Where to buy organic fruit and vegetables in/near Lausanne?

Recommendations
1

Hey,

Let’s collect recommendations on where to buy good quality, diverse organic fruit and vegetables in/near Lausanne.

I’m always geeking out over choice and quality in the french and german organic supermarkets, so basically that’s what I’m looking for :wink:

I’ll keep a list of the suggestions updated:

Markets and farms:

  • The main Market: I think three organic stands on Saturdays. Good quality and choice (better early in the morning).
    Mercredis et Samedis, de 8h30 à 13h.

  • La ferme Rovereaz: they are in the saturday market but you can also go there and they have plenty of choice. (Same address as le Jardin aux 1000 mains)

  • Jardin aux 1000 mains: “Un espace collectif autogéré et ouvert à touxtes qui s’inspire des principes de la permaculture”. You can help in the farm and you get some free veggies or fruit. (Same address as la ferme Rovereaz)

  • La mule in Prilly every Tuesday 17-19:00

  • La ferme de Bassanges located at the UNIL/EPFL campus. Free service shop in their farm on the campus. They also have bread and diary products.

Organic stores:

  • Kiss the ground, lake side of the train station. Good quality, reasonable choice.
    (Obviously best take bike or public transport but tip if by car: one hour free parking under the supermarket next door, buy whatever there on the way back.)

  • Topinambour (near kiss the ground, lake side of the train station)

  • La Brouette

  • Le Jardin Vivant… A shop of organic food close to the train station BUT you need to be a member of the cooperative to buy in the shop and work there some hours/month.

Paniers:

Your own garden

  • check the dioxine (toxic) pollution maps before working in our eating from your garden in Lausanne!
2

An alternative would be organic baskets delivered at home or on the workplace, like, for example, uglyfruits (who also have vegetables despite the name): https://uglyfruits.ch/en/uglyfruits/home

There’s probably a local alternative in the Lausanne area, with more standard shapes for those who prefer that.

Edit: those solutions usually take away the choice and deliver “standard” baskets with a predefined set of fruits/vegetables depending on availability, so it requires some creativity. There are also solutions that allow for a choice between 100% vegetables, 100% fruits and/or a mix of the two. I jumped upon uglyfruits because I like the concept but there are a variety of choice of providers.

Edit 2: a list of providers on: Paniers bio - Bio Vaud

1 Like
3

In Lausanne there are plenty of options. I also live here… juwt a few ideas:

Le Topinamburg
La mule (weekly veggies “paniers”) but they also have a market every tuesday in Prilly
La ferme Rovereaz: they are in the saturday market but you can also go there and they have plentynof choice.
La Brouette
La ferme à millemains: you can help in the farm and you get some free veggies or fruits.

5 Likes
4

Any feedback about the price? Is better at the farms?
Because is some organic stores, the prices are very high.

At Coop and micros, the organic fruit and vegetables are overprice. Lidl and Aldi is better, but the variety is very small.

5

You could also differentiate the origin of the vegetable because you won’t pay the same for bio Swiss vs organic from Spain or Netherlands.
In Aldy or Lidl, you may find carrots, potatoes but it’s very hard for the rest.

6

Thank you for the answers!
Special thanks to @Kamok for the local knowledge, I’m going to try out your suggestions!!

Editing the first post to add in your suggestions if you’re fine with that @Kamok and @Wolverine :blush:

7

Have you tried one of these sites?

It lists farmers that have their own “stores” on the farm.

We have one closeby and the prices are mostly cheaper than in stores or at least comparable. The store close to us offers their own things and works with other farmers closeby to offer their products as well so it has some meat as well.

I used to live close to another one that had the best selection of “ugly” vegetables and tomatoes. You could buy 5 kg of tomatoes for next to nothing. I made so much tomato sauce during that time :smiley:

I guess the big downside is you have to take the car to reach a lot of them if you live in the city.

4 Likes
8

Great, good idea to summarize everything.

There is another one, la ferme de Bassanges. They are located at the UNIL/EPFL campus. They offer also weekly paniers buy they have a self-service shop in their farm on the campus. They also have cheese, cream, bread and milk.

There are for sure others but it depends where you live.

About pricing, the paniers are often between 20-28chf (for a small one for 2 persons). You can get some discounts when you work a few hours per month in the farm sometimes.

In general is more expensive than veggies from the Coop, Migros, Lidl of course. At least in this case you know exactly where they come from and that are healthy / free of synthetic pesticides. I am less confident with coop bio veggies. I often combine both options anyway.

1 Like
9

Updated the list in the OP.

I perused the farm stores but didn’t find organic ones in or very close to Lausanne, give me a sign if I missed something so I’ll add it.

@Kamok - do you know the mille mains “get to know us” thing they do once a month? Is it necessary to arrive on time because, well, I work :sweat_smile: They seem really nice on their website.

Also, thinking about my resolution and @rollerstroller 's advice when passing a farm with self service made me end up with my first ever self prepared salsify, which was delicious but omg what a mess to prepare :face_with_spiral_eyes:🫨 :joy: as well as a 4.5 kg pumpkin :smirk: - so you’ll know what happened if you’re all invited to a mustachian meet up with pumpkin soup soon :sweat_smile:

1 Like
10

Oh no, you can go to the events of le jardin aux 1000 mains when you want. People often arrive and leave according to their availability so no worries to get there later. I’ven been there a few times, specially during spring/summer and is very nice.

Another one: Le Jardin Vivant… I explored this one when I arrived to Lausanne. It is a shop of organic food BUT you need to be a member of the cooperative to buy in the shop and work there some hours/month. For me it was not convinient but if you live close to the train station and you have free time it may be a good option.

1 Like
11

Cool, thanks @Kamok !

ETA: I checked the dioxine pollution map and it seems le jardin aux mille mains et la ferme Rovereaz are (just) out of the general pollution zone and not near the high pollution zone in case anyone was wondering :blush:

12

haha nice, I am not the only one looking at that! I even check the Radon levels in my area… In any case, dioxin levels are particularly relevant for the “cucurbitacé”. It is sad that there is no information on other -more important- pollutants…