18 Feb 2019

BIOLOGICAL, FRESH AND GOURMET: DO YOU KNOW BIOFEIRA?

It is a three-in-one shop that opened in one of the main streets of Santa Maria da Feira. Grocery store, cafeteria and liquor store, all in the same space. Fresh and bulk products are the stars of the house.

We find it by chance, in an unusual walk on one of the main streets of Santa Maria da Feira. The elegant lettering caught our attention, as well as the three words that are written after the name, which immediately say to what they come: BioFeira Biological, Fresh and Gourmet. We got in to kill curiosity.

There is not much left until 3:00 p.m. of a Thursday and a group of women stand at one of the tables of the cafeteria. When you get in, on the right side, there is the grocery store. Here it is sold everything: jams, biscuits, preserves, cacao, coffees, olive oils, liqueurs, pasta. There are also cosmetics (many of which indicated that they have not been tested on animals) but what attracts the most attention is the quantity of products sold in bulk, including seeds, cereals, dry fruits, teas and condiments. There are beans, oats, quinoa, linseed, parsley, almonds, pistachios. "We have a great variety in bulk and customers are adhering very well," explains César Tavares, the owner, along with his wife, Susana Santos, of BioFeira.

There are also fruits, vegetables, and greens. On the afternoon we passed through, some of the fresh exhibitors were already half naked, but we still found French garlic, bananas, sweet potatoes, ginger. And still an exhibitor of Living Seeds that, César explains, one of these days can be in a plate in the form of a sprout. But we will go there.

For now we accept the biological coffee that Susana offers us and we sit listening to the story of BioFeira. It is César who tells it. For several years, he and his wife followed the entrepreneurial route in a "completely different" branch of the current one. In the meantime, they sold the company and bought a piece of land, a hectare and a half, beside the house where they live, in Souto, Santa Maria da Feira. "We already had an organic vegetable garden and this land increased our production capacity. But we started to make accounts of the prices at which the products leave the producer and then it came out the idea of creating a point of sale." They have again made accounts and realized that "a grocery store or organic fruit shop" might not be profitable and they added new things to the store. They arrived at the concept of a "grocery store - biological, with fresh and gourmet products with wine cellar and cafeteria". A three-in-one that, says César, is unprecedented in the city.

The cafeteria is "the key of the business," acknowledges the owner. "It brings movement and helps to promote products and even reuse them. For example, if some products are near the end of their shelf life, we use them for the dishes we make," explains César, noting that everything they serve is done there, every day. Among soups, salads, quiches, pies, toasties and cakes. Daily there is a lunch menu, for € 5, which includes a soup, a light dish (toast, quiche, salad) and a drink of the day, which can be a juice or a tea. In the day we went trough BioFeira the menu was this: cauliflower cream, vegetable quiche and cake without gluten and lactose free. But in the chapter of the "candies” the great bestseller of the house is, for now, the chestnut loaf of bread, sold at € 2.50 (individual) and € 16 (family size). For snacks or breakfasts, granola with Greek yogurt and biological plums is just one of the proposals.

As for the wine cellar, César and Susana sought to include labels covering "all regions of the country", but with the concern of offering "quality wines from producers who are more out of the big distribution circuit." In fact, this was a principle that guided the choice of almost all suppliers of the store. "There are things here which are not found in hypermarkets and even in the city," said César, noting that, whenever possible, the BioFeira's offer reflects the production of Entre Douro and Vouga region. "We have here salt from Aveiro, preserves from Figueira da Foz ... Whenever we can, we will value our region."

Soon, BioFeira will also have available a space where it will promote various workshops - and where there will be a stone grinder mill that will allow customers to buy their cereals and grind them there, taking home flour made in the hour. "The flavor of cakes and breads is completely different," assures César. It will also be there that will be installed the germinator, which aims to take advantage of the sold seeds and with short selling shelf life. "We can germinate them and then serve the shoots in salads, just to give an example. "In the short term, BioFeira also intends to make its own bread: for now, it sells it from various sources, biological and handmade. And the variety is huge: beet, pumpkin, quinoa, seeds, with or without gluten.

As for the talk, it lasts to say a word about the decoration of BioFeira, which in a way tells part of the story of the owners. "Unfortunately, my parents have already died and there are a lot of things here which have come from their home, and that belonged to my grandparents.This shop has pieces of my life”, says César. A milkmaid, a pot, a sulfate machine and another to write, a mallet of cereals, a radio, a scale and a beautiful vitrine are part of their family heritage. As for the different chairs, which are disposed among the wood modern tables, they came from Susana’s parents. "And the bakery-type bike in the center of the room belonged to a brother-in-law," says César, the gleaner.

BioFeira

Avenida Dr. Francisco Sá Carneiro, 61, r/c Esq.
Santa Maria da Feira
Tel.: 256 338 075
https://www.facebook.com/biofeirabio/
Schedule: from Monday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.. It is closed on Sundays and holidays.

Source: In, Público Online
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