Anyone who says the name Oortman in Smilde and the surrounding area immediately thinks of the butcher family. The family has built up a well -known name with the De Wolvenberg company over the past hundred years. Reason for party.
Every Monday Hendrikus Oortman comes to the butcher shop in the center of Smilde. The case he made part of from Kleins is now from his son Rogier. Monday is the day on which the traditional sausages are made by hand and Oortman still wants to be there. “I was always more of the production than from the store,” he says. “A craft that you do with your hands.”
In 1925 the first butcher shop with accompanying slaughterhouse was opened by the family on the Rijksweg. The grandfather and grandmother of Hendrikus built a new building for this. “Between the Spiestbrug and the Leembrug,” says Janny Pomper the wife of Hendrikus. “That was probably a good place because you brought the meat to the people and then you could go in all directions: orange, high -milde, smilde and Appelscha. You had a large reach.”
In 2004, Hendrikus Oortman moved with Pomper to the center of Smilde. The emphasis was more on the store. The slaughter in the house no longer happened. Only the processing. “Now you get the meat as large pieces,” says Hendrikus Oortman. “Earlier you had to do it from the start: from the slaughter, boning, making parts and then cut it in front of the counter. The back door in it, the front door out.”
Purchasing through a wholesaler is not the only change. The family saw a lot shifting in a hundred years. “There were more specialties,” says Hendrikus Oortman. “Slavings were the first things that we were going to make as a specialty. The Hamburgertje and the tartje, that actually originated in our time. We have experienced a lot.”
“We also started barbecuing and gourmetten,” adds Pomper. “You couldn’t imagine that you would sit at the table with all your own pan.” She also points to a photo of a man on the bike. “Grandpa on the bike to Assen to get ice cream to cool the meat. That is now unthinkable.”
Pomper misses the passing by the customers. First she came to take the order at people’s homes to deliver Hat later. As a result, she got a lot of sweet and sorrow within families.
In the last years, since 2019, Rogier Oortman mainly saw the cover in society to convenience. With complete meals such as Stampoten, he tries to respond to them. “We sat down in the mall, closer to the customer and we have more convenience items such as pre-tagged meat and ready-made meals.”
Another one hundred years old? It will not suspend the will and the ambition. But the family does not know whether it is realistic to continue in this form. Pomper points to the choice of the new generation. Also the other son of the family who was in the company until recently, has followed his heart and has been over to train to care.
“I have no idea what the children are going to do, but it must be their own choice,” says Pomper. “That used to happen just. If you had a farm, then the eldest son became a farmer. If you had a bakery, the eldest son was a baker. If you were a butcher, then the eldest son was a butcher. Then it was not asked: do you like that? Although this butcher really liked it.”
But the appearance of the profession has also changed Pomper. “There are quite a few people who shun meat nowadays. That is a personal choice and therefore people also look at the butcher differently.”
Rogier fears the changing wishes of customers or opposing costs due to external factors. “The market is changing very quickly. You have to do with a lot of price changes. If something happens in the world, you will notice that at the prices.”
But there is not much time for the worries. There is a party on the program. “It’s a beautiful whole,” says Pomper. “That you can run a business for a hundred years as a family.” Hendrikus leaves a tear of pride. “I have experienced a lot of those hundred years.”