Study Trip #2: Belgium & The Netherlands

This Week on The Counter | April 25, 2018 | By Nathalie

It’s hard to believe that we are back from our 2nd (out of 3) study trip already. It was so nice to go somewhere totally new though: on our first trip, the Italians in our class had the upper hand of knowing the language and being able to speak to local producers. But this time everyone was in the same boat in a new and foreign place. I had been to Amsterdam before and really enjoyed it, but this was my first time in Belgium. Though the weather wasn’t great – unsurprisingly – we had an extremely interesting and inspiring trip.

We visited so many interesting and unconventional producers, farms, fishermen and entrepreneurs. One that really resonated with me was an asparagus farm in Eede, Netherlands, which perfectly bridged the gap between high-tech and traditional farming. We got to go out into the fields, which are hand planted and picked. Workers stick a long metal rod into the base of mounds of soil in order to cut each asparagus (individually) off at its root. What we saw inside the processing facility was completely different. The asparagus are placed onto a conveyor belt, weighed, photographed and measured based on their straightness. Then they are sorted into baskets – based on their level of perfection – which determine their price.

They also had an amazing pop-up restaurant where we ate a white asparagus themed lunch

Another highlight was going out on the North Sea to see lobster fishermen at work. Our boat pulled right up beside the fishermen’s dinghy and they showed us how they catch and distinguish between the lobsters, in deciding which ones to throw back. We got to see a female lobster with hundreds of little eggs on her underbelly (she would be thrown back).

Back on shore, we drove to Oesterij, an oyster farm and seafood restaurant right on the water. Our lunch was some of the best seafood I’ve ever had – fresh oysters and lobster platters and white wine in the sun.

We also visited a variety of farms on our trip. While I don’t usually like seeing animals in farm settings – knowing their eventual fate – I was really impressed by Lindenhoff in the Netherlands. They have an initiative called “crowd butching”, through which parts of an animal are auctioned for sale online and the animal isn’t slaughtered until all of its parts are bought first. They employ recovering drug addicts in their farms and gardens, knowing how therapeutic it can be to work outdoors and with animals. I can account for this, having had a chance to have a cuddle with some of the animals too.

Other highlights of the trip include:

Visiting a traditional lambic brewery in Belgium

A chocolate workshop

A 5 course dinner, based on the history of flowers in Holland. Storytelling through food, each (vegan!) course was centred around a different event or story. The restaurant and kitchen were totally open concept and we took turns helping to assemble each course.