Pine pesto and confetti honey

Where is the kale pesto they had heard about? Marianne, Helma, Jutta and Janine walk through the Lower Saxony Hall. Past Schnucken beer and sweet potato potato chips, at the stand of the Landjugend Kartoffelscheune, they find potato sushi or kale salad, at the Oldenburger Münsterland, kale pan with pinkel. Well, they can also cook it themselves at home, it's called brown cabbage with Bregenwurst, and a winter without it is unthinkable.

The four women come from Braunschweig. They arrived by bus at eight in the morning just to spend another day at Grüne Woche. Just like they used to. Marianne, Helma and Jutta are all over 80 years old. Marianne's daughter Janine has taken the day off work and is delighted with the many discoveries she makes in the halls. “Well, I have to say, I always look out for new things and try everything out, but I've already seen a lot of things here that I didn't know about,” she says, pulling out the nearest cloth bag to stow away her purchases.

Flower pollen to nibble on

The Behnke farm, for example, has very rare aniseed honey or “confetti honey” on offer: rape honey with pollen, a real feast for the eyes. “I'll take that with me,” says Janine. The pollen also comes in a jar, a mixture of everything the farm grows: poppy, hemp, mustard, sunflower, rapeseed and flax. You can nibble it away, sprinkle it on jam sandwiches or add it to yogurt.

We continue to a double stand from the Harz Mountains. On the one side, herbal teas, salt and spice mixtures from the Altenau herb park. On the other side, high-proof spirits from the Wöltingerode monastery brewery near Goslar, for example the nut liqueur “Angelina - crunchy hazelnut”, “Berliner Sophie - mild caraway” or “St. Benno - mysterious 21”, a liqueur made from arnica with orange flavoring, cinnamon and cloves. New in the range: “Wölti Sprizz” as “Sweet” (elderflower liqueur with wild berries) or “Sour” (Cita lemon liqueur with mango, passion fruit and elderberry). The shopping bag continues to fill up.

Amazement in front of the long fish counter, where dozens of fish are on display: “I've never seen a parrotfish before,” says Helma. “Periwinkles - can you eat them?” asks Marianne, pointing to a bowl of the very small spherical creatures. “Yes,” explains Janine. “They're cooked and then you have to get them out with a hook.” - “I'll starve to death eating them,” says Marianne. The group splits up: milkshakes for Janine and Helma, apple liqueur for Marianne, “Red Passion” apple liqueur with raspberry for Jutta. Conclusion: delicious! And far better than the apple schnapps at the sports club in the past.

Choco Loco - hazelnut cream with yacon

Oh, pesto! Not kale pesto, though, but fir pesto from Lieblingstanne GbR. Sisters Saskia and Sveja Blümel are continuing the family business: traditional Christmas tree cultivation. “But we decided that we wanted to do more with it,” says Saskia Blümel. “Now we have everything you can make from fir trees.” For example, soaps and bath salts, fir egg liqueur or fir pesto, very fine fir jelly or mustard made from spruce needles.

Janine makes another find: Maca powder for her morning smoothie. Justinian Gomez Moreno brings little-known superfoods from Latin America to Germany with his Oldenburg start-up Andenkraft. He uses the yacon root, which is used as a sweetener, to make syrup, chocolate and hazelnut cream or cocoa nibs. The Braunschweig women head back to the bus - there are five huge halls on their way. Hopefully there will be enough bags.