Monday, 03 June 2024
With the word Hof meaning "farm" in German it is a tough job to search the web for organic places in this nice medieval town in Franconia. To many the name of the city may be known as the first West-German train station on a train ride crossing the border between the two former German states, the GDR and the FRG, but in fact the city dates back to around 1230. Extra state fonds for being a frontier town are a thing of the past, but the town still has a philharmonic orchestra, a theatre and a noteworthy film festival. It's frequently reachable by regional trains (e.g. two hours from Nuremberg or 2.5 hours from Leipzig or Dresden) and has a beautiful station building. The city is also a nice stop when you take the Saale-Radweg bicycle route, if only to get a glimpse of an archetypal West-German city of the 1990ies.
Daily necessities
Located between the main train station and the centre of the old town you will find
Voll gut, a traditional owner-run organic supermarket. Pick a tomato or other small vegetable, choose some cheese and a roll, and the friendly shop keeper will prepare a sandwich for you, to take away or to eat at the sole coffee table with an organic coffee drink or tea. There's no dedicated zero waste corner with gravity bins, but you will find a decent selection of dry food in deposit glasses as well as dairy products, plant-based milk alternatives and beverages in returnable glasses and bottles. Some cottage cheeses and preserved meat spread come in glasses which you can return without a deposit.
Hof isn't far from Töpen, the homebase of one of Germany's major organic wholesale traders, Dennree, and hence the city's branch of the affiliated Biomarkt supermarkets, the
Biomarkt Speisekammer in the neighbourhood of Alsenberg (south of the main train station) may count as a local organic supplier. The shop emerged from a smaller traditional organic shop in Ludwigstraße.
Of course, there's also a traditional health-food shop in the pedestrian area of the inner city, the
Reformhaus "Gesund&fit". As in any other Reformhaus you'll find organic dry food and sweets, dairy products and vegetarian alternatives, bakery products, herbs and spices, tea and beverages, canned food and preserves, natural bodycare and sustainable cleaning agents, but only about half of it is organically certified, so check labels if unsure.
Sweets, chocolates, tea and more
If you like tea for real you should better pay a visit to one of the city's tea specialist shops.
Tea 4 You near Lorenzkirche offers a decent selection of organic green, black and herbal teas. Bring your own tea boxes or jars to avoid waste.
More organic tea as well as organic seeds can be found at the
Alraune tea shop in the Westend neighbourhood. The shop moved recently, so do not be surprised if you find it listed under its old address on the opposite side of traffic-heavy Marienstraße, in number 52.
If you have a sweet tooth pay a visit to the
Feinzeugs confectioner's store in the old town. It's not dedicated organic, but there's a decent selection of organic sweets, cookies, olives, oil and other delicatessen. They used to sell the city's official organic and fair-trade certified chocolate, the "Hofschokolade",
produced by the city's oldest confectioners', the
Viennese style coffee house Café Vetter, but this city marketing product does no longer exist.
The cafe is located in the Münsterviertel, a nice neighbourhood dating from the Wilhelminian period, to the right of the attached bakery shop. With its red plush chairs it invites to have an organic tea or coffee drink. Unfortunately this artisanal bakery cum confectionery does not use organic ingredients.
Just like the Voll gut supermarket it accepts the local "currency", the Hof Geld, a re-usable plastic card voucher scheme supporting the local economy.
There's a second Café Vetter branch
by the city's hospital. However, I wouldn't expect more organic items in these surroundings.
Coffee and lunch
For partially organic, vegetarian or vegan lunch and/or an organic coffee drink with or without a piece of home-made cake head to cafe
Jasmin, indoors lovingly decorated with small figures and other nick-nack.
It's the place where you, in other cities, would expect to mingle with students, artists, young parents with prams and/or health-conscious office workers during their lunch break. However, just as in any other shop I managed to visit during my lunch break and on my way to the train station in the early afternoon, it was far from crowded, despite the outdoor seating and the beautiful summer weather.
Artisanal toys and gifts
Wooden toys and games, doll houses, pottery, candles, stationary, oils, honey, liqueurs and other high-quality products made by people with handicaps can be found at the
Invito manufactory shop in the suburb of Stelzenhof. The nice shop near Lorenzpark unfortunately does no longer exist.
More to try
Without doubt a hundred percent organic or (when it comes to body care and household chemistry) of natural origin are the products of
Violey,
a leading and reliable organic webshop in Germany. They ran a nice chemist's shop in the old town, opposite the townhall (Rathaus),
but when I came there in summer 2022 I came a little too late: A few weeks ago the shop closed for good, in favour of an outlet store on the premises of their warehouse which I did not have time to visit.
