A long history

Since centuries the regional “capital” Gunzenhausen in Franconia (now part of Bavaria) has the right to hold a market. And since these days, people come from far to buy at the Thursday outdoor market.

Some people from the surrounding area even schedule their doctors or administrative appointments to allow them do their purchases at the market.

This is what I had been told by one market trader. Looking around, the story seemed reasonable as the quality of the produce looked good.

Gunzenhausen is part of Franconia a region in Bavaria, Germany. It is generally speaking an area known for its beer, wine and its cuisine, which in my opinion is one of the better German ones. All is still linked to the regional food production and people are putting some emphasis on food quality. And this region is particularly meat heavy with big portions and small prices.

Regional quality

The outdoor market stretches along the main road in the historical center of the city and has 20 or so stalls. It is a mix of producers and traders, but all with regional roots and often unique products. The offering covered basically everything: fruits & vegetables, dairy, cheese, meat, fish (also local sweet water ones), spices, flowers, bread, pastry.

It is just nice to see a market having regional, rather smaller producers who deliver quality into the city. The local white asparagus for example was in season and carefully screened by knowledgeable housewives.

Let me highlight a few examples to show why people are coming from far to this place.

Re-inventing selling eggs

The lady who sold eggs and pasta made it very clear and explained it in great length that her chicken were truly free range ones. They have stables that they can move from on meadow to the other to provide their animals good food. And I learned that there is no need to put eggs in the fridge, it does not prolong their shelf life.

The succession of the farm seem to be in good hands, as her 11 year old daughter had a few quails and selling their eggs. They went into our basket and made us happy in our home kitchen. Not so easy to crack though.

Direct sales is at the core of their business. Customers can come to their farm at any time, take what they need and put the money into a box. She never really experienced fraud. Nice to hear.

And she even went one step further and sharing a temperature controlled vending machine with a butcher. She is selling eggs, chicken soup, pasta and other items. It is placed next to a camping site and the business is doing well.

I am always amazed about the creativity of small producers when it comes to ideas on how to compete against big business.

A woman’s job and a man’s job

Sheep meat is my favorite one. But it is not as widespread in Germany as pork or chicken. Finding a shepherd who is selling her own meat is then kind of a jackpot as it is often imported from the Netherlands or New Zealand for example.

The lady running the stall enjoyed what she was doing: talking to customers, telling them about all aspects raising and butchering sheep. It was a pleasure to listen to her. And she explained that her family business is clearly divided: her husband does not like to so much to do deal with people, so he is raising the flock. Her strengths is dealing with customers, her husband’s to deal with the animals. Sounds almost like a cliché, doesn’t it?

Bringing wholewheat bread to a new level

The most surprising stall to me was the organic wholewheat baker. Why is that? Well, I am not a particular fan of wholewheat bread. To me, it often lacks a truly fine aroma and spreading butter often results into the slice break apart in more or less big crumbs making it unpleasant to eat.

But this bakery here owned by the Fischer family in Lichtenau offered a truly new experience. Their wholewheat baguette had such a great structure, aroma and taste, a bit different to a classic French baguette, but with a very pleasant own character. No wonder: the sourdough raises for 3 (three) days before it is being baked. And we know that time is probably the most important “ingredient” for a good bread. It was so different to my usual experience that almost jumped around like a kid at Christmas.

Several types of bread found the way into my shopping bag. Still they did not survive for a long time. For people who love bread, there is no way passing by without buying a loaf or a roll.

Two times

At the day of my visit I went two times to the market. First alone, to get the basics for this post and then with my family. They enjoyed the market as well, which does not happen every time I visit one. Especially since there were no typical street food vendors around. Still the local produce was good enough for them.

All in all: The Thursday outdoor market in Gunzenhausen is a great representation of a hub for regional quality products and certainly worth a little detour.

A little link list:

• The page on the market by the city of Gunzenhausen
• The Gunzenhausen market on German TV
• The website of the egg producer and their Facebook presence
• A directory with the contacts of the shepherds
• The website of the organic bakery

The post Coming from far – Market in Gunzenhausen, Franconia / Germany appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Getting there

Conveniently located right at the subway station “Rochusgasse” (line U3) this market welcomes you during day & night time with produce, convenience food, quick lunches and time for coffee or a drink at night.

