Newsletter #17

Dear all,

At the beginning of February, we held our first collective weekend in the countryside. The purpose of this weekend was primarily to have a personal exchange between us. We also wanted to see where Bioase currently stands and what we want to achieve in 2024. We will be sharing these plans with you in this and subsequent newsletters.

Results of the customer survey

Last year, a small survey was conducted in our store. Here are the results:

Wow! Overall, you are happy customers: 77% were very satisfied and 23% satisfied! You visit us regularly: over two thirds of you shop with us several times a week, the other third come several times a month or less. New customers also took part in our survey: For 7%, it was their first visit to Bioase. Our central location is a reason for half of you to shop with us. The quality of the products and our service are equally important to you. For the vast majority of survey participants - what a surprise - organic and sustainability are decisive plus points of Bioase. Many of you explicitly stated that the collective idea and the independence of an owner-managed store are important and worth supporting. A big THANK YOU for your solidarity!!! For most of you, fresh fruit and vegetables are the most important foods. It was also interesting to see that our dairy products and eggs are close behind.Our local baked goods made with real craftsmanship are also very popular with you 🙂

One thing was clear: you like our newsletter and would like to receive it more often. We’ll do our best to keep you up to date more regularly by e-mail! Another trend was unmistakable: Environmentally friendly packaging is important to you and you want more unpackaged products. This year we will be launching a small range of unpackaged products. Please bear with us if we don’t offer too many different products here, because on the one hand loose food means more work for our small team, and on the other hand we don’t think that all unpackaged products make sense without exception.

A big thank you to everyone who took the time! We really appreciate the positive feedback and constructive suggestions! 🙂 You haven’t given your opinion yet? No problem at all! Feel free to speak to us directly in the store, send us an email or message us on Instagram. We will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Product news

Product of the month Every time we go shopping we have hundreds of products to choose from, be it fruit, toothpaste, cereal, toilet cleaner and so on. From now on, every month we will be featuring a selected product that has caught our eye, because it is not just fruit and vegetables that are in season! We will also be offering these at a special price, so keep your eyes peeled ;-)

We start with a cheese of the month, because also cheese has its own season! The best time to taste it depends on the lactation period of the animals (the time when they give milk), but also on the maturing period of the cheese. March marks the start of the high season for all Brie’s. For the month of March, we are featuring the Brie Montsurs with a special offer! This is a high-quality French soft cow’s milk cheese with a balanced aroma. When young, it is curd-like and fresh, yet with a melting texture. As it matures, it becomes heartier and creamier. Like all Brie’s, it is perfect cold for cheese platters or can be used in the warm kitchen.

Seeds Seed season has already started! We have everything you need, really! ;) We have plant soil, various fertilizers, gardening gloves and of course seeds, but also organic mouse stoppers, for example. In addition to the well-known “Bingenheim Saatgut”, this year we will again be stocking seeds from “Keimzelle” from Brandenburg. The aim of the two founders, Eve Bubenik and Winni Brand, is to preserve and propagate old and rare cultivated plants. They produce organic seeds for vegetables, flowers and herbs, as well as seed mixtures, on their 5-hectare site 70 km northwest of Berlin in the Rhinluch. The seeds are hand-picked and hand-packed!

Easter time Easter is at the end of the month! We already have a lot on offer for you - from Easter treats and natural Easter egg dyes to seeds for fresh Easter grass. As always with public holidays, please let us know if you are traveling or not so that we can adjust our orders accordingly. If you have specific product requests (e.g. hefezopf, spirits, etc.) or need them in larger quantities, please contact us!

Bags made in Neukölln Since the Christmas season, we have been selling the bags produced by our collective member Rebecca. Under the name “Hoppus”, you can find small purses, pencil cases, cosmetic bags and handbags made from partly recycled textile products. For the items for sale in the Bioase, the focus is on using leftovers, which is why you will find many small unique pieces here. You can buy more of her bags online - and Hoppus is also happy to be advertised! ;)

Häussling winery from Laubenheim You already know our fairly new range from “Weingut Häussling”, which consists mainly of white and sparkling wines. We will soon be adding a red Pinot Noir, which we enjoyed on our first weekend together. The wines live from the climate of the Nahe region and from the passion to produce tasty and digestible wines. The result is delicious wines with a very good quality-price ratio. Häußling wines are bottled in refillable bottles. We sell the bottles with a €1 deposit, so please return them to our store. The winery is also happy to receive cork donations!

Why has olive oil become so expensive? Most of you have probably already noticed: Olive oil is currently very expensive and in some stores it is only available in rationed quantities. Unlike sunflower oil, the reason for this is not a war, but the prolonged extreme drought and other extreme weather events in the Mediterranean region - especially in Spain, where most of the olive oil for Europe is produced. In Spain, less than half of the usual quantity of olives was harvested: 665,000 tons instead of 1.5 million tons, and in other countries there were total failures in some cases. At the same time, Turkey has largely stopped exporting olive oil. The Federal Statistical Office reports a price increase of 43.5% compared to the previous year.

Prices have risen, but at least as far as the products of our small suppliers such as “Ölkännchen” or “Lesbian Donkey” are concerned, we can promise you that the quality will remain first class! As with all foods, our motto remains the same: enjoy with respect and appreciation!

Miscellaneous

We are looking for mini-jobbers! We are now looking for two mini-jobbers, i.e. for approx. 10 hours a week and especially for evening and Saturday shifts. If you know people who you think would be a good fit for us, please pass this information on to them. A short letter of motivation is sufficient as an application.

Our collective member Ashley is looking for a job! She is in need of another part time job beyond the Bioase. Her expertise is actually photography and video, and since coming to Berlin she has worked mostly in the music field, however, her experience extends to portrait, fashion and event work as well. You can see her portfolio at https://www.theashleydupree.com/

Telegram channel: We have recently launched our own Telegram channel. If you want to follow us beyond the newsletter and/or need an alternative to Instagram, you are warmly invited to join! https://t.me/kollektivbioase

Participation for the Körnerkiez: The city of Berlin is currently running an online participation for a future traffic concept in the Körnerkiez. Get involved, there is still time until March 11! https://mein.berlin.de/projekte/module/ideensammlung-mit-karte-68/

Farmers’ protests and “Wir-haben-es-satt”-Demo

A personal comment from our collective member Anna:

“Admittedly, I had limited understanding for the farmers’ protests at the beginning. After all, I’m a big fan of climate protection measures, so at first I thought: of course, the subsidies for diesel fuel have to end at some point. I asked myself who these farmers are and what makes them so angry; and above all, why their anger is directed against the current coalition and the EU and not against the big supermarket chains and the global economy, which are de facto responsible for price dumping and food speculation.

Also, I was worried by the influence from the right: for example, an East Prussian flag was waved during the disruption of the Green party’s political meeting on Ash Wednesday. I would also rather not have heard Christian Lindner’s populist speech in front of a farmers’ demonstration in Berlin, where he wanted to bring into the debate the ’lazy’ recipients of social benefits, completely out of context. But certainly not all farmers are right-wing or loyal to the FDP.

I was really looking forward to the “Wir-haben-es-satt” demonstration. Around 8,000 people responded to the call of the broad alliance of farmers, beekeepers, environmentalists, animal rights activists and consumers. Their aim was to strengthen a rural, organic and GMO-free agriculture (more about the demands here (only German)). As far as I remember, all speakers clearly distanced themselves from the right, which was not negligible due to the previous revelations about the ‘secret meeting in Potsdam’. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I thought the mood among the demonstrators was good. I am glad that I took part in the protest march and will continue to join the calls of what I consider to be ‘good’ lobbyists (Greenpeace, Nabu, BUND etc.) in the future.”

At the very end…

…as always a big thank you to you, your support, and see you later in Bioase!!! 🙂

Your Kollektiv Bioase