Closed
2024-06-03 21:00:00
[Hof, Hof_Saale, Saale-Radweg, organic, vegan, coffee, lunch, snacks, cafe, supermarkets, grocery, bodycare, zero_waste]
[direct link · table of contents]
Saturday, 01 June 2024
Organic supermarkets can be found on almost every second street corner in Munich but density varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
Organic supermarket chains
In addition to a local organic supermarket chain, Vollcorner (consisting of about twenty markets in Munich and around), Munich hosts several branches of Germany's biggest organic chains Alnatura and Denns (both with more than 10 markets each within the city boundaries). The decline of the Basic chain (see below) which formerly dominated the city centre lead to the opening of a new centrally located Denns supermarket on the premises of a former Lidl branch in May, 2024 (the first Denns supermarket in the city centre did not survive tucked away in the basement of a mall).
Until mid of 2023 Munich was the home of the Basic supermarket chain with 11 markets – early in 2021 this chain restricted its activities to South Germany and Austria and sold all other nation-wide branches. However, these measures
did not stop the decline of the company driven by management failures,
resulting in an insolvency. The Munich shops were taken over by the conventional
supermarket chain
teGut. Under the
new management
only the original Basic shop near Isartor and a second one near Nordbad are surviving as organic supermarkets, at least until the end of 2024. After this
grace period the company plans to evaluate whether 100 percent organic supermarkets will be part of their concept. The bakery and butchers' counters inside the former Basic headquarter in Bogenhausen are still 100 percent organic as is its greengrocers' section.
TeGut is not the first conventional full retailer experimenting with fully organic supermarkets: With the Naturkind supermarket in Harlaching the Edeka co-operative is also running an experimental organic supermarkt in Munich, their first and only in town.
With Basic on the verge, there are two regional full retail chains left in town:
Landmann's with branches in several Bavarian
towns, but only one within the Munich city boundaries (including an artisanal butcher's counter run by the Biometzgerei Pichler), and Vollcorner
which does not have branches outside the Munich S-Bahn network. In addition
there are still
many small independent supermarkets, often using a Biomarkt sign, and even some homely, surviving corner shops.
Vollcorner has been making notable efforts to support zero-waste shopping for a long time, and burried many of them due to low customer acceptance. Shopping here you can however be sure not to (indirectly) support huge, globally operating multinational concerns as Vollcorner consistently delists organic brands sold to such companies. So you will find neither Logocos brands (Logona, Lenz, Sante, Heliotrop, Fitne) anymore since the company was bought by L'Oreal (which is partially owned by Nestle), nor Pukka tea (Unilever). Wine-lovers may also collect the corks made from natural cork and return them for recycling at any Vollcorner shop.
On weekdays most organic supermarkets keep open between 9 am and 8 pm, Vollcorner markets open at 8 am. Saturday opening hours vary, the big retailers and Vollcorner close at 8 pm. All groceries except
the Biokultur supermarket in the basement of the central train station are closed on Sundays.
Apart from these full range retailers there is a small local food only chain, not offering any toiletries or detergents: Herrmannsdorfer specialises in meat products, bakery items and beer produced in the Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten in Glonn, somewhat outside Munich. The shops close quite early, but if you come during daytime they stock sufficient dry food, dairy products, fruits, veges, sweets and more to spare you the trip to a second shop. Unlike the Basic chain Herrmannsdorfer allows you to buy meat in your own containers.
In 2015 a branch of the hyped Italian Eataly delicatessen chain opened within the architectonically interesting glass and iron construction of Schrannenhalle near Viktualienmarkt. It's true, they offer a good range of organic products, and organic food items are labelled as such on the shelves, but it's nevertheless a disappointing experience: Almost no fresh organic fruit and veges (not even the fresh herbs are organic), only pre-packaged organic meat (forget about the well-assorted meat counter), and the organic wines and spirits in the basement are not marked "bio" on the shelves, so it's very hard to find them.
Independent full-retailers
If you want to support the local economy, both Vollcorner, Munich-based Basic and Herrmannsdorfer shops are all fine, but you may prefer to support independent markets where the owners are actually running the stores and create a homely and personal atmosphere. Often you will find products not on sale by the big chains.
When traditional Grüner Markt chain closed down end of September 2014, their main house in the Altperlach neighbourhood made an exception. Housed in a vault it has a pleasant italophilic, somewhat venerable atmosphere, definitely worth a visit. The perfect surroundings when shopping for delicatessen, and a must-go during the Christmas season. It's now dubbed Mohrhof Perlach.
