The importance of……enjoying

Always enjoy your meals, whether it is a luxurious four course meal or a simple plate full of vegetables

Now 2012 will arrive within a couple of days it is time to decide about next year’s intentions. Maybe it’s good to be more innovative this year and not only force yourself to visit the gym more often (you know it will only hold for a week weeks, if at all). Why not intend to enjoy more?

Western people spent less and less time on their meals (see blog Stop and Go). Most are combined with something else like working, travelling or watching TV. This trend influences the way we eat and the way our meals are received a lot.

Christmas, New Years and Epiphany are days which – for many people – are not related to religion anymore. Meeting friends and family, receiving presents and eat outstanding but never ending meals are the main events of these days.

Diners which are prepared with a lot of time, effort and probably love. Since these days only happen once a year it needs to be good. And even if it is not that good, rich or outstanding, it is important that you are together with your loved ones, sharing at least one and the same thing.

Since no one is in a hurry, these diners are the perfect moment to really enjoy. And if this is liked by so many of us, why not continue this behavior/tradition all the other 365 days of 2012 too?

ENJOY! And see you next year.

One big fridge

How do you do your weekly food shopping? You do buy each day what you feel like? Or do you make a list and bring some big bags to fill up your fridge and storage room only once a week? Both have its pro’s and con’s. Either you buy what you feel like eating each day and forget about your leftovers (which eventually will be thrown away). Or you buy too much which probably has the same effect as the option named before. Why can we not see the city as one big fridge?

Supermarkets try to find a balance between offering a wide range of products to their customers without having to throw away too much unsold products at the end of the day since. If they fail to have enough stock, modern city people will not accept this and go and find another supermarket. If its stock is too wide, he will lose profit.

In France there are organizations called Prud’Homie*. These groups represent a special group of fisherman. This group knows how important it is to keep nature in balance while also offering making sure they keep their hunger away. They therefore only catch as many fish as they can sell. They see the oceans as a fridge from which we can pick what we need.

When more urban farming is practiced, we can take over the idea of a Prud’Homie: The ‘supermarket’ is at the edge of a field. As soon as a certain product is sold out, the farmer can pick new fruit or vegetables. And if some food isn’t eaten at all, or very little, it just stays on the land for a couple more days.

This leaves us many advantages; we can always have fresh food (even milk can be sold like this), transport distances are kept to a minimum and the producer hardly needs to dispose of any of his products.

Before we can reach this type of society, we need to incorporate this city-as-fridge-strategy in urban planning. Thanks to the crisis some initiatives have already started to prepare it. Empty plots or buildings are now arranged to grow food. Not only giving people the advantages mentioned before but many more; greener areas, social wealth and health, more beautiful neighborhoods. Did you ever realize a fridge could be this multi-functional?

*A Prud’Homie is an institute established in the 14th century which amongst others regulates rights for local fisherman.

Track and Trace



A streetname which dates back to its former function; a market square were calfs where sold.

 Jeans brand Kuyichi used to have a track and trace opportunity which enabled costumers to track back the route of their jeans.* Many parcels can be tracked in the same manner; as soon as you have delivered you package at the post office, the receiver will be able to see where his package is and when he can expect it. What do you know about the route your food has followed?

Many cities have been built around the way food used to enter the city. The harbors around which fish would be sold, the streets going from the countryside to the cities’ market squares. You can still recognize this in plans of old cities and in the names of streets and squares.

Nowadays most people have literally no idea how the food entered the supermarket. Although more and more supermarkets give information on the country of origin of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, it doesn’t tell you how it travelled. ‘Parma ham’ could be made from Dutch pigs, transported all the way to Parma in Italy (which is around 1200 km one way!), to be slaughtered, packed and sold as ‘Parma ham’. You as a costumer think you have a traditional meat while it is probably not very different than the ham you would buy from your local butcher.

Even for biological food you should stay alert on the route it has traveled before it enters your kitchen. Food grown in the centre of your country can be transported to an auction in the North and then bought by a supermarket which is located in the South of that same country. Even though you try to buy as much food as possible from your own country you are not always correct since a farmer in a neighboring country can be closer to your home than one living in your own.

Only when you sell your produce directly from a farmer, a local market stall or a supermarket selling local produce you can be sure that you can trace the track your food has followed. So stay alert when shopping. Ask the seller where the produce comes from and consider buying twice when he doesn’t know.

*Kuyichi decided to stop this service. The brand thought it did not ‘provide sufficient transparency or added value’ to their end costumer when only tracing their products back to their stitching facility.

