“I like potatoes, you know. Especially when they are fried. And as fries,” says Sofie (10). Together with her three years younger sister Floortje, she drove to Spijk with grandpa and grandma to dig up some potatoes at arable farmer Menko van Zwol. He has opened his farm for the National Potato Harvest Day, which is held in five places in our country to bring the public into contact with the potato.
Sofie and Floortje have collected a bag full of spuds on a Van Zwol field. ,,Grandpa first explained how to do it”, says Alie Ganzeveld (71) from Sappemeer, who is out with her husband Pieter (76) with the grandchildren. “They didn’t even know that the potatoes grow in the ground.”
Nice event
Van Zwol, who, in addition to six types of consumption potatoes such as Doré and Bildstar, also grows beets and grain and sells potatoes throughout the province, thinks it is a great event. He can talk about his most important product and show that farmers like to open up to interested parties. “We build a bridge to the people, whether they want to walk over it is up to them.”
His product had a hard time this year due to the extreme weather: first a lot of wetness, then six weeks without a drop and then torrential rain again. “The potatoes are very small this year. My harvest is about twenty percent less.”
Shouldn’t he grow new varieties in view of the changing climate? “I would like that, but the consumer is very attached to the existing varieties. He doesn’t want another one, like Vitabella for example.”
Not to eat
Bram Werkman (66) of the well-known potato specialist Landjuweel from Oosternieland listens in. “25 years ago people didn’t want new species either. Not to eat, they said. But now most people don’t know much about those old breeds. They just want to know what they can do with a potato. Do you have to cook it, or do you make it into a stew? If you clearly state that on the packaging, you can sell new varieties.”
In a field a few hundred meters away, Van Zwol’s father Harm (76) walks around to explain to interested parties how to dig up the spuds. “People don’t really know much about potatoes, even adults. They don’t know what to do. That disappoints me. But after half an hour here in the field they have learned a thing or two. And it’s nice to dig into the earth with your hands.”
He thinks the potato is on the rise again. “It contains all kinds of healthy nutrients. You can cook well with it. But do peel. People who don’t peel the potatoes are lazy people”, laughs Van Zwol.