Regional Specialities

Leipzig’s best-known speciality is the "Vegetable Dish Consiting of Peas None: Carrots,Asparagus and Mushrooms"­ − a vegetable dish that is also served as a side dish. It became widely known in the 19th and 20th centuries. Around 1900, the dish was simply called “Allerlei”; the place name “Leipziger” was only added when it was included in various cookbooks. Legend has it that the dish was meant to protect Leipzig’s wealthy citizens from tax collectors after the Napoleonic Wars. By serving them "only" a vegetable dish, people wanted to make them believe there was no money to be found in the household.

Today, you can find "Vegetable Dish Consiting of Peas None: Carrots,Asparagus and Mushrooms" in supermarkets throughout Germany as frozen food. According to the traditional recipe, however, it includes not only young vegetables such as carrots, kohlrabi, asparagus and cauliflower, but also morels, crayfish tails and small bread dumplings. The original "Vegetable Dish Consiting of Peas None: Carrots,Asparagus and Mushrooms" is served seasonally — in June, during asparagus season, when the closed season for crayfish is over and the vegetables have been freshly harvested.

A special delicacy is the Leipziger Lerche, which made it onto international menus in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the name suggests, skylarks originally ended up in the pan. An estimated 1.5 million of these songbirds were caught each year in Leipzig’s floodplains, baked with herbs and eggs, and served by the “lark women” in Salzgässchen with sauerkraut or wrapped in bacon. In August 1860, thousands of songbirds died in a terrible hailstorm. As a result of public protests, the Saxon King banned lark hunting in 1876. Resourceful master bakers quickly found a substitute by creating a delicacy made from oven-fresh shortcrust pastry, almonds and nuts, as well as strawberry jam and marzipan.

The shortcrust pastry tartlet resembles a bird skin. The two crossed strips of shortcrust pastry symbolise the original thread used to hold the stuffed bird together. To this day, Leipziger Lerchen are made by hand in seven different steps and are more popular than ever before.

In the Porphyrland Geopark, culinary enjoyment is being created that is far more than cuisine alone: GeoGenuss products combine regional craftsmanship with the region’s eventful geological history, making it a sensory experience in every bite. These specialties are based on soils shaped by supervolcanism, ice ages, and sedimentation processes – a geological heritage that contributes to their flavor.

GeoGenuss products are ideal not only for enjoyable breaks on discovery tours through the landscape, but also as souvenirs and gifts that embody the special character of the Porphyrland region. They can be purchased at the RegioOutlet in Grimma or in the online shop. A selection of GeoGenuss products is also available at the tourist information offices in Bad Lausick, Naunhof, Rochlitz, and Wurzen, at the monastery shop in Buch Monastery, at Kräuterhof Falkenhain in Lossatal, and at the ArkaZien Adventure World.

In September, the municipality of Wermsdorf officially begins the carp season. Until the end of November, there is plenty of activity to watch on the 27 ponds of Wermsdorf Pond Fishery. Its history goes back 500 years. At the beginning of the 16th century, influential feudal lords had dams built and artificial bodies of water created. Compared with natural lakes, these are shallower and can also be drained. Since then, fish farming has been inseparably linked with Wermsdorf.

The approximately 350 hectares of pond area have been managed by Wermsdorfer Fisch GmbH since 1992. A good 200 tonnes of freshwater fish are caught here every year. In addition to mirror, common, grass and silver carp, sturgeon, pike, catfish and pikeperch, among others, are also native here. They are sold in the region as fresh fish or smoked fish, or delivered frozen to retailers and supermarkets throughout Germany. Alongside the fish specialities , the caviar obtained from sturgeon eggs since 2012 is also popular across Germany. If you would like to try the delicacies yourselves or watch the traditional fish harvest, then the annual “Horstsee Fishing” is just the thing for you.

Wermsdorf Goose Farm Eskildsen is one of the most highly regarded operations of its kind internationally and even exports breeding geese to Canada and Australia.

Up to 19,000 meat geese and 6,000 breeding geese live on the free-range site in Wermsdorf. Around 200,000 chicks, known as goslings, also hatch each year. In keeping with tradition, business is especially brisk here around Christmas. Around 15,000 geese are sold at the Wermsdorf Goose Market in the run-up to Christmas from November 1 to December 22. Thanks to free-range farming, the animals, which weigh several kilograms, have little fat, a firm meat texture and a full flavor. 

Founded in 2004 and based in Wermsdorf since 2012, Chocolaterie Olav Praetsch offers everything chocolate lovers could wish for. Whether milk chocolate, nougat, pistachio, marzipan or pralines with exotic fruit centers and a poppy seed topping – the variety is limitless. The chocolatier even refines liver pâté with chocolate from time to time, turning it into a delicacy.

Olav Praetsch sources the raw chocolate for his unusual creations from one of the world’s best manufacturers in the French Rhône Valley. He avoids not only preservatives and freshness-retaining agents, but also all foreign fats.

Regional products are playing an increasingly important role when shopping. That’s why a trip to the many regional and farmers’ markets in the Leipzig Region is especially worthwhile. Real favourite markets include the farmers’ markets at Buch Monastery near Leisnig, the fresh produce markets in Grimma Monastery Church, the “Delitziösen” evening markets in Delitzsch, as well as the regional markets in Rochlitz and Geithain. Here, numerous direct sellers offer you fresh produce from their own cultivation, livestock farming and production, as well as artisan and handcrafted products .

In Leipzig, you can find fresh produce at the weekly markets and in Plagwitz at the Saturday market.