At the end of 2019, we sat down with Falk and came up with some shared projects for 2020.
These were:
-open up a dorfspäti. While we’re lucky in Fröhden to have a cafe, what’s missing is a place for neighbours to meet and share a beer together in the evening, or pick up some groceries easily. At the moment the closest shop is Penny and is 6km away. We had the idea to open up a small späti selling local and regional products, so neighbours no longer have to drive to pick up their essentials, while supporting local companies.
-Flaemingo boxes. We realised that a lot of fresh vegetable boxes on the market are just that – only vegetables. You still need to go to the shops to pick up additional products to make a meal. They often also work on a subscription basis, so there can be a lot of food waste when someone is on holidays or has no time or opportunity to cook for themselves. There would be different boxes, with different add ons. For example, a Blue Flaemingo could be only vegetables, whereas a Pink Flaemingo could be vegetables + flour and other products from Teltow Fläming, or a Yellow Flaemingo could be vegetables + alcohols from our region. The idea was to free people from having to go to the supermarket and to support local.
-pop up dinners and farm-to-table. We wanted to run dinners with our homegrown vegetables in Berlin, to promote local and seasonal eating, as well as organise tours of our place and Falk’s permaculture farm, to hopefully inspire others to grow their own food, show another side of Brandenburg (no, it’s not just full of old people and nazis).
After we came back from our winter trip, Artur and I decided that we would deprioritise the späti and box ideas, due to our parents visiting in May. It was going to be my parents’ first visit to Datscha Fröhden, so we wanted to make everything as comfortable and beautiful as possible. We spent most of our time transforming the hof and the garden in preparation for their stay.
Then corona happened. Artur and I are lucky that life has been close to normal here, even though it’s going to be another year that passes by without my parents coming to visit. Most of our neighbours and friends are not as fortunate.
Falk produces organic vegetables, mainly fast moving products like different types of lettuces and greens, for restaurants in our area. Since restaurants have been hit hard by the pandemic, Falk was left last week with 7kg of salad and nowhere to deliver it to. Artur made the spontaneous decision to bring it to Berlin and managed to sell it to friends. We got amazing feedback on the freshness and taste of Falk’s salad.
Flaemingo Newsletter
To avoid waste and to share high quality produce and products with our friends, we’ve decided to start a newsletter. We will list everything that is available for sale, so far from Falk and Manulita (the owner of our village cafe). As time goes on, more vegetables will be ready for harvest and there’ll be more variety. We’ll also work on bringing other local producers into the mix. We’ll be picking the vegetables on Friday evening and having a friend drive them to Berlin, where they’ll be available for pickup from Buchbund (the Polish bookshop on Sanderstr., Neukölln) from Saturday. To be added to our mailing list, send us an email at flaemingo[at]posteo[dot]net.
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