The Beauty and the Beast

Not very beautiful but delicious foods

Tastes differ. It is a fact and it is no problem. This is how different brands can survive. It gives us the opportunity to choose each day what we like. But sometimes choices are made for us.

Time, age and context all influence what we like or what we do not like. When we are young we might not like foods which we start to love as soon as we get older. The same goes for clothes. If one sees pictures of himself from ten years ago he will feel ashamed about the way he dressed at that time. Actually these differences make life so interesting. It makes us curious to other cultures, it makes us interested in history, it makes us learn new things each week.

When you go around a city you will find a diversity of building styles. Each area has its own and even within those styles one can find different typologies. People appreciate them differently. Some like the ornamental architecture of the 19^th century while others prefer the sober buildings of the modernists. Although we do not agree on what we call beautiful, we accept there are different opinions between different people. And these differences make a city so interesting. Wouldn’t it be boring to finds just one style applied to all the buildings in a city?  

Sometimes there is a common agreement on the beauty or ugliness of a building. In case the building is found ugly by many the owner could decide to come into action. When it is not possible to fix the ‘mistake’ the building could be demolished and replaced. But in many cases the ugliness is only found on the façade while the internal structure functions well. A simple makeover of the façade and the interior ensures the continuation of the buildings’ life for many more years after that.

People are also working on their appearance constantly. After one has wakened up he decides what to wear, how to dress ones hair, what make-up to wear and so on. To make sure one’s body stays in shape he visits the sports school every now and then. When one gets older and finds himself full of wrinkles he visits a plastic surgery or just accepts it because being less perfect from the outside doesn’t mean one is less beautiful on the inside.

It is never possibly to fully agree on what is beautiful and what is not. And even if something doesn’t look beautiful it doesn’t mean it is ugly. Then why are people at different moments in the production process of food deciding for us what we like and what not? Why do they decide that some bananas are to straight and thus ugly? Why can we not find hooked eggplants in the supermarket? Because those people decided we find them ugly and thus do not want to eat them. Isn’t it strange that we can make so many decisions each day about what we find beautiful and what not but that we cannot decide this for the food we buy?

Next time you will buy your fruit and veggies choose those which are not looking very attractive. I bet they taste perfect!

Studio Baan has started the campaign ‘Ugly food, (tr)eat it with respect to encourage people to avoid that foods which look different than consumers are used to are being thrown away. 

Inside out

Things change constantly. One year you have to wear skinny jeans while the next year you cannot go out without a loose fit model. While time passes by, trends come and go eventually influenced by external circumstances. So it goes for food habits.

Long before people were able to enjoy food in a way we do now, people mainly lived to collect food and then ate the food to survive. Everyday again men went out in the fields to hunt animals while the woman took care of the babies and the ‘houses’. A life in which everything is centered on food seems like a dream come true for many people in modern life but those days were hard. Hunting was (and is) dangerous and if no animal was killed, there was no food. And no food means less energy for next days’ hunting trip.

After centuries some lazy (or you could call them clever) hunters started to create areas which we would now call farms. They looked for fertile areas where crops could grow and animals where plenty. Either because they were attracted to come to a certain spot to gather food or water or because they were caught and put in an enclosed area by a farmer. Cities came grew and gathering food did get less important in peoples life. As long as you had money or something else to exchange you would be able to buy food.

This enables people to concentrate on other things like philosophy, politics, arts and sciences. The population started to grow and got wiser. This finally resulted in the industrial revolution which also caused a revolution for the food discipline; trains enabled food to travel over longer distances, food could be prepared in different ways, and thanks to electricity dinner could also be eaten after sunset.

Another result of this revolution is the fact that machines took over the work of human hands. This meant people needed to work less and had time left to spend with family or friends. What’s better to enjoy a meal then? Well, apparently lots’ more. Because relatively soon after the Industrial Revolution machines where invented which relieved housewives from the hard kitchen work they had to do each day. Microwaves, fridges, stoves and electric ovens took over her job. And supermarkets and low food prices encouraged them to buy ready-to-eat meals which meant more and more time could be spend on other things than the preparation of food. Eating became a necessity instead of a pleasure.

Only some of us really take time to sit down and eat. Eat and enjoy. In bad economic it would be done in your house where you sit down at your own dining table tasting all the different flavors of the dish in front of you. Or when things go better you go out and meet others and discuss your week with friends and family while being served a good three or four course diner. It actually doesn’t matter how as long as you realize that food is still indispensible if one wants to survive. So you better enjoy it!

See this TED talk on 'What's wrong with what we eat' by Mark Bittman (NY Times).

The importance of....tourism

Whether you prepare it yourself or order it at a restaurant. You are fine as long as the ingredients are local.

