It’s eight o’clock on a Saturday morning and I know for sure that the people at Windhoek’s Green Market have evolved beyond caffeine. 
With not a one green with hangover and nary a soul stumbling desperately to the Market Café in search of a spirit lifting cup of coffee, the patrons of this weekly event arrive spritely, good humoured and bent on getting the best of what local farms have to offer.
Edith Kalka of the Namibian Organic Association told me to be on time and she wasn’t kidding.
It’s not so much that I will be pushed aside by determined housewives as much as I will watch in disbelief as piles of locally grown spinach, strawberries, lettuce, spring onion, beetroot, carrots and flowers disappear before I’ve gotten to the business of getting involved. Whisked eagerly away by trim memes, hipster health nuts and the calibre of “hear, hear!” human being who sees a man belittling the friendly farm stall staff and says:
“My goodness gracious! So rude on a Saturday morning when everyone is here for happiness? Happy food, happy people and happy stuff.”
Oh, The Green Market is happy alright. And quite serious about it too.
So much so that I stow my pre-caffeine grumpiness to plaster on a smile and make like the hippies because when in Rome.
Rome, in this case, is the content convergence of a Saturday morning community with ethical and locally grown production at its heart.
Selling everything from eggs to bread to droewors and even homemade cheese, farms like Krumhuk, Waldschmidt, Kwetu, Bellissima and Iiyimati peddle their produce fresh or freshly cooked into ready to go items like quiche and fabulously fresh sausage.
In terms of the extra, The Green Market also hosts a masseuse doing Trager massages overlooking the market, a lovely lady selling beautiful Kenyan clutch purses, assorted tannies selling pickles, preserves and bright jars of jam and a friendly kind of fellow
selling bratwurst rolls and honey. In That, in addition to various crafts which are handmade from natural materials such as cotton, wood, wool, seeds, leather and wire.
Wonderfully rustic and easygoing, the place to perch once you have selected your produce, gone to pay for it a cashier and held onto the slip which will release your purchases upon presentation is the Market Café.
A revolving pop-up restaurant hosted by a different school or welfare organization every week in in order to raise funds for their social projects. Here patrons of the Green Market can enjoy cakes, quiche and savoury brotchen over tea and coffee served on quaint little tables under the spring sky.
Certainly a relaxed and eye-opening morning out with regard to the variety of fresh produce growing and thriving organically in Namibia, The Green Market is a must for anyone interested in healthy eating, supporting local farms or trying their hand at growing their own mint.
From starter plants available from Iiyimati.
A clear instruction to go forth, grow your own food… and make Mojitos.
