Market madness at Shalom

Each and every Saturday morning, a little oasis on the edge of the desert comes to life with local entrepreneurs selling their wares under the shade of palm trees when Shalom Farm opens its gates to visitors, providing a vegetable market with fresh Swakop River produce.

While the desert seems an odd venue for a vegetable market, Swakopmund specialities that survive well on brackish water such as olives and asparagus are cultivated in the sandy soil, and peppers, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers flourish in the Shalom greenhouses. It is also here where the owners of the enterprise, Werner and Christel Ermann, farm with olive trees, of which there are about 1 500, with eight different cultivars that ripen at various stages are used for table olives and olive oil.

The marketers also sell biscuits and breads, mushrooms, pickled products, olive-oil soaps and skin creams, and give local artists and crafters the opportunity to display and sell their work here. To further entice visitors, coffee, tea, cakes, brötschen, sandwiches and slices of quiche are offered at the food kiosk. The market begins at 10:00. Contact Jürgen Baas at 081 129 7865.