Today this blog exists exactly one year. To celebrate this I will introduce a new – monthly – series which is called ‘The importance of…..’ Of course the normal posts will also continue to be posted weekly.

Tourism is not a very old phenomenon. Even though people have been travelling around the world for centuries, their motives were different than those of the contemporary tourist. Western explorers travelled to discover, research and reign ‘new’ countries. Some of them reached their goals, others failed. However, these travels have had a big influence on the worlds’ history. Small European countries like The Netherlands and Great Brittan ruled over faraway destinations for centuries. Thereby behaving like monsters and treating the inborn like minor races. People where traded as slaves all over the world.

The good side of this impetus to explore the world is that it not only spread people over the world, but with them cultures and their specific food habits. Because until that moment food – like people - didn’t travel either. People ate what was available in their proximity. When they had to go to other places, they just ate what was served there. Now we can still recognize the regional dishes which can be as local as the size of an island or of deserted valleys in mountainous areas.

Nowadays people go around the world like they visit their neighbor. Some of them still have the faith to discover unknown places and people. Others are less adventurous and just want to be away from home and to be spoiled in a comfortable environment. But no matter what kind of holiday you prefer, you need to eat anyway! Here is a good chance to get to know another culture.

In most countries food is part of local culture. For a inexperienced tourist it might take some time before he gets’ to know the food habits of their holiday destination. Do people have breakfast and what is it like? When can we have lunch? And what if I do not want to eat meat? Is there still a possibility to get diner? Well, I guess you have to go out and explore!

When you booked a hotel room in a small place you might be lucky to find a nice hostess which serves you a breakfast typical for the country you are in. This might be a spicy soup when you are in Asia or just a cup of cappuccino and some sweet pastry when you are in Southern Europe. When you are filled up, its time to go out. Go out to the local market. A perfect place to get to know local products. Farmers sell their fruit and vegetables but maybe also some meat, tasty cheeses, cakes and what so ever. Collecting diner here is very good for everyone involved: local farmers profit of tourism which helps them to survive and gives you a tasteful meal, a beautiful landscape which he maintains and a good feeling because the food didn’t have to travel over long distances.

Big hotel and restaurant chains also figured out the importance of using local produce. Some of them now serve a daily menu composed of vegetables and meat or fish from nearby farmers. This enables the lazy tourist to relax and helps the farmers to profit from tourism.

So, don’t feel ashamed to go on holiday every now and then. As long as you act responsible towards local environment and economies you’ll be fine. Did you start to plan yet?

Great places

Shops, a park and more shops and cafes. The perfect ingredients for a great area.

More and more people start to meet each other in popular places like coffee bars or cafes. Not only to talk to friends, but also to do business. Spots come and go. You need to stay updated about which places are hot and which are not. But some little secrets stay perfect forever!

In my hometown there is such a lunchroom. It is in an area which is developing. Governments puts in a lot of money to make it a flourishing area. But in my opinion it is already working very well. The ground floors of the buildings are dominated by small supermarkets owned by Turkish or Moroccan people, bakeries, (take-away) restaurants, a drug store, a flowershop, a bike repairer and so on. It actually is a street Jane Jacobs would love. It functions as the center of two areas of which one is dominated by social housing while the other is full of beautiful decorated buildings which could only be afforded by those who have a well-paid job. Both groups meet somewhere along the street.

In the middle of this street is a small green spot where dogs can be walked, cars can be parked, children could play and adults could meet. It sounds impossible but the picture tells you what I mean. On one of the sides of this square a small lunchroom is situated. It is such a place with good food in which you can wake up after a long night out, where you can relax if you worked hard or where you finally are able to read a newspaper. The staff will spoil you if you ask for it and leaves you alone if you need some time for yourself.

It also is a place where people come to meet each other. If you come regularly not only staff but also other guests will start to recognize you. After a while you say hello to them and, before you even notice, your share a table and the story of your live. It is a place which is used as an office or a meeting room. People meet each other, discuss about business, the work of art they are currently working on (art could be any creative activity in this lunchroom), discuss their best friends new boyfriend, relax, make plans for the future, and so on.

What’s so good about this place is that it is not only inhabited by one group of people. Although well educated young people dominate it is also visited by people who seem to be a bit ‘strange’ in the entourage of the simple interior and outside terrace. People who clearly entered because they have been shopping in the area and looked for a place to rest, something to eat or a visit to the bathroom. But unlike in any other places dominated by a certain group of people, also ‘strangers’ are welcome. People do not gaze at the newcomer. They just know that they also belong to the area to which the lunchroom belongs to.

