Our first summer in Almere Oosterwold. It was very special and fantastic to witness the growth of all the trees, shrubs and plants. We often wondered why we didn‘t learn much more about nature in the past at school. It is a huge wealth to own such a piece of land that you can do whatever you want with. We ate the first black berries and honey berries. The apple tree was full of small apples even though they were not yet edible it was beautiful to see.
We experienced what really fresh vegetables are and what they taste like. The first vegetables and herbs from our Square Foot Gardening trays tasted much better than any you can buy in the shop. Only now did we understand why Henk’s father kept an allotment garden for years. The pleasure of working in and with nature is truly a gift. But you also understand that things can easily go wrong when, after a heavy rain shower, snails devour a large part of your harvest in just one night.
Now you also better understand why farmers so often complain about the weather. It directly affects your annual income and hence your standard of living. For now, our garden is doing very well although we will have to learn to live with the weeds that pop up spontaneously and the large amount of snails, butterflies and birds that all come to eat with us, we will never return to a citylife again.
The summer of the year 2022 was very difficult because it was terribly hot for a long time. The crops suffer greatly from that and you are busy watering all day. The only thing you can do to protect your plants is to cover them with a UV resistant cloth. The tomatoes and chard have less trouble with it. Those did amazingly well. But the lettuce varieties are much more sensitive to drought or rain. So it is not certain whether a seedling will succeed or not. There are many hazards throughout the process. A plant can grow vigorously and look beautiful but be eaten overnight by snails. Or a cabbage white lays her eggs in it that make whole leaves inedible.
In such a situation you realize the impact the weather has on the growth of your plants. Then you can only take your hat off to the farmers who have to deal with this year after year and depend on it for their income.
The potato cannot be moved from its number one spot. This is not a bad thing either because they are healthy and you can make many different recipes with them. Then cucumber, celeriac and vine tomatoes are the most eaten vegetables this summer.
Of course, the orange stands at number one of the most bought and eaten fruits. We do wonder if this will ever change. It remains pretty much the same products; lemons, kiwis, grapefruit and the necessary varieties of fruit for yogurt.
Now that we are retired and don‘t have to deal with meetings and presentations, we can go full steam ahead with the use of garlic, and this is reflected in the data. Mint and coriander also appear to be among the favourites.
France, Spain and later the Netherlands are experiencing a severe heat wave. UN predictions see it as a harbinger of a lasting trend. In the near future, for example, 74% of Spain would turn into a desert. Many of the fruits and vegetables we can buy here come from Spain. There they are also facing a great shortage of water. All this has an impact on the production of fruits and vegetables whose supply will decrease and prices will only increase. Morocco, an alternate supplier, is also facing production problems due to drought and high fertilizer prices.
Despite the high prices for fresh fruits, they always sell very well in the summer. Strawberries, cherries and raspberries fly over the counter. The same goes for vegetables and herbs. Fortunately, people consider it important to buy fresh stuff for which they therefore have to dig deeper into their pockets.
Now that prices are so high we use less. For example, fewer oranges. So from a very big glass we go to a small glass. You can solve it that way, too.
Garlic remains the herb we spend the most money on. Maybe in the future we can grow it ourselves in the greenhouse?
The climate problem is slowly beginning to take its toll. Even here in the Netherlands, farmers are experiencing poor or even failed harvests. One of the causes is the heat wave and resulting drought. And even in a country like the Netherlands we had to deal with a scarcity of water. In some areas, farmers were not allowed to use water to water the land.
A country like the Netherlands has little to no experience with prolonged heat and drought and thus is not prepared for it. The country barely gets a chance to recover from the damage suffered last year. Research by the University of Utrecht shows that the changing climate will unfortunately make these kinds of extreme periods more frequent and intense; years with extreme drought may actually occur almost three times as often.
Despite all the problems, most of the vegetables we buy come from the Netherlands. We had a very good result this season.
You can clearly see from these results that we (can) still be very dependent on countries like Spain and Italy for the purchase of fresh fruit.
We have come up with a new rule for products like ginger and avocado. At least they must be organically grown then we allow ourselves to buy them. But if the same products are offered from the EU then we take them.
According to Milieu Centraal, fresh, perishable products from another continent are often transported by plane. Think asparagus, beans, mange-tout, fresh herbs, exotic fruit and ripe picked fruit. The truck and boat are used for products that do not spoil easily: apples, pears, grapes, bananas, avocados, onions, garlic and sweetcorn. But asparagus, beans and mange-tout can very well be grown in-house here in the Netherlands. As well as apples and pears and possibly grapes. That would save a lot off transport costs and pollution and it would be a lot quieter on the road.
The unit of these numbers is the kilometer ton, which corresponds to the CO2 emissions to transport 1 ton of food over a distance of 1 km (Defra 2005).
Climate impact according to sustainablefootprint.org
The big differences in truck values are due to the use of different types of trucks. As a rule, larger trucks produce more CO2 than smaller trucks and refrigerated trucks more than non-refrigerated trucks.
With airplanes, the distance plays a major role as the largest CO2 is generated during take-off. As a result, short flights have a higher CO2 production per km ton than longer flights.
Just one country that influenced the final result and that is Peru.
New Zealand, Peru and South Africa all three of them have an impact on the end result of fruit transportation.
In retrospect, we have come to the conclusion that we are far too strict with ourselves. The two of us cannot solve the whole world‘s problems regarding food. We changed the rules a little. A product must absolutely be organic, that is rule number one. The origin of the product may also come from outside the EU, if necessary. We missed eating bananas. But think also ginger or avocado and in the worst case organic soybeans.
The explanation why we do this has to do with the adjustment of freight transport in the coming years to sustainable fuels. The only nuisance left is the congestion on the road, water and air.
We should find an alternative for the non organic chestnut mushrooms and onions. Or we could simply just leave them out of the recipes.
All herbs we bought were organic we need to keep this ongoing.
The environmental score of vegetables, fruits or herbs indicates how environmentally friendly a product is, compared to other similar products. The division into scores A, B, C, D, E is based on the most common cultivation method, the most common mode of transport and the most used packaging material for that product from that country in that month. The national share of geothermal energy use and energy-efficient greenhouse horticulture has also been taken into account for the Dutch greenhouse vegetables tomato, pepper, cucumber and eggplant.
Environmental score explanation
We have again interpreted the fruit and vegetable calendar as accurately as possible.
Comes from the Netherlands, is in season, from a field (organic) and has a quality mark.
Comes from the Netherlands or Europe, is in season, from a field or a greenhouse (organic) and has a quality mark.
Comes from the Netherlands or Europe, is in season, from Dutch greenhouses (not organic) and has no quality mark.
Comes from countries such as Israel, Egypt, Morocco (about three thousand kilometers), is out of season, comes from Dutch greenhouses (not organic) and has no quality mark.
Comes from Africa, South America, Asia or New Zealand (about ten thousand kilometers), outside or within the season (it doesn’t matter), comes from Dutch greenhouses (not organic) and has no quality mark.
Environmental score chart
On the left side of the chart we listed the countries where the products come from. Products themselves are listed in the second column from the left. In addition, there are five columns with A, B, C, D and E. In those columns you find white small squares. The number of squares indicates how often we bought a product in spring with that particular classification. At the bottom of the graph, the total is again shown per column.
This season all products are within the limits of categories A, B and C. A very good result
We will have to wait and see how the new rules applied to Environmental score will end up. For this season all products are within the our limits.
According to ‘Reliefweb,’ the events of the past two years have left the global economy in a fragile state. Many countries were already struggling with the economic effects of the pandemic and climate change, and Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has strained many countries‘ ability to cope. Rising food and fuel prices, debt problems and tighter financial conditions are now combining to create what the UN calls the biggest cost of living crisis of the 21st century.
For us, we see an opportunity to grow more vegetables, fruits and herbs next year, as our greenhouse is on the way and the woodland garden is maturing.
In summer there is a large supply of different kinds of fresh fruit, but then there is a shortage of oranges. Simply because oranges abroad are not yet ripe for harvesting.
When you walk into an Albert Heijn store, you immediately see the abundance of products and smell the commercialism. For example, they sell oranges year-round. For products like soap or washing powder, you get about 20 different brands with multiple varieties. We also have our doubts about the organic products they offer. How is it possible that Albert Heijn can offer so much organic yogurt daily when only a limited number of organic farmers have cows to give milk!
In contrast, when you walk into an Odin store, you enter a different world. The stores are smaller and have a limited range of types of products.
A maximum of three types of soap or washing powder can be found. The products exude modesty and quality. There is no overwhelming atmosphere but more basic and no-nonsense. This also applies to the staff. They know their customers and make time for a chat. They also know a lot about the products and can give you advice on which ones are best to use. All in all, it feels much more human.
It‘s clear which supplier is our preferred choice when you look at this chart.
We spend 608,10 Euro at the Odin supermarket and only 11,53 euro at the Albert Heijn shop.