Similar to the famous Naschmarkt most of the stalls are permanent structures looking almost like a compound. Many of them are rather restaurants or pubs than classic stalls where to buy produce. There are also temporary stalls like at a regular farmer’s market. Still the choice is wide and ranges from local products to international specialities and even brands.

The vendors and their future

As one vegetable stall owner said: “I wish we had more vegetable sellers, as with my small surface I cannot cater for all the demand”. But managing such a stall is hard work, getting up at 3 am to be at the Vienna wholesale market to get the right quality products and working until the evening hours. Him and his wife have done it for 32 years! So they have hard time to find staff adhering to such working hours, even though he closes the stall for 2 months per year to have some rest. He and and his wife will probably be without a successor when they retire.

Another aspect some vendors fear are the attempts of law makers to apparently only allow packaged products. It would make the difference between supermarkets and open markets much smaller in terms of offerings, e.g. cheese. Markets would then become less attractive. This reminds of the efforts some years ago in the European Union not to allow anymore cheese making from raw milk. This attempt failed at the end to the benefit of a culture of artisan cheeses as offered at the Rochus market.

The transition of the market

The market is changing over time. Once there were more classic businesses on this market, e.g. 3 butchers instead of one today. Now many stalls are lunch places, restaurants or pubs. There is even a fish franchise “Nordsee” from Germany selling fresh fish and fast food. This is good for people in need for some quick lunches or a drink in the evening, but it takes away the character of a typical picture book market.

Nebertheless the Rochus market benefits from a huge popularity and support according to the vendors. Business is not declining.

The offering

The temporary stalls offer a mix of standard and local offers or specialities. A Greek vendor is selling since 8 years artisan products like cheese, sausages and ham from the western part of Austria (Vorarlberg). I saw some nice porcini mushrooms, grapes from the south of Austria, local cowberries. This offering is positioned next to other seasonal products easily available in supermarkets as well, but probably in a better quality.

The permanent stalls have their own specialities as well. The cheese shop had a nice selection of Austrian and other cheeses. The spiced fatback (Gewürzspeck) sold there (!) caught my eyes, a real delight and easy to bring back home as it does not need refrigeration.

The butcher “Radatz” had a very wide offering in meats, sausages and convenience food. The marinated chicken and beef mixed with vegetables were ready made for the pan for quick cooking, a feast for the eyes. Organic beef was also available. Furthermore he offered a large variety of other prepared foods like baked chicken schnitzels and the like. All in all a good mix of basic products and convenience food.

All in all: Worth a visit when you come by, good for a quick lunch and some culinary souvenirs

A little link list:

• A quick introduction into the markets in Vienna from vienna-insight.at
• For those who can read Arabic letters, a post from Iranian Vienna

The post Rochus market, Vienna / Austria appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

This market in Liège / Belgium happens on Sundays for which a good stretch of the La Batte street along the Meuse river is blocked. And it is really fun to visit this open market. Liège was once a city in a coal mining region having contributed to the post war wealth in Europe. And the city, despite its very beauty, is certainly not a rich one. And this leads back to the market. This market provides goods to not so wealthy people, but is still full of little surprises.

The market hosts almost everything between live animals (chicken, rabbits, birds etc.), meat, cheese, vegetables etc. But it also offers great plastic junk – spend only a couple Euros and the kids are happy – and clothes as well, which are not related to the Armanis. There are also small stands offering nice food like hotdogs with sauerkraut, Vietnamese spring rolls and all sorts of stuff.

As the market stretches quite long, a couple hours goes by so fast and even than not all stands would have received their adequate attention. But it is fun! And so much to discover. And it has a little rough edge. This is visible for example when live hens are packed in used cardboard boxes when bought by a new owner who wants to produce his/her own eggs for a Sunday breakfast or whatever.

What is sometimes overseen are the stands which offer little delicacies, it is worth to keep an eye open for new discoveries. This is in contrast to quite a few stands which seem to be rather the extension of wholesale suppliers, but all with charm.

The highlights: the live animals, and the little discoveries of nice local food.

All in all: not a market of the first league from the food perspective, but certainly worth a visit for its special character.

A little link list:

• Reviews in Trip Advisor
• Location in Belgian market directory
• La Batte market in city council web site (French)
• A beautiful blog article from theFlippingFish

The post Sunday market La Batte in Liège / Belgium appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.