The other big independent is Schmatz ("smack") in the Glockenbach neighbourhood. Step by if only for the lovely decoration of their bodycare section. Kids are invited to play in an old-fashioned corner shop, and selected items are lovingly set on display. It's the only organic supermarket playing music in the background. By the end of 2018 they issued a ban on fresh herbs in plastics packing, and in 2022 there's a dedicated unpackaged shelf with dry food in deposit glasses.
For the picturesque yet upmarket farmshop feeling in the city aim for Stemmerhof on top of the Sendlinger Berg. Once upon a time a wealthy village farm opposite the village church the nicely restored houses are now the home of an organic supermarket and a range of small owner-run shops. The supermarket's butcher's cum delicatessen disk will happily sell lunch snacks to eat on the spot or to take-away. The same enterprise also runs a second branch in the suburb of Grünwald, just a street crossing opposite of Alter Wirt hotel and restaurant.
In the posh Lehel neighbourhood near the Eisbach river within the Englischer Garten park you'll find an independent organic supermarket with a touch of a spice and greens bazaar, the Bioparadies Biomarkt. Its friendly staff was even willing to open after closing time, to sell me a left-over bread on a Saturday afternoon. The serviced bakery and cheese counter is also the place to refill your spice jars with loose-weight herbs and spices. The supermarket is conveniently located opposite the tram stop "Paradiesstraße".
The former Erdgarten supermarket a ten-minutes walk away from Pasing train station (or two minutes from Pasing Marienplatz square) reopened as a branch of the local Vollcorner chain September, 2019 and continues to serve organic and vegetarian wholefood lunch as well as coffee and cake. They also have a nicely decorated bodycare section. Whether they'll continue to serve knitters with a fine selection of organic wool I am not aware of.
If you by chance happen to strand near the Klinikum Harlaching hospital, don't dispair: two tramstops in North-Eastern direction on the left side (just follow the tram line along Grünwalder Str.) you'll find Biowelt, a crammed independent organic supermarket with a superb selection of both, bodycare and frozen convenience products: All you need if visiting a friend or relative in the hospital in urgent need of a proper meal. Starting with lunch time they offer a helping of organic soup and a small selection of snacks. You may ask for a sandwich made on the spot. The shop also has a zero waste corner with dispensers for legumes and a small selection of other dry food as well as an assortment of dried fruit. Make sure to step by check-out to weigh your containers before you fill them.
Attending a conference at one of the huge Bogenhausen hotels near Effnerplatz? Your lunch break should be sufficient to follow Bülowstraße in Western direction to Herkomerplatz. Here you'll find not only a Herrmannsdorfer butcher's shop cum grocery cum eatery and the Hofpfisterei bakery branch next to it, but also a pleasant family-owned organic supermarket dubbed Biovolet. The Riemensberger family placed some bar tables in the entrance area to have a snack, and there is a second branch in Eching (formerly a Grüner Markt branch). Pay with your EC (VPay) debit card, and they donate a few cent to the BioBoden co-operative which buys farm land in order to lease it to organic farmers. On Thursdays you will receive a 10 percent discount if your shopping cart is worth more than 50 euros.
In the neighbourhood of Schwabing one of the oldest organic groceries in town is located, these days rather boringly dubbed Echt Bio Markt which is the brand of a network of small-scale independent organic supermarkets. The pleasant, traditional shop in Tengstraße offers refill for organic household detergents.
However. not all supermarkets of this brand have been long established: The independent owner-run Echt Bio Markt in Nymphenburg was opened during the lock-down of the covid-19 pandemic: As its name suggests
Bio am Romanplatz is the perfect place
to shop for provisions at the tram hub at Romanplatz.
There's only one Sunday-open organic supermarket in Munich, the Biokultur in the basement of the main train station. It's sister branch in the newly developed neighbourhood of Riem on the plot of the former Munich airport can be found inside the
Riem Arcaden shopping mall, sporting the only organic cafe in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately neither the cafe nor the supermarket are open on Sundays or public holidays.
If you happen to take the S7 urban train in southern direction to the municipality of Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn take the time to visit Roberts Bio-Genussmarkt on the premises of a former farmyard. The spacious, pleasantly refurbished and nicely decorated barn with its dark wooden shelfs makes it easy to spend some time on a coffee and cake in the included cafe area. When the weather is nice sun-shaded outdoor seating is provided. The former village of Höhenkirchen is part of the Mangfall bicycle route from Munich to Rosenheim, and this is a pleasant place for a break.
Waste-free supermarkets
By 2016 the first wrapping free supermarket made it into town: Check the zero-waste post for reviews.
Co-operatives with membership schemes
In the 1970ies and 1980ies many organic neighbourhood shops in Western Germany were co-operatively organised and sold to members only. In the 1990ies most of the surviving shops like the "Abakus" in Bremen opened to the general public, with discount schemes for members. To my knowledge, there's no such surviving shop in Munich, but recently established co-operatives such as "Deine Alternative" in Zorneding continue this inclusive approach.
