The Dublin food coop is a market hall which sells lots of organic food - local and imported. They…read moreare open on Thursdays (afternoons until late) and Saturdays during the day.
Thursdays they have a limited selection with their organic/fairtrade/eco products and one supplier of fruits/vegetables, Saturday is the full show.
First, this is a real coop with the whole community concept and you are encouraged to join as a member if you come regularly. Until recently they had a guest fee/suggested donation for visiting on Saturdays but this is gone so you are now free to check it out and see if you like it. Memberships gives you a 5% discount which might only be worth it if you shop there a lot, but even if not it might give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
While the coop is somewhat like a farmers market, it's kind of different because it has lots of different areas. It's definitely not as posh as the Temple Bar Farmers Market, so if you're looking for something like that - you're wrong here - this is much more down to earth (although Natasha's living foods also has a stand there)
First there is the coop-run fairtrade/eco/organic store, which is a bit like a big health food store. Some of the "staple" products (like different beans, sugar, etc.) are packed by the coop itself and seem very competitively priced, others you can find cheaper in other places around town. The selection is great though, there's some things I haven't found somewhere else around town (like these German soy-based meat substitutes).They also do refills for some of the eco washing up/laundry liquids.
Then there is the organic fruit/vegetable/eggs sellers - I think there's four or five competing ones there. They mostly have similar produce though and more than I'd like is imported - I couldn't find any Irish apples there, while they seem to have them at the Temple Bar Market. Also although there are all these producers together you might not get as lovely mushrooms or might be missing some not-so-common fruits/vegetables. They do their best, and all the guys are very lovely, but if like me you're looking for something very specific you might still have to hit both F&B and the Temple Bar Market to try to find it. If you hit these two first, you might be lucky here though.
Then there's a few other sellers, two guys sell bread, one is German and sells nice German breads, the other I haven't tried. And then there's the milk/cheese stand from Moonshine, one of the main reasons I'm coming here. They have the non-homogenised (but pasteurised) Moonshine Milk, which is my new favourite as it tastes much better than the usual one to me. And it's not expensive for organic milk, 2.35 for 2 litres of the tastiest milk you'll get. Their cheese is also delicious.
If you're hungry right there, there's also a cafe and a few sellers of snacks - two Indian foodstands, and a few other sellers of organic soups/pasties/muffins/other snacks. What I tried there was tasty, but nothing to write home about - I wouldn't say it's worth going there just for that.
One thing you won't find in this huge markethall is meat - it's fully vegetarian. I must say I didn't really notice though until I read it on their website that this is part of the concept. I'd personally like a closer place to pick up a good selection of organic meat too, but it's only a small downside for me.
