Open Greenhouse Day...

Our timing worked out well that Veronica was in town for Kom in De Kas, which is an open day for Dutch greenhouses. Gillian generously offered us her car, so we headed to the outskirts of Zoetermeer where there were several open greenhouses in close proximity. Our first stop was Slaman Paprika, a medium-sized nursery which grows approximately 1,360,000 yellow bell peppers annually.

We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with one of the only nine employees in this family-owned business.

We were especially impressed that the operation is both organic and energy-efficient. We enjoyed trying paprika ice cream, which was surprisingly tasty, and buying some incredibly cheap peppers.

Our other vegetable stop was Nursery Lijntje, which grows tomatoes. Unfortunately, due to strict hygienic rules, we were unable to fully enter the greenhouse, but they had a demonstration on how they wash and sort out the ripe from unripe tomatoes.

Not sure how much they grow because I forgot to take a photo of their information board, but clearly there’s bunches and bunches of tomatoes in that giant greenhouse.