This place is a good example of a not designed but very welcome and very successful place of social interaction which just seems to work. Here food catalyses the relationship between two different groups having to share the same public space. I wish I knew what ingredients are needed to create more of them!

Farming the city

Should the farmer start a food factory?

Loads of articles, documentaries and books are written about people in cities which start to grow their own food. Also now it should be known by most people that more people live in cities than on the countryside. Is there still room for farmers?

In countries where cities are expanding fast - like China and India – governments buy up land like it’s for free. Land around cities which used to be used by farmers. Farmers are sold out and promised a better life in city. A life in which they can live in luxury. A life in which they do not have to work that hard, in which they are not dependent on the harvest. A life which everyone likes to live.

This phenomenon causes two problems. The first one is that farmland is now used as land for developers filling it with houses, big apartment blocks and offices. As a consequence no food can be produced close to the cities anymore while actually more food is needed. Although it seems a big problem, the local and national governments of these fast growing countries have already found a solution: They buy land in other countries like Ethiopia where land is plenty and prices are low. This seems a smart solution but it actually only shifts the problem from one country to another and makes it even a bigger problem: where does the Ethiopian farmer get’s his food from, who will pay him the right wage, how do we handle carbon emissions caused by long travel distances between Africa and China, and so on?

The second problem is that farmers in those developing countries usually have no education. They are brought up by their parents and started to work on the farm as soon as they were old enough to help. When they move to the city it is hard for them to find a job since they cannot read and are not used to work in the hierarchy of a company. If the ex-farmer is able to find one he probably has to work hard for a minimum wage most probably as a construction worker on one of the many building sites.

Some of them seem to be smart. They build an apartment block for themselves which they rent out to others. Others resist the shift in their life and continue farming. Not in the way they and their parents and grandparents used to do this, but in a way adapted to the modern city. So called urban farming. Rooftops and leftover spaces are used to produce their own food. Partly because those farmers just love their profession, partly because they cannot do anything else other than farming. It is their way to deal with the circumstances they are forced to live in.
Those urban farmers have not chosen for this type of live. But sooner or later they might become very important for their neighborhood. When it gets more difficult to import food into those enormous cities the small urban farmers are capable to still produce food. Food which will be appreciated by others living close by. Not only because it is food, also because prices are reasonable and not influenced by transport costs, import taxes and big companies.

For the same reasons mentioned above it could be good for us Western people to start or continue urban farming. Like it used to help Londoners a few years ago to survive in an unexpected and exceptional situation. So as soon as spring turns up, go to the shop, get your hands dirty and start to farm!

If you like to have more information on current initiatives or urban farmers check Farming the City (the Netherlands) or - among others - Zappata Romana (for Italy).

Find a new balance



To survive we should stay in balance (photo by RBisschops)

Someday soon the earth will welcome her 7 milliard inhabitant. Usually something like this will lead to a party. Is there time to celebrate if we know that within forty years there will be 2 milliard more inhabitants in this world?

It is a strange world. There is an enormous wealth for one part of the inhabitants, while another part has to survive each day. People eating so much that they will get all kinds of diseases. So called nutritional diseases which refers to a lack of nutrients because those people eat too much processed foods containing lots of fats and sugars but hardly any vitamins and nutrients necessary to have a healthy body. Other people get ill for the same reason (lack of vitamins and nutrients). Not because they eat too much but because their diets are too narrow and contains not enough energy.

It’s like people complaining about the weather. In moderate climates this could be talk of the day while actually those people should be happy about the ‘extremes’ they have to live in. Especially because their ‘extremes’ do not last that long and because they are not that extreme compared to real extremes like the floods in Bangladesh or the draughts in Chile.

People complaining about long traffic jams when going out shopping for – again – new clothes should think again when they know people have to walk a few hours each day to fill-up their water supply.

While European consumers waste 179 kilo of foods per person each year people in developing countries should be happy to eat this amount of food each year. It seems not a very efficient way of distributing food over all the earth’s inhabitants.

We in the West might have to reconsider what we complain about. Of course we cannot and should not compare our lifestyle with those of others living in completely different circumstances. But we should at least consider if what we complain about is really worth it. Maybe it is just a problem which can be blamed by the wealth we live in.

So maybe we should just celebrate the birth of the earth’s 7th milliard inhabitant. Let’s celebrate it with the poor and the rich, the fat and the frail, the healthy and the sick. Let’s share our stories and create respect. Not just during the party but also afterwards when reconsidering our behavior and becoming more responsible and acting more respectful towards our co-occupants. Starting now.

Bees and the boring countryside

See the diversity in a city!

