Farmer's Market on Noordermarkt
In Dutch: Boerenmarkt op de Noordermarkt
(Biological Fresh Food Market - Biologische versmarkt)
About the Farmers Market
The most trendy of the Amsterdam markets, has began in 1987 when Adri Vallentin, then owner of the popular café called Winkel (English: Shop) on the Noordermarkt, has setup nine biological food stalls, hoping to draw more clients on Saturday morning to his café.
Traditional market of pigeons and canaries, which for a century stood on Noordermarkt each Saturday morning faltered, but the idea of biological food quickly picked up with the public, and today The Farmers Market on the Noordermarkt is so popular, that it draws crowds not only from the nearby Jordaan, but also from the whole city. The clients come here from distant cities in the Netherlands, guided by the increasingly difficult task of buying healthy food. The Farmers Market became a real social phenomena and recently a book (in Dutch) has been published about it.
You may find at the Farmers Market not only natural made cheese, biological eggs, fresh fish, bread, honey, herbs, spices, nuts, and home made cakes. There are new products and new ideas, as for example very young eatable grass cultivated by Diana Store - so called Raw Food. There are also beautiful fruits and flowers as well as a stand with the tasteful pancakes. You may eat them sitting on the benches around. But the real specialty of the Farmers Market are mushrooms – fresh, in all shapes and colors, collected in the Dutch forests but also brought here from countries as France or Lithuania.
On Saturdays there are 3 markets in one:
- on the left side is the Boerenmarkt farmers market
- on the right side is the Noordermarkt selling antiques, books, vintage clothing, jewelry, fairtrade bags and many various unique products
- and around the corner is the Lindengrachtmarkt
Also on Monday mornings (9 am till 1 pm) the stands on Noordermarkt sell antiques, books, jewelry, vintage clothes and a wide variety of interesting and collectable goods.
The feel
A small, but lively market. Most of its products are fresh, fragile and get quickly spoilt; we certainly cannot recommend that tourists would buy them for later consumption back home. However, the whole atmosphere of the Boerenmarkt is unique, so when you plan to visit the old district of the Jordaan, go there on Saturday morning and observe the people, feel the smells and learn about the new healthy food. You may eat the pancake with the chestnut cream at one of the stands afterwards, or a may be little less healthy, but very tasty apple pie with the fresh whipped cream in the nearby Winkel café.
As on any market in any country: beware of pickpockets.
How to get there
By foot: ca. 10 minutes from the Westerkerk and Anne Frank House
By tram: tram 3 & 10, stop Marnixbad.
By car: leave your car on the big Europaparking (800 places; € 2,60 per hour), Marnixstraat 250, and walk direction North along Marnixstraat. Westerstraat and the market will be on you right hand, after ca 12 minutes walk.
Open
Saturday 9.00 am - 3.00 pm
Monday 9.00 am - 1.00 pm
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Farmer's Market on Noordermarkt |