers consequently come back to their stall. It certainly helps to avoid unnecessary trips when the recipes on offer aren’t the right ones.

The praise of the Cookit stall may sound like paid sponsorship – but I just like their idea and their product. For your experiences: tweet me.

Managing the market

The market is not anymore managed by the city of Bonn, but by Marktgilde, a professional market management company working across Germany. I heard several times that they are trying to improve the quality of the market, but seem to have hard times to do so. One quality fruit and vegetable vendor who is at the nearby Bad Godesberg market, refused their offer to join this high foot fall location. Well, let’s hope for the better.

All in all: a few stalls are interesting, some are fine for a bargain, but it is no jewel of the city of Bonn.

A little link list

• A post with many pictures from olive oil and sea salt
• The web presence of the Swabian stall
• CookIt: web presence & Facebook
• The oil, vinegar & spirit stall web presence
• My other posts on markets in Bonn: the organic one and the one in Bad Godesberg

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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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