As community supported agriculture (CSA) has an increasing appeal to city dwellers (the biggest one in Munich is the Kartoffelkombinat), the concept of an organic supermarket for members only came back to town in 2016, with
the Ökoesel ("eco donkey"), by now a small, yet full-fledged organic supermarket
in Nymphenburg near Leonrodplatz, focussing on
package-free food.
When the founders of Munich's oldest organic
supermarket, Lebascha in Haidhausen,
were to pass over the shop to a younger generation in summer 2022, the Ökoesel folks stepped in. Although both branches focus on a membership scheme, they are neighbourhood groceries open to everyone. As a non-member you'll simply pay non-subsidised (i.e. higher) prices.
In
summer 2021, another approach followed with the establishment of the Foodhub co-operative in Giesing, next to the lovely cafe "Shotgun Sister" and an organic bakery shop.
If you live in the vicinity you may consider joining this special organic food co-op which runs on the principle of solidarity: every member works three hours per month for or in the project and what's sold in the supermarket (predominantly regional produce) is decided democratically by its members. The shop concentrates on pre-packaged food, household and toiletry items, with the exception of loose weight fruits and veges, a small number of dry food gravity bins offering grains and nuts, and the self-service bread and rolls section. The household cleaning and bodycare shelves are filled with products in environmentally friendly packaging and focus on re-use (like the bamboo paper kitchen paper which can be washed and thus used several times) or little packaging through bigger volumes. There are plans for a zero-waste station to refill cleaning agents.
When I visited the shop at their open day in autumn 2021 I was surprised to not find a serviced fresh food counter given the fact that Karl Schweisfurt of Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten is one of the three legal heads of the co-operative, most likely due to the fact that such a counter needs to be staffed.
No membership fee is required for becoming a member of the on-line market platform Marktschwärmer.
There's a
Marktschwärmerei pick-up hub in the neighbourhood of Milbertshofen. If you decide to join, you can order food, beverages, sweets and more from predominantly organic producers in and around Munich.
Formerly organic supermarkets
As part of the "teGut" chain the following, former "Basic" supermarkets still offer a reduced assortment of organic products:
- teGut Bogenhausen, Richard-Strauss-Str. 48, Mon–Sat 8–20 (as of summer 2024 still with organic butchers' and bakers' counter)
- teGut Neuhausen, Nymphenburger Str. 82, Mon–Sat 8–20
- teGut Laim, Agnes-Bernauer-Str. 73, Mon–Sat 8–20
- teGut Altstadt, Müllerstr. 45, Mon–Sat 7–20
- teGut Neuperlach, Thomas-Dehler-Str. 45, Mon–Sat 7–20
- teGut Ludwigsvorstadt, Luitpoldstr. 3, Mon–Sat 7–20
- teGut Schwabing, Belgradstr. 59, Mon–Sat 7–20
- teGut Victoriaviertel, Rheinstr. 1, Mon–Sat 8–20
Closed down
The following organic supermarkets do no longer exist although you will still find references to them on the web:
- Alnatura Innenstadt, Sonnenstr. 23
- Alnatura Aschheim, Theodor-Fontane-Str. 10, Aschheim
- Biochicco, Ohlmüllerstr. 19 corner Zeppelinstr.
- Biomarkt CM, Schlüsselbergstr. 13 (Berg am Laim)
- Denns w/in Hofstatt mall, Sendlinger Str. 12a, basement (city centre)
- Die Bio-Bäuerin, Peter-Wolfram-Str. 31 (Gronsdorf)
- Entenbach Naturkost,
Schlotthauerstr. 16
- Johannisgarten Naturkost, Johannisplatz 21 (Haidhausen)
- Gut zum Leben, Motorama Ladenstadt, Rosenheimer Str. 30-32 (Haidhausen)
- Tagwerk-Bioladen Hofgut Riem, Isarlandstr. 1 (Riem)
- Marktschwärmerei Werksviertel, c/o Cafe Guatemuc, Atelierstr. 1
- Nicos Naturkost, Kazmairstr. 38
- Veganz, Baldestr. 21 corner Auenstr., including self-service cafe Goodies
- Radix, Thalkirchner Str. 88 (Isarvorstadt)
- Vollcorner Ludwigsvorstadt, Lindwurmstr. 80
2024-06-01 14:00:00
[Munich, Au, Bogenhausen, Haidhausen, Harlaching, Lehel, Maxvorstadt, Nymphenburg, Schwabing, Pasing, Aschheim, Hoehenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, Englischer_Garten, Mangfallradweg, Mangfall_cycle_route, organic, supermarkets, grocery, lunch, snacks, deli, Italian, CSA]
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Traditional corner stores in general have been almost extinguished from the streets of Munich, surviving mainly in the form of immigrant grocery stores which unfortunately rarely stock organic items. However, there are a few survivers from the time when organic was an unknown word in supermarket chains: small supermarkets equipped with wooden shelves and as crammed to the brim as possible for orderly German souls. Usually they have everything you need for your daily life, just give you fewer choice between brands and varieties. Sometimes you'll find delicatessen the big players don't stock, and fresh produce is as fresh as from their competitors. Prices may be a few cents higher than the cheapest option in one of the retail chains, but you will be surprised to learn that many products actually are less expensive in a corner shop. In addition you may have a chat with the shop assistants, sometimes the owners themselves, and usually will be given a competent answer to questions you may have. Many of these shops have some tables and chairs where you can have a coffee, snack or vegetarian lunch.
Groceries
The (to my knowledge) oldest full retail organic neighbourhood shop in town, theLebascha in Haidhausen, was run collectively by a bunch of friendly women until they retired. The shop would have been lost for the neighbourhood if not the distributor had been tieing up strings with the community supported co-operative Ökoesel ("eco donkey" is derived from a pet name for bicycles – "Drahtesel" – as they started up as a bicycle delivery service) in Neuhausen. Since 9th of July, 2022 the base line of the shop has been financed by membership fees (depending on self-assessment), but Lebascha continues to be open for everyone: None-members simply pay (a usually low) market-price, members are entitled to discounts (usually between 12 and 20 percent). With its (conventional) liquorice shop-in-shop (to my knowledge offering the largest selection liquorice in town) the Lebascha also is a hot tip for aficionados. An assortment of loose-weight herbs and spices, and a basic range of loose-weight cereals, nuts, legumes and grains, detergents and soap make the Lebascha the only surviving zero-waste shop near Ostbahnhof. Note that it is closed on Wednesdays and does not accept cards, but members may chalk up and pay later.
A few corners away from tube stop Implerstraße in Sendling the neighbourhood grocery Hollerbusch ("elderbush") offers
vegan and vegetarian lunch as well as yoga, pilates or singing lessons in a backroom.
The shop is also a delivery hub for the Munich based community supported agriculture project Kartoffelkombinat and offers gravity bins to refill dry food and reduce package waste.
Immigrant shops and traditional corner stores
While these small supermarkets cater for all daily necessities including fresh fruits and veges there's no such thing as an all-organic immigrant grocery focussing on the latter and supplementing with a selection of dry goods and delicatessen from their owner's place of birth. The nearest you come is Giesinger Fruchtmarkt near tube-stop Kolumbusplatz. As about three quarters of the fruits and veges as well as most of the Italian delicatessen are conventional you have to carefully watch out for the bio keyword. Apart from organic greens they also offer organic choices for olive oil, wine, pasta and cheese.
A similar owner-run mini market, Varieta am Körner Eck, is located in the Glockenbach neighbourhood, on Auenstraße between the Reichenbach and the Cornelius bridges. The bakery items are all organic, and organic products in the self-service area are clearly marked "bio" on the shelf. The shop offers a lot of directly imported Italian dry food, but unfortunately none of it in organic quality. Also most of the fresh fruits and veges are conventionally produced.
Remember the tales of parents or grandparents about the corner shop they went to as children to buy a single sweet which the shop keeper would put down on a list for their parents to pay later on when they came to shop bread, milk, veges and all the ingredients for the home-cooked meal? The spirit of these shops from the past you may find left in some immigrant shops and this is the reason why I list the Viktualieneck in Bogenhausen in this section. I learned about this crammed greengrocer's shop opposing the newly build neighbourhood of Prinz-Eugen-Park on my quest for shops supporting package-free shopping, but when I went there it turned out a likeable traditional supermarket offering
fresh fruits and veges, regional delicatessen, bread and rolls, wine and all kinds of food. About half of it is organic, namely all the bakery products and certainly more than half of the pre-packaged food. Most of the fresh fruits and veges come from a conventional local market garden
– the turnaround for organic greens wasn't good enough among his customers, and his emphasis was on avoiding waste the shop keeper told me. Package-free shopping is possible for all fruits and veges as well as all items from the bakery, meat and cheese counter.
I cannot tell you whether the shop chalks up for trustworthy customers, but if you are in the vicinity support this shop instead of the supermarket chains nearby.
Delicatessen
The upmarket contrast to these somewhat shabby grocery stores is naturally to be found in the posh neighbourhood of the Lehel:
Studio Hindiba offers oils, herbs and condiments, olives, all types of rice, the famed ferments of Berlin's Markus Shimizu, a carefully selected range of wines and other predominantly organic delicatessen. For the smaller purse it may be just a beautyful shop to marvel at, but if your budget isn't painfully tight it's the perfect place to shop a foodie gift for someone special.
A few steps from Wiener Platz you'll find Steinbeißer, a cosy owner-driven deli advertising 'regional specialities'. Take this with a grain of salt – the organic Italian olive oil and Scandinavian candies (not organic) are small-scale produce specific to their region of origin, but certainly not from the greater Munich area. Most meat products come from small-scale Austrian farms which are likely to produce according to near-organic principles. Certified organic products unfortunately do not dominate the pleasantly arranged tables and shelves with artisanal products – predominantly foodstuffs and wine, but you may ask the owner about the provenance of his fare.
Wine, pepper and coffee from carefully selected small-scale producers, that's the focus of Grenzgänger ("border crosser"), a lovely shop directly located at the beautiful Bordeaux-Platz in Haidhausen, just opposite Café Reichshof. When you come here during the cold season you may find yourself welcomed by the warmth of a fireplace, and you can get a speciality coffee (14 types of Arabica to choose from) into your own mug. During covid-19 restrictions cream-ware cups aren't provided, so if you come without a mug you will be charged an extra 20 cent for a plastics-free one-way cup.
Unfortunately most of the products aren't certified organic, with the notable exception of the Demeter-certified honey and bee wax candles of a local beekeeper who is working in accordance with biodynamic principles, i.e. the gold standard for animal welfare.
Specializing in cheese and supplements – wine, olives, oil, herbs, condiments, to name a few – the Luigino's booth in the Southern part of Viktualienmarkt, opposite the crossing of Reichenbachstraße and Blumenstraße is the perfect place to shop for a picnic or the no-frills romantic candle light dinner. Once an almost entirely organic cheese booth the percentage of organic products on sale has diminished during the past years: mainly due to the advent of artisanal, yet conventional Italian cured meats, partially due to a lesser focus on organic labels on the selection of cheeses.
When ordering an Italian-style sandwich to take away you may wish to enquire about the ingredients and probably stick to the vegetarian ones since the Italian cured meat products usually are not organic.
The owner once run a delicatessen in Maxvorstand which was replaced by an organic ice-cream parlour in 2018.
Herbs and spices
Not exactly a spice bazaar, but a pleasant spice and herbs shop Gewürze der Welt ("spices of the world") had a long tradition on its former location in Thiereckstraße in the very city centre, but when the historic Ruffini house re-opened after a two-year period of restoration work in 2020, the shop moved back to its roots in the Sendlinger Straße (now) pedestrian area. As the name suggests you will find a world of spices, herbs, blends and condiments, a notable part of them in organic quality.
Munich's first organically certified herbalist is tucked away in a non-descript side road near Sendlinger-Tor-Platz, just a few steps aside the remnants of the Glockenbach neighbourhood's famous queer bars. Light and friendly the
Kräutergarten offers all kinds of organic dried herbs, spices, natural cosmetics and the like.
Sonnentor, the leading Austrian producer of organic herbs and spices, has a shop in Munich, too: Located in the basement of
Stachus-Passagen, a generally boring shopping mall a level above this central urban train and tube station, it's probably not the shop that you'll find by accident while taking a stroll through the city. Apart from herbs, spices and condiments they also have a selection of natural body care – an easy place to shop for a nice last-minute give-away.
Special shops
The only operating corn mill in Munich with its cosy mill shop is located in a small street a few steps from the tourist hotspots of Marienplatz and Hofbräuhaus. The Hofbräuhaus-Kunstmühle offers all types of flour, bruised grains, semolina, bran and cereals, predominantly of corn grown in the region. An increasing number of these artisanal products are organic, so watch out for the 'bio' keyword on the classic paper bags or the listings of the web shop. These products are also the base ingredients for the artisanal home bakery E. Knapp & R. Wenig next door where you can buy hand-made bread and rolls based on traditional, predominantly Munich recipes. The mill shop also stocks a selection of organic dried fruit, olive oil, raising agents and other baking ingredients as well as dry breads like South-Tyrolean Schüttelbrot.
Another very special mono-themed shop, Hanf – der etwas andere Bioladen, sells everything containing THC-free hemp: beer, lemonades, cookies, bars, tea, ice-cream, chocolates, body care, clothes, liquids, pet food and more. Although the name suggests it not all products are certified organic, especially not in the non-food range, but the sheer number of goods based on this versatile plant is quite impressive. The main shop (which is closed on Mondays) isn't located in the most inviting part of town but can easily be reached from Leuchtenbergring urban train stop. But wait: in 2019 a second one opened at a tourist-friendly location between Isartor and Marienplatz.
Ceased to exist
The following places shut down and were replaced by other, not organic ones. So don't be confused when you find references to them on the web:
2024-06-01 10:45:00
[Munich, Haidhausen, Schwabing, Lehel, Maxvorstadt, organic, lunch, snacks, coffee, supermarkets, deli, grocery, Italian, vegan, hemp, flour, mills, fashion, bodycare, spices, herbs, delicatessen, eatery, zero_waste, unverpackt]
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Wednesday, 21 February 2024
If you are looking for pioneers in the German zero waste movement you'll find one of them in Dresden's Neustadt neighbourhood:
Bring a selection of glasses, containers and bags and stop by Lose ("loose-weight"), a cosy zero-waste corner store in Böhmische Straße. Unlike other package-free supermarkets this one does not only sell dry food, natural body care and household chemicals but also offers veges and has a cheese counter. Although most of the products are organic some are not, so you might want to check the labels on the suspenders for the bio keyword or ask.
The interior of the shop was refurbished and is now much lighter and seems spacier than before. The reason for this is that the coffee corner which had been there before the corona pandemic has decreased and the serviced counter for bakery products, cheeses, antipasti and coffee moved from the entrance area to the backpart of the shop. Mind you: like other package-free shops Lose does not have an illuminated window front, so be brave to try the door handle – the place may look quite dark even when open.
Supermarkets with zero-waste stations
Moreover all shops of the co-operatively organised local wholesale chain VG Biomarkt offer a good selection of loose-weight organic dry goods (in addition to an abundance of often locally produced fruit and veges and dairy products and drinks of all kinds in returnable glass bottles).
Their main shop is located near
Bahnhof Mitte train station, an entire organic warehouse on the premises of a former newspaper printing plant. Standing back from the main street the first floor is occupied by an organic convenience store supporting your zero-waste efforts. On the second floor there's a well assorted organic fashion store mainly for babies, children and women, with a section offering organic body care, household chemicals, sustainably produced toys, stationary and more.
For members prices are lower, but the shop is open to everyone.
On weekdays the self-service bistro directly facing the street offers delicious lunch (only snacks on Saturdays), and there's a cafe cum bakery shop featuring young local artists.
VG Biomarkt also has branches in the neighbourhoods of Neustadt (Hechtviertel), Striesen, Johannstadt, Strehlen, and Loschwitz,
Mind you that the one in Striesen, at Polandplatz isn't easy to find: Opposite the triangular park there's a driveway which one can easily miss as no sign at the entrance points to the shop. Be brave an move past, you'll find the shoü at the right hand site.
If you want to return empties, find the appropriate crate in the entrance area, pin down its code, tell the cashier and put the glass or bottle at the appropriate place.
The Loschwitz branch dubbed VG Balsamico is conveniently located
opposite the downhill station of the cable-run suspension railway ("Schwebebahn") next to
Körnerplatz at the northern end of Blaues Wunder ("blue wonder") bridge.
Opening hours and assortment (of loose-weight products as of products in returnable glasses) vary depending on the size of the market and the neighbourhood. However, all VG markets offer free drinking water refill stations and you can book cargo bikes to transport your purchase home free of charge.
While many organic groceries were closing, the Verbrauchergemeinschaft opened a new large supermarket with attached self-service restaurant cum cafe in 2023: The
VG Friedensstraße offers and abundance of loose weight and unpackaged products. Want to shop products grown or made in the vicinity? Watch out for the green "RP" ("regional partner") logo.
While these local groceries were early adopters a number of nation-wide operating organic supermarket chains have been following. In Dresden the two remaining branches of the Berlin-based supermarket chain Bio Company introduced dry food suspenders for use with your own jars.
In 2021 the Denns Biomarkt was the first branch of this chain where I found a dedicated shelf with fairly traded dry food in retour glasses and a few gravity bins with nuts, seeds, rice and noodles. A start at least, although I have my doubts that this small selection will be sufficient to nudge people towards the extra effort it takes to bring along glasses and jars.
Without offering gravity bins the Vorwerk Podemus farm supermarkets supports package-free efforts, too: Hand over your own clean boxes and bags when buying meat and meat products, cheese, bread, rolls or cake from the services counter, and prefer returnable glass bottles and glasses when choosing jogurt, honey and jams.
Farmshops and factory outlets
When you take the Elberadweg bicycle route on the southern shore in direction Niederwartha you'll pass a nice old farmyard, the organic Bauernhof Franz in Niedergohlis. It runs a subscription scheme – phone in or e-mail your order until Wednesday and collect it from the farmshop on Fridays and Saturdays, but if you happen to step by on one of these days and there's someone around you may be able to buy vegetable oil and perhaps also potatoes or other produce from the farm. But of course, shopping their farm products from one of the VG supermarkets might be easier.
In 2022 Vegannett, a Weißer Hirsch-based producer of vegan spreads, started filling products in standardized returnable deposit glasses which
you can buy directly from the manufacturer on Wednesdays.
More to try
For more vegan alternatives to cheese, meat and sausages head for
Die vegane Fleischerei in the Neustadt. January, 2023 a vegan "butcher shop" opened here, and they assured me that all of their products are made from predominantly organic ingredients.
They also offer ready-made "meat" salads and soups, and I'm looking forward to visit the shop in person. Don't forget to take boxes and jars with you.
Closed
2024-02-21 04:00:00
[Dresden, Neustadt, organic, coffee, vegan, zero_waste, unverpackt, cafe, grocery, market, supermarkets, bodycare, household, hemp]
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Wednesday, 17 January 2024
The Bodenseeradweg bicyle route around Lake Constance is arguably one of the finest (and most frequented) bicycle routes in the German-speaking part of Europe. But despite being such a tourist hotspot the region is surprisingly
badly accessible by train as not even the major university town of Konstanz is serviced by frequent fast long distance connections. Bound to local and regional trains with almost no reasonable interconnections you'll easily end up with a nightmare of six or more train changes back to the origin of your journey if you happen to have a flat tyre or accident along the bike route or the weather is turning bad.
From Munich the only reasonable connection are
EC and regional trains to and from Lindau, and Constance can reasonably be reached from Karlsruhe or Zürich.
There are a handful daily long distance connections to and from Friedrichshafen like the
daily ICE service from Berlin, and there are more frequent options to and from Stuttgart.
While a trip on a Bodensee ferry boat should definitely be part of your stay
(the BSB boats even sport bicycle racks) you cannot rely on them as a fast
and high-frequent means of transport between railway stations.
Combined with the fact that bike tickets on long distance trains
are rare during the nice seasons, the sad fact is: A bicycle tour around
lake Constance requires much more careful planning well in advance than you might think at first.
Eat, drink and sleep
If you wish to wake up to a gorgeous organic breakfast in a pleasantly decorated sustainable hotel,
while your bike is safely locked to a roofed parking spot,
Hotel Maier is the place to stay.
The hotel is not located in the very city centre, but in the neighbourhood of Fischbach (between the industrial areas of MTU/Rolls Royce in Manzell and Airbus in Immenstaad). A nice side effect of the hotel's approach to avoid food waste: breakfast is served at your convenience. Order to your liking and have a chat with the friendly staff. The combination of a traditional farm house with a rough concrete building (housing a few bigger and more expensive suites) gives the place a very urban touch.
Unfortunately the hotel's organic restaurant, Die Speiserei, was closed during
our stay, but the menu suggested fine local dining on predominantly local produce, an extremely tempting way to spend holiday money.
There's another,
100 percent organic restaurant in town: The V2O on the premises of the Zeppelin museum in the city centre. Located on the second floor of a former station building it sports a gorgeous view on the city port and is accessible to the general public. The place serves organic lunch, and, during
the tourist season, dinner.
While the kitchen is closed in the afternoon between 2 pm and 5 pm, you may spend the time waiting for a ferry boat here with coffee and cake or a little snack.
The restaurant is closed on Mondays, but there's a no-frills organic bistro a few steps away serving simple lunch on weekdays.
If you fancy a partially organic, artisanal ice-cream or feel for a coffee break, pay a visit to cosy
Mina Gelato, the ice-cream parlour cum cafe in the town's traditional West-German pedestrian shopping street. Despite the
name, the gorgeous ice-cream isn't trying to play Italian, but, very exotic, is made following a
Bulgarian recipe. Best ice-cream in town!
Food and necessities
The people behind V2O restaurant and bistro are also running an organic
supermarket,
Greenbox, which seems to offer lunch, too.
There are very likely more organic groceries in town and in its vicinity, but none of them are located along the very bike route.
An exception is the beautiful
Biohaus am See in Langenargen,
a neat small town building offering a
parking spot in the shadow for your bike while you refill provisions or replenish
some calories. With its wooden furniture the shop has the air of a traditional
organic neighbourhood grocery, but given the omnipresence of Lake Constance
fruits in organic shops throughout the country I was a little disappointed
to not find more local products here.
2024-01-17 16:30:00
[Friedrichshafen, Lake_Constance, Bodensee, Bodenseeradweg, organic, coffee, lunch, dinner, cafe, restaurant, supermarkets, grocery, accommodation, hotel, ice-cream]
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