A Trip To The Farms

One of the best things about where I live is how close we are to "The Farms." Our neighborhood is on the outskirts of Heidelberg. Makes getting into the Altstadt take a few minutes, but we can walk to the "The Farms" in less than ten.

"The Farms" (I don't know what the Germans call "The Farms," that's just the name us Americans have used for the collection of, well, farms that border our neighborhood) are a group of homes on one little strasse that have kilometers of farmland around them. They grow all their produce right there. In the winter you can get apples, potatoes, onions, and an assortment of winter vegetables. They keep their produce in deep, cold, dark cellars (dungeons!) for months and it stays fresh and they slowly bring it out to sell. Of course, in the summer there is much more to buy. But winter pickins ain't so bad.

One of the little farmhouses.

This is my favorite farm. Why? Because its the first one I went to and I like familiarity.

Some of the farms have fresh baked artisan breads that they bake in a stone fired oven. Some farms have non-pasteurized milk (yuck! No thanks. Pasteurize please!) from their cows out back. I have heard an ugly rumor that Europeans think Americans are weird for our reluctance to drink fresh, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk. I wouldn't call that weird. I would call that not wanting to get listeria poisoning. But that's just me. Give me pasteurization or give me death! Hey, I stand up for what I believe in.

At some farms you can buy eggs that were laid that morning. I don't have a problem with that.

Here is the apple assortment. This farm's prices are €1,50 for 1 kg of apples. And they have seven kinds. And they are all the same price so you can mix your bag. And they are organischen, or organic. Or Bio-Produkte. Look for those two words. The farms that I visit have small plastic bags for you to use to carry your produce. But not all farms will. Be prepared with a reusable bag, purse, or back pack to carry your produce home in.

The winter selection of vegetables. 

The best part really is the prices. Back in the States, if there were some hippy-dippy organic farmers who sold their produce out behind their house, they would charge you an arm and a leg. And probably extol the benefits of medical marijuana or not bathing to you. But here, small farmers are much cheaper than the grocery stores, seeing as how they don't have to pay the huge amount of the cost of gas (about $8.50 a gallon after all the conversions) to transport the fruits and veggies. Or charge the VAT (value added tax) which is around 18% and makes everything expensive in Europe. Go small German farmers! (Their farms are small, I didn't necessarily mean the actual farmers are small.)

If you are traveling to Germany and want to experience the small farm, ask a local, "Wo ist ein Bauernhof, wo ich Bio-Produkte kaufen können?" Which is "Where is a farm where I can buy organic produce?" 

I love going to my small farm. They don't speak English, and I really don't speak German so we get along great with smiles and awkward apologies. When my total reaches numbers I don't know very well, (1-29 is all my ear can really understand right now) they write the price down and point. It's a great system.

This isn't really related to the whole small farm bit, but there is a Christmas tree farm nearby. It just makes me giggle in some completely irrational way. In a land that is covered with trees (Germany has a lot of trees) they actually grow some for Christmas trees. They clear off the natural pine trees that grow there, and then plant new pine trees in orderly rows and wait for them to get to a size they want. 

Those orderly pine trees are the farmed Christmas trees. That dark line above them is the forest that grows right up next to the farm. I guess they can't see the forest for the trees, or something like that.

Tschüß,

Kelly

Tasty German Treats

Food is one of the greatest things about living in Europe. The extra 10 lbs that I carry around on account of all this food, not so great. Here are some of my favorite things this week.

I do realize that Coke isn't German. I'm not that blonde. We aren't really big Coke drinkers, but the Coke made here is made with real sugar. You really can taste the difference with no high fructose corn syrup. In fact, you have a hard time finding anything with high fructose corn syrup here. There has been a production quota placed on it in the European Union. Not for health reasons, but all for agricultural fairness between corn growers and sugar farmers. Side note - sugar in German is Zucker. 

Froop is a delicious little concoction of tart yogurt with a fruit puree similar to jam on top of it. You can mix it up, or dig through the puree to get at the yogurt only taking little bits of fruit. Zitrone or lemon is my favorite!

This is fairly standard chocolate pudding. But the difference here is that every little serving of pudding comes with some vanilla cream on the top. The cream isn't as sweet and adds a little variety to the chocolate taste. These are my kids favorite. They make Matt make special trips to the German grocery store for these little cups of heaven.

This is my crucible. This is a Hilda cookie. It is two almond flavored cookies with berry jam pressed between them and a sweet glaze. You can get them at gas stations. Since we don't live really close to any gas stations, I had to go out of my way to find one. Then I noticed they were sold at our commissary. I have eaten one almost every day now. It's becoming a problem. Oh Hilda with your sweet jam and crumbly cookie. 

This is the German version of Capri Sun. Again, made with real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. And they are made with less sugar. There is none of the syrupy sweetness that you get with regular juice-box variety drinks. Very thirst quenching.

This yogurt isn't German, it's from Denmark. But the Arla brand has pretty much cornered the market in Europe on milk products. This yogurt is very smooth and liquidy. You can almost drink it. It is more tart than regular yogurt. I love the flavor combinations like pear-banana and peach-raspberry. 

What would you like to try?