Few month ago we joined a community supported agricultural scheme and since then we got our vegetables from Farmer Áron Pető from Szigetmonostor. We have been delighted with the deal, the vegetables are lovely, fresh and there is always too much! Apart from the vegetables we have also received wholemeal flour, white flour, paprika spice, and water and honeydew melons.
Last weekend they invited all the members for a harvest celebration and we all had a lovely time. I was pretty curious to see the farm and the production methods, especially since a week earlier I visited a non-organic tomato farm and was appalled by the amount of fertilizer and the techniques they used. Look at the white bags, all fertilizer, the tomato plants are roughly 15 meters high, they are not in the soil but in tiny grow bags, as they grow they lower the plant and the non producing stem is lying down. The tomatoes are picked in the “growing area”, red and green ones as well, and they “ripen” on the shelves of the supermarket. Yuck.
factory farming: look at all those bags of fertilizer!
Organic tomatoes are a totally different kettle of fish; the plant is in the soil and there is not an ounce of artificial fertilizer in sight, the tomatoes are picked when they are ripe and we get them fresh and warm straight off the stem. If you never had the good fortune to eat warm ripened tomatoes off the plant than rush to Hungary, they are so tasty and sweet!
We ran around the farm, our dog and children were delighted, Oli made friends with the farmer’s dog and a stray puppy who is not so stray any more, and our kids ran in the poly tunnels, chased the puppy and stuffed their faces at the picnic table. The pumpkin soup was delicious and surprisingly all treats were vegetarian!
The members ate and chatted and some helped the farmer take the seeds out of these pumpkins; and now we can look forward to pumpkin seed oil which has an impressive list of benefits.
by zsofi
A vegan restaurant where the chef doesn’t do any cooking? Intriguing, isn’t it? This was my first raw food restaurant experience, since this is the first raw foodie place in Budapest. Raw food for most of us means salad with fresh juice but here I was presented with a selection of main courses and cakes.
Mannatural is well hidden in a small market building though right in the city centre a few minutes from Arany János metro stop. There is a seating area at the bar and at big stone tables and the place is surprisingly sunny!
They had two main dishes on offer and I chose the stuffed paprika with sweetcorn sauce and salad, which was very tasty. I dived in and only remembered to take a photo after I had eaten half of it. But click on the photo and it will take you to the Mannatural album on flickr with some pro images of their dishes. Around me every other customer was eating the chocolate cake which looked really delicious but it was one of the rare moments of my life when I just didn’t fancy a pudding. (No I wasn’t sick just had an ice cream half an hour earlier). I asked a friendly guy next to me at the table and he confirmed that it was indeed just as yummy as it looked.
Ákos, the manager was behind the bar and was happy to answer my questions about the food and the restaurant. They opened 5 weeks ago and at the moment they only open at lunchtime, however they have now an area on the first floor as well where they are going to hold active and passive raw food classes- which means you can watch and eat or prepare the food with the chef. Also in November they open their raw, vegan patisserie!
They also do home delivery, you can check the actual offer on their website.
He assured me that they are vegan, the only exception is honey in the lemonade. 80% of the ingredients come from organic sources and they in fact have 3 organic (biodynamic) gardens around the capital from where they get their fruit, vegetables and honey. All food is made of fresh sprouts, grains and vegetables and special blenders and ceramic knives are used for the preparation. They have a blog in Hungarian with great recipes.
Mannatural is in this market building, the entrance is from Hold utca or Vadász utca.
Address: 1054 Budapest, Hold u. 13
Open: M-F: 11:00-15:00
http://www.mannatural.net/index.php?oldal=fooldal
by zsofi
Bio ABC is one of the best equipped organic food shops in Budapest and right next door they run a cute little vegan eatery and juice bar. They are on the “little ring road” between Kálvin Square and Astoria.
This is a vegan eatery, with the exception of honey in some cakes, and the majority of the ingredients are from organic sources. They do salads, fresh fruit and vegetable juices and couple of warm dishes a day. Today for example they had carrot, apple, beetroot, melon, orange and sand thorn juice. There were soups, and three main dishes, all vegan of course. I chose the special offer (which you can always check on their website) and it was potato, squash stew, tofu, grain burger and salad; it was 850 Hufs, very tasty and quite a good deal, don’t you think?
I also got a plum strudel for pudding; 350 Hufs. There were a selection of cakes, some sugar free, some made with cane sugar. My plum strudel was delicious, full of real fruit.
They seem to follow the Rudolf Steiner “grain of the day” in their menu- with one exception: on Thursday they have buckwheat instead of rye. The small place was packed when I was there; nice to know that so many are into vegan food in our corner of the world! There is only space for 6 chairs and many people get a take-away, in fact all the food is prepared by 10 am and people are encouraged to pick up their lunch early to avoid queueing.
Address: Múzeum krt 19.
Phone: +3613173043
Open: 9am-6pm
http://www.bioabc.hu/
by budaveg