The countryside is often found boring by people living in vibrating cities. The choices between shops is very small since there are only a few (if you are lucky) and definitely not more than one per type. Inhabitants do not only know their neighbors but also the people in their street by name and maybe even the rest of the inhabitants of the village by face. This is not only because they meet each other at school, in sports classes or in the café next door, but also because at least some are relatives. Diversity in population is not very big.

This problem is not only visible in the human population. The diversity in crops is getter smaller and smaller while farms are growing bigger. It is definitely caused by the European policies which have encouraged farmers to work more efficient. Not a bad idea since it is necessary to feed many people who do not want to pay too much for their food. Now each farm specializes in growing one crop for which the farmer has the right machinery and knowledge. After some years of experience he knows exactly how to deal with it. On one hand a very good approach (efficiency means low prices for consumers) , on the other hand not very sustainable (soil needs a brake, diversity is necessary for fertility).

Growing just one crop per farm not only influences the appearance of the landscape in the bigger scale. It also influences the micro scale habitat of the insects. When citizens find a rural village to quiet they move to the city. A city has everything: from German beer stube to Mexican restaurant, from second hand clothing shop to exclusive jewelry stores and everything in between. Even though the city also has its disadvantages – busy, noisy and sometimes dirty – these are taken for granted.

Bees have followed the people. They found out that the diversity in cities is much bigger than those on the countryside. Each citizen brings its culture into the city and possibly mixes his with that of someone else. This means already three types. Counting up the amount of people living in a city and the enormous variety of backgrounds there will be a confetti of people.

Balconies, roof gardens, courtyards, left over corners and parks are all grown with plants brought in by families or by the government. To the bees this range is like a sweet shop for children. So much to choose from! The perfect habitat to survive.

Since bees are indispensable for our food supply, we should make sure they can not only live in cities but also feel comfortable on the countryside. Thinking of the birds and the bees and television programs in which farmers will look for a wife: maybe the farmers have to mix up at bit more. Not only in their own private life, but also on their farms.

Making the invisible visible

Ssomeone who decided to cater for his own food

When leaving the city and coming closer to the countryside one can see all kinds of foods growing. Probably you have no idea who is taking care of it, whether the corn is for you or for the cow you will eat later, whether it is grown organic or if pesticides are used. Can we really make a difference on food choices or is it done by others?

It is important for a government to make policies. Policies help to make it easier to govern a country. It makes it easier for citizens to sort out what is allowed and what not. It is like a strategy which helps to meet certain demands, to reach goals which should be reached, etc. Sometimes helped by subsidies to achieve them.

Also in agriculture policies are needed. In Europe they started to introduce them shortly after WWII when food was scarce and demands where high. It solved this problem and protected the Europeans from hunger. But policies where overwhelming and instead of shortages there were food excesses which the governments had to transport to developing countries or which they had to dump (butter, milk).

Now policies do not only give a framework in which to work in, but they control the lifes of many farmers and their customers. They produce in such a way that they are guaranteed a subsidy. Only some farmers have the guts to escape from this regime and do it their own way. They work hard to produce what they want in a ay they feel comfortable with. These farmers have a long way to go but in the end they might have better profits and life a happier life.

Subsidies are not necessarily bad. They also offer people the possibility to develop themselves. Without subsidies there wouldn’t have been projects like Foodscape Schilderswijk in The Hague, Parco Agricolo Sud in Milano or Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat in Barcelona. But it is necessary to involve people who dare to move forward, who dare to step up and to be innovative.

Grants gives individuals or small groups a change to think about their and our future. Therefore a framework is needed leaving enough space to do what’s good for all of us. In such a way that we do not all have to follow the same strategy. Like we could choose what program we watch on tv, we should also be able to choose what we eat, where it comes from, etc. Especially now choices already become more narrow.

Things which are best for one could be worst for the other. Freedom is needed. Therefore we should not make big companies to dominant. Specialty shops, small farmers and producers of specific products should also be able to survive. One cannot control everything. Be happy as long as one is able to move within the policy framework. And do not only encourage to produce more. How can we complain about shortages if loads of foods are thrown away each day?

Curious on the future of agriculture? Follow creation of the new Common Agricultural Policy at the website of the EU, YFM and toekomstglb.nl

Behind the scenes

Former slaugther house area which has been transformed in a residential area in 1998

This article is also available on IL CAMBIAMENTO

‘ Do you know where your food comes from? What ingredients and additives are used for that product? Where has it been made?’ These questions - about the origin of your food - are posed often these days. It is hard these days to encounter someone processing food while almost all the food we eat has gone through one. But how to check this?

Let’s start with some history. A long, long time ago people where living like nomads, putting up their campsites on strategic spots where soil was fertile and animals could survive. Then some groups decided to stop moving and settled themselves. The first city was created. For centuries food was brought in on their own feet (cattle, goats and sheep) or by horse wagons. Boats enabled to trade over longer distances, like was done between Italy and northern African countries and in Dutch VOC period (East Indian Company). City inhabitants did their shopping on daily or weekly markets. From the industrial revolution onwards it became possible to transport food over longer distances and - thanks to the fridge and freezer - kept longer. This is where I where I will focus on this week.

Moving the production of food out of the cities has many reasons. Maybe the most important reason is hygiene. Before an animal is ready to eat one has to coop with the noise it makes, its smell and its faces. Also the slaughtering has some side effects which are not appreciated by most of us. There are the leftovers of the slaughtered animal like its skin, bones and blood and there is smell coming of the slaughter houses. Besides the advantages for the neighborhood this new strategy enabled the authorities to strengthen the regulations on food production which should make our food safer than it has ever been.

After hygiene rental prices might be an important reason to move the production out of the city. Already before WWII the urbanists started a movement in which there was a clear division between places to life and places to work (Modernism). Cities started to grow and all the industries were moved to the outer skirts of the city. We now thankfully use these leftover factories to transform whole areas into lively neighborhoods (like New York’s Meat Packing District).

Now food productions all happens in faraway places so that we do not have to deal with the smells and sounds anymore we also lost control over it. Control is taken over by the authorities now but it is shown that this is not always sufficient. Thereby we have no idea how our food is made, we cannot encounter the smell of fresh bread when waking up early, we do not know who made our food, and so on. Jobs in the city are lost and thereby people who make food a social thing in our daily life. Food became anonymous. We cannot communicate to those who made it and give him or her a compliment. We can only complain by choosing products of another producer without telling the former one what he should improve in the process.

Therefore we should try to get them closer to us again. Go to the bakery and make a compliment about his fresh bread. Visit your greengrocer and ask him his advice about how to keep best the vegetables you just bought. Meet the butcher who explains you how to prepare a perfect autumn stew. Don’t be afraid of them. They won’t bite you.

Stop and Go

How and where do you eat breakfast, lunch or diner?

When autumn is coming days are getting shorter and it becomes more difficult to wake up. But your agenda is as full as always so after you decided to go out of bed there is no time left for any break until late at night. Therefore it is very important to keep your energy levels on the right level.

In an earlier post I already wrote about the fact that food is available and eaten almost everywhere since people started to travel more. The places where food is plenty are – apart from (super)markets and restaurants - fuel stations, airports and train stations. Although prices are high food is sold in even higher amounts. Apparently travelling makes hungry. Or is there another explanation for the lucrative business on these places?

Today’s people are usually busy and want to do more than possible in the 24hours of a day. Luckily we are able to combine some of our activities: cycling to work means some exercise, watching news while ironing your shirts or calling a friend while taking a bath. And some also seem to be able to combine travelling with eating one of the three meals one should eat each day.

Since travelling usually takes place before or after work it is the perfect moment to eat breakfast or diner so you could continue with more important activities right after you’ve finished your trip. But are those meals not important then?

Dietician advice to eat three main meals a day and some (healthy) snacks to make sure energy levels stay where they should be. It is said that eating breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. When you have breakfast or any other meal you should at least pay attention to what you are doing. Besides that those diners are also a perfect opportunity to enjoy the fun of preparing it and to spend some times with those you are sharing it with. Having a meal with someone else is the perfect moment to share your thoughts; what happened at work, did you hear the news, do you have plans for the weekend? Eating is not only useful for your physical energy levels but also for your social energy.

Are you filling those needs when eating while travelling? Do you really enjoy you croissant when a smelly fat man is sitting next to you? What about your desktop lunches? Wouldn’t the cleaner be happy if she does not find any crumbles in your keybord anymore? And those fries with mayonnaise or other sauces? Are you sure the rest of the train wants to share the odours coming from it?

It is time to reconsider those 15 extra minutes in bed or that hour after work. Clean up your agenda and make sure you have three moments a day in which you only have to concentrate on your meal and those you are sharing it with. Or – train traveler - fight for your right and try the train companies to (re)introduce a special wagon in which you could use your travel time to have breakfast while reading a (free) newspaper and making new friends. You got your time, they got their money.

A recent research showed that the French now spent only 22 minutes to have lunch while this used to be 138 minutes in 1990. Article is published in Trouw on Thursday 29th of September 2011.

Buy and built

Building makes hungry. But there is more resemblance between the build and food profession.

This article is also published on IL CAMBIAMENTO

Nowadays people have to make many decisions during a day; what to wear, where to go on holiday, which friend to meet, what movie to see, and so on. It all seems so nice to have many options to choose from but it also could make life more limited than one would guess.

While studying architectureone of my teachers used to tell us that designing architecture is like cooking; first you go to the market to buy your ingredients. What you buy depends on the season, the weather, your mood and the reason you are cooking. It is all related to the context. When you’ve arrived in your kitchen you cut all the ingredients and prepare them. Some of the ingredients will be mixed in a pot, some in higher quantities than others. You will stir, add some spices and fry until you’ve found the right mix for a well balanced dish. This is like the architect putting together the program given by his client therefore using his own skills and the tools he could find. When everything is done the dish is delivered to the one you cooked for. The building is ready to use.

So there is a big match in the way these professions work. But there are more resemblances. Both architect and the cook are in competition with others. They compete of course with colleagues but they also have to compete with companies offering the same product. The architect competes with the contractor who thinks he can design himself. The cook competes with supermarkets who offers clients ready-to-eat meals for very reasonable prices. And both architect and cook seem to get an even harder time.

Many people seem to strive for their own home which is unique. Not only because they live in it or because they have taken care of the interior, but also because they were able to choose the ingredients of their own house. In Holland this is known as a catalogus woning(house choosen from a catalogue). As you could already guess by the name of it you can pick your ingredients from a catalogue and the contractor will make sure he puts them together. There you got your home.

Dutch supermarkets seem to have stolen this idea and translated this to a meal catalogue. They have different ingredients on offer; four vegetable mixes, two sorts of meat, a couple of grains like rice or pasta and different types and flavors of sauces. All you need to do is choose what you want to eat and prepare them like explained on the package. There you have your meal.

A lot of us think they live in a world in which they can do whatever they like. This seems not as true as we think it is. And we should actually blame ourselves for making it worse. We let others choose for us (they decide what’s put in the catalogue). These options are actually much smaller than there would be if the options are all open. The options on offer in a catalogue are those best for the one selling them (he makes high profits), but maybe not for the one buying and using it. We should start to think for ourselves again. If help is needed call the craftsmen who definitely knows what’s best for us.

Even animals could be chosen from a catalogue. Check episode 27 (Creation of the fittest) of the Beagle trip in which an Australian farmer explains how he choose his cattle.

Harvest

Many villages and regions celebrate in September and October. Munich celebrates the harvest of hop and grain in their yearly Octoberfest, Austrian farmers bring back their cattle from the higher alps to the warm and save stables, French winegrowers pick the first grapes and release fresh bottles of their Beaujolais primeur. Is there anything to celebrate for those living in the city?

Now more people start to realize that good food (grown at a slow pace using the energy of the earth, sunlight and rain) is very important for ourself and those around us, it becomes more popular to organize events in which food is the leading character. One of those events is the Rotterdamse Oogstfeest.

The organization invites farmers, producers and traders based within a ring of 50 km around the city centre. They bring products of the season like fruits and vegetables, cheeses and different types of sausages, but also tenable products like jams, chutneys, fruit juices and wines. All is presented in such a way to convince costumers to buy. And for those who got hungry seeing all the stuff they also made a food court where prepared food is on sale: pizza’s made on wood fire, rolls dressed with local cheeses or hams and much more. It seems you can’t go home hungry.

Well you can. And if not you will probably leave with an empty wallet. Where this kind of events in other European countries are most of the time visited by every inhabitant of a village or region - no matter what background or income he or she has- in Rotterdam the majority of visitors was in his or her thirties or early forties, had at least one but most of a time two or three young kids and – concluding from their appearance - seem to have a well paid job. This group already knows our relation towards food needs to change. It is more important now to also convince the rest of the world. Those who do think fresh food is too expensive.

Celebrating harvest is the perfect opportunity to show people how affordable fresh food can be. When output is at its peak flavors are at its best and prices as low as they could get. Everyone with a big freezer or with the knowledge how to conserve fruit and vegetables should grab this opportunity and fills up his storage room for winter.

I can’t tell you why the Rotterdamse Oogstfeest only attracted this specific kind of people. Maybe it had to do with the location, maybe it was a result of their advertising strategy. At least I hope for next year they manage to make it a party for everyone and set a new agricultural tradition in an urban environment.

Wine, wein, vin, vino

The landscape changes constantly when travelling from Holland to a south European holiday destination. This year I travelled to Italy. From the flat Dutch polders we entered the rough industrial landscape in the German border states. After a day or so the hills became higher until we reached high peaks on the road from Switzerland to Italy. Although we drove almost 1200 km trough this variety of landscapes one thing seemed constantly part of the landscape.

It seems wine could grow everywhere. These days the alcoholic grape drink is not only made in warmer South European countries but could also be bought from Switzerland, Germany and even from the Netherlands. Since the ingredients of wine usually are made in nature each wine is different. The flavor is amongst others influenced by the type of the grape, the soil it grows on, the climate, the barrel it ripens in and so on. You can image the difference between wines grown in warmer climates and those which are grown in countries like the Netherlands where temperatures are more moderate.

Wine growers also use different techniques to grow their grapevines. Some grow parallel others follow the slopes of the mountains. Some wine grows in very steep hills where pickers need special lifts to pick the grapes. In other areas terraces are made not only to make picking easier but also to profit from the daily warmth during the night.

Besides all the different types of wines and the different countries it grows in it is also drunken by a whole variety of people. Although wine used to be for the rich or religious people, it is now available to almost everyone, bottles already available from less than two Euros each.

As politicians now have hard times to come to an agreement on economic help, military actions and environmental issues there is at least one thing we all seem to have in common. Cheers!

It takes two to tango

This tekst is also available on IL CAMBIAMENTO

A farmer needs rain and sunshine for his food to grow. He loves his job and wants to deliver a good product. It is also important for him to receive a good price for his products so he can fill his and his family’s stomachs. The same goes for a consumer. He wants to find a good product in the supermarket but is even more interested to pay the best price possible. In the middle of these is the entrepreneur who also wants what best for him; low prices for the products he buys, good gaining on that what he sells. Efficiency is the key word! How to leave everyone satisfied?

It wasn’t a long time ago when I read this lecture. A chief executive of a big international supermarket explains what they do to make the world a little bit better. He works at a company selling products all over the world. Therefore their influence on the worlds’ welfare and well-being could be enormous. That’s why it is so good  to hear him talking about the effort his company makes to contribute to a better world.

After WW II the Western world was almost constantly in economic prosperity. Everything needed to be bigger, faster and better. Travelling became very easy and factories could produce all kinds of products easy and cheap. Most of us still life in this flow, but I guess we need to realize this growth will come to an end or at least needs to slow down.
The lecturer named above somehow understands something needs to change but he does not really understand what needs to change and, more important, how his company could contribute to this.

For those who haven’t read the lecture yet, the chief executive explains that his company is trying hard to create jobs for those who need them, reduce transport distances and produce less waste. All kind of efforts we should appreciate. But to me it seems he is missing the other side of his story. The company sells local products to enable local producers to continue their businesses. By doing this they also reduce transport distances which has a good impact on the environment. As I said I cannot complain about these advantages.  Thereby he gives the client an easy job. The client doesn’t have to make any effort to change his or her behavior. By the way, possible advantages for the producers aren’t named at all.

And maybe these last things are where I object. It should not be just one person or company deciding what is best for him and for others. People should become conscious themselves. They have to consider the consequences of their behavior. When one is able to understand what happens after we drinking too much alcohol (and then decides to stop drinking before getting drunk or to continue), why can’t the person think about the consequences of his shopping behavior?

I guess that if you want the world to be cleaner, more peaceful and happier you now have to check if your current behavior contributes to the preservation of this earth. You think that your influence as a single person is negligible? Of course it isn’t! Sure you can’t do it all by yourself (after all It takes two to tango)but you better be a good example and soon others will follow!

Want to know more about how to attract or be a follower? Check the TedTalk by Derek Sivers.

Self sufficiency

These days people are able to live and survive in a diversity of environments spread out from a deserted area somewhere in the mountains to densely populated cities in Asia. Obviously it is easier to get your daily nutrients in the big cities and much more difficult to find it in the rural areas. But is this as true as it sounds?

When living in a city you sometimes wonder where people living in rural areas get their food from. In cities one can find a supermarket around every corner of the street while in small (rural) villages there might not be one at all. Thereby distances to more inhabited areas might be long. Especially in harsh winter circumstances it seems impossible for them to and get any food at all.

It seems much easier for city dwellers to shop for their daily nutrients. After work they will definitely pass by a supermarket which has a wide but steady assortment of products on sale. It only takes some money and a little bit of time to get a basket full of food into your kitchen.

But facts might be different. Since cities grow bigger distances between supermarkets and farm land grow too. In some countries this has led to so called food deserts; areas in which there is no availability of fresh and affordable food.

The advantage of living in a rural area is space. Usually there is a lot of it, although it might not always been useful to grow food or keep animals. The available space gives people in