2023-11-10 20:15:22
Kiwis are grown on the Nieuw Slagmaat farm in Bunnik, and this would not have been possible without climate change. No lack of interest. ‘Sometimes we can barely keep up with demand.’
The orchard where farmer Djûke Smith-van der Maat strolls through the boggy ground looks a bit like a party tent. A roof consisting of hail hoods and a fence of nets screens off the rows of cherry trees. But the farmer’s wife walks past them with a box in her hands and approaches a row of climbing plants with a brown, hairy fruit. Yes, real Dutch kiwis. “Now is the season to pick them.”
Kiwis in the Netherlands? That’s not possible at all, is it? In the 1980s, researchers from Wageningen University tried to grow this gooseberry variety in the Netherlands, but without success. Now, decades later, it works. Farm Nieuw Slagmaat in Bunnik, near Utrecht, had the Dutch scoop. Since 2016, the kiwis have been dangling ready to pick in the wind in the orchard every autumn. “It was a lot of trial and error,” says Smith-van der Maat. “But we do like a challenge.”
The kiwi originally comes from China, which is why it was once called the Chinese gooseberry. In the early twentieth century, the gooseberry was brought to New Zealand, where it would later be named following the national bird: kiwi. The green and yellow variants of the New Zealand kiwi giant Zespri have become indispensable on the European market. Last year, Zespri shipped around 64 million trays of kiwis to Europe.
Not in the supermarket, but in the farmyard
If it were up to Smith-van der Maat, those kiwis might also come from Bunnik. “I am the fourth generation on this farm. Our goal has always been to sell our products directly to customers, or through a food collective such as Rechtstreex,” says the farmer in the kitchen of the monumental building from 1881. “Our products almost never end up in the supermarket.”
Direct sales largely take place on Slagmaat’s own property, in a barn that has been converted into a ‘country shop’. In addition to the home-grown fruit, the meat from the cows that curiously watch passers-by is also sold. Several days a year the farm invites its customers to come and pick themselves. Furthermore, the farm also sells its products every Friday and Saturday on the farm itself.
With this local approach, Djûke Smith-van der Maat won the Nuffield Scholarship in 2011, a grant for pioneers in the agricultural sector. She used the money to travel around the world in search of new knowledge and opportunities. “That’s how I ended up in New Zealand, where we went to see an apple farmer who grew kiwis. He said: ‘If you can grow apples, you can also grow kiwis’. We thought that would be a fun challenge.”
“What are you getting yourself into?”
In addition to China and New Zealand, many kiwis also come from Italy, Greece, Portugal and France, among others. You cannot call the fruit tropical, but it is clear that it benefits from a nice temperature and a lot of sun. That alone makes growing kiwis in the Netherlands a challenge.
It was quite an undertaking just to get the kiwi plants, says the farmer. “In 2012 we went to Italy to get a few hundred kiwi plants. “More than half of them died,” she adds, laughing. “A problem here, a problem there. We still had to learn this, we didn’t understand it yet. What are you getting into?”
Firstly, the kiwi is very difficult to pollinate, the kiwi farmer explains. “In addition, the kiwi likes a lot of water, but not wet feet. We have to keep a close eye on whether they are not getting too much water.” Finally, the season in which the kiwis ripen is very unpredictable. “It can sometimes freeze in November and December. When that happens, we have to pick the kiwis, while we actually want to let them ripen as long as possible.”
A cool fruit
Is the product worth all that effort? “It’s just a cool fruit,” says Smith-van der Maat. Nieuw Slagmaat is ahead of its local competitors, she says, with pride. The farm is no longer the only one that grows kiwis in the Netherlands, it also happens in Kapelle in Zeeland. But, says Smith-van der Maat, “in the business of local regional products, no one has kiwis yet”.
There is no shortage of interest from regular customers. While they were setting up the orchard on the Nieuw Slagmaat farm, they started to become more and more curious regarding Dutch kiwis. “It takes a number of years before the kiwi plants bear fruit. At that time, customers became somewhat accustomed to the idea of Dutch kiwis.” Nowadays it is sometimes impossible to keep up with demand. “I only have to post one photo of the new harvest on Facebook and the next day the place will be full of people.”
Climate change
They have now mastered kiwi growing well, says Smith-van der Maat. But why were researchers unable to bring kiwi cultivation to the Netherlands in the 1980s and is it now suddenly possible? This has to do with the changing climate: it is becoming increasingly favorable for the kiwi in the Netherlands. With hotter, longer summers and milder winters, the fruit’s chance of survival has increased. “It’s a double feeling,” she says, “but the positive thing is that these types of fruits can now grow in the Netherlands.”
After more than ten years of experience, Smith-van der Maat dares to call himself a kiwi specialist. But in the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king, she adds with a wink. “We are still learning every day regarding how we can grow the fruit better. But it is and remains nature that you have to deal with, and so not everything can be predicted.” And according to the kiwi farmer, that means trial and error. She doesn’t mind that. “Of course it’s just a lot of fun to do.”
Smith-van der Maat is done picking for the time being. She brings her box of fresh kiwis to the country store on the property. There they not only sell the kiwis themselves, but also kiwi jam and kiwi wine – according to Smith, a slightly sweet wine, but not as sweet as dessert wine. It is not possible to continue picking at the moment. “The surface is too swampy to drive through with a cart. People would be better off coming and picking themselves.”
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