Grüne Woche
Three little piggies went to market…
The best thing I have seen this year so far is a moonwalking ginger pig – yup, you read that correctly – and you can see it too!
Last year a friend invited us along to an event whilst regaling tales of cute dogs, chicks and food from every country in the world. With the mention of food, Jason and I were of course ready with our shoes on – haha. I’m feeling lazy and my wrist is hurting a lot these days (sad face) so I’m just going to steal the official introduction of Grüne Woche.
Established in 1926, International Green Week is taking place for the 80th time in 2015. The IGW is a one-of-a-kind international exhibition for the food, agricultural and horticultural industries. At the same time, the IGW is the point of origin for the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) with more than 65 departmental ministers. Producers from all over the world come to IGW to test market food and luxury items and reinforce their brand image. Following consumer trends, regional sourcing plays an increasingly important role. Renewable resources, organic agricultural, rural development and gardening continue to gain importance at International Green Week.
In more fun terms, you can play with pigs and pugs, get real English cheese and drink your way through every beer in the world, whilst sipping on Canadian whisky shots (highly recommended!). The Messe is HUGE and you actually will need a map to figure out where you want to go. We walked around for three hours non-stop and didn’t see anything twice. We also didn’t even see everything!
Each country or German county has a stand, from Iran and Yemen to Hildesheim and Bayern. Some are tiny and just sell a couple of sausages or ice cream, others are huge and cover such a large space that people can eat, drink, dance and buy local produce there. You can watch Moroccan drumming, Bavarian dancing in Lederhosen and horse show-jumping. When you get hungry, choose from Indian curry, white sausages, Hamburg’s finest fish or a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings. Thirsty? There are so many beers to choose from, I wouldn’t even know where to start…
Last year I spent about three hours looking at the piglets – they are so absolutely adorable! If you are super lucky, you might see one of the ginger pigs do the moonwalk – that was the highlight for me!
The flower installations are amazing – you can buy all sorts of things for your garden, whether you need instruments or bulbs and we even saw one stand offering coffins… My photo on this blog (me surrounded by yellow gerberas) is actually from last year!
If you go after 2pm it’s only €9 and get your tickets online to save yourself standing in the queue as it’s outside and Berlin winters are harsh! Here are some photos – and the stuff we ate and bought 🙂
Dates: 16 – 25 January 2015 or if you missed it this year, 15 – 24 January 2016
Address: Messedamm 22, 14055 Berlin
And just to say thank you for reading the whole thing, check out our amusing photo:
