Copenhagen: modern market hall a magic magnet for customers

From 7.30 every morning, thousands of customers – locals as well as tourists– stream through the halls of the Torvehallerne (Linesgade 17) in the centre of Copenhagen. Two long single-story buildings that remind you of greenhouses offer a huge volume of fresh produce in a wonderfully light-filled ambience. In between, in the open, are a few vegetable stalls, including one for organics. With this new market hall – in the style of the (two-storey) Schrannenhalle at Viktualienmarkt in Munich – the Danish capital has created a magnet for visitors, where many suppliers market their own produce. The whole set-up strikes you not only as authentic but as extremely well executed.

(Picture: The market halls of the Torvehallerne)
In the hall displaying a big Number 1, you find mainly butchers, cheese stalls and people selling fish. You hardly see any organic food here. Only the stall bearing the name Omegn sells regional products like jams, sausage, juices and cheese – many of them in organic quality. Hall 2 is a better prospect for anyone interested in organics. Many of the roughly 30 stalls have at least a few organic items, and they are labeled as such. The goods on the stall of Grød, the joint stall of Økoladen selling confectionery (picture) and the Mønbolcher stall are 50 – 75 % organic. Grød - berry – indicates both the name of the stall and what they offer. The stall sells muesli prepared on the spot and porridge to people shopping in the Torvehallerne. In the morning, the sweet items are in demand and, at lunchtime and in the evening, risotto and similar dishes are popular. “We use as many organic ingredients as possible but not quite 100 %, because some products are not always available,” the friendly sales lady explains. Probably about half of the product range is organic, and they can also be bought in single packs that in most cases carry the Danish red organic logo.

When you finally reach the Sødt confectionery stall (picture) you see a mouth-watering array of the finest speciality chocolates, bonbons and liquorice. The 170 g chocolate bars of Økoladen labelled “Chok O Blok” are a special treat. In clear-window boxes you can see a great variety of white, brown and black chocolates: colourful pyramid-shaped bonbons, soft liquorice bonbons coated in chocolate and light-green pistachio powder and other delights – you have to drag yourself away. These products come direct from the two confectionery manufacturers in the south of Denmark.

Il Fornaio is the name of the 100 % organic stall (picture) located at one of the two main entrances to the market. On a pitch measuring 4 x 8 metres is shelving for organic fine foods: oils, vinegars, pesto, tinned sardines and artichokes, and much else. The main attractions are, however, the fresh loaves of bread, open sandwiches and flat bread with cheese, salad or ham, all accompanied by hot drinks. You can eat and drink these offerings at a narrow, high table placed next to the stall. “At the weekend business is brisk, with 600 - 700 customers a day, and during the week we still get a good half of that number,” says a delighted employee about their popularity in the market hall. The Italian owner, Elvio Milleri, started in the organic sector around 25 years ago, and now he operates three restaurants, one totally organic and the other two partly organic (L'altro, Ché-fè).

“Hot Soup” is written on the windowpane (picture) of Rod – a wholefood shop whose name means root. So they still exist in Denmark, these little independent specialist shops, although the trend is for fewer of them. Of course, there’s more than soup made from root vegetables at Rod. Their fresh food shop is in a basement in the Jægersborggade in the Nørrebro district to the west of downtown Copenhagen, a rather alternative location with lots of young people. Two years ago, Sören Sielemann and Julie Poulsen opened a shop in a sidestreet there (ca. 60 m²). Before long, the organic butcher Per Maack Andersen joined them. They specialize in fresh food plus service: they deliver about 50 organic boxes every week – the majority of them by cargo bike. 80 % of the boxes, that are selected from a list on the internet, are put together individually. “People prefer to choose,” is Julie’s experience (picture). For orders over the equivalent of about 30 euros, delivery by bike is free. Customers can also choose the day they want their box delivered.

Another arm of the Rod business is making soup. Tomato, Hokkaido squash and potato and leek soup, for example, are prepared in big 50 litre saucepans and then delivered to five cafés in the vicinity and also sold in their shop either fresh or frozen. Regarding frozen food: a third of the shop is taken up by freezers (picture), ten in all. This is the realm of the organic butcher. What makes him special is the fact that he has practically no waste. Since almost all the meat, apart from some long-life sausage, is frozen, he can keep a huge stock of around 180 articles in the shop. On his farm, about 25 kilometres north-west of the Danish capital, Per Andersen keeps an average of 50 Yorkshire and Duroc organic, free-range pigs. He buys in lamb, beef and poultry meat from other organic farms.

While Anderson advises people and fetches one vacuum pack after another from his freezers (pictures), Julie Poulsen prepares freshly pressed juice for a customer. “In winter they like curly kale or broccoli mixed with apple, ginger or lemon. They can collect up to eight products from the shelves, and I make the juice out them,” explains Julie – around 30 years old. In the summer, juices with pineapple, mango and ginger are most in demand. A 0.3 litre cup costs 36 Danish crowns (€4.80) and the 0.5 litre cup 45 crowns (€6). They sell 30 to 40 juices a day, mainly in the summer season.

In the immediate vicinity of Rod, also in the Jægersborggade, you find the top restaurant Relæ. It has both the gold Ø logo for the highest organic standard in gastronomy and one of the coveted Michelin stars. A little further away are the organic restaurant Manfreds & Vin and an organic bakery. And the breakfast stall Grød in the Torvehallerne has its main shop in the Jægersborggade too at number 50.

Tip:

Further information about organic in Denmark can be found in a recent report on Oneco.

(Picture: Crowd at Il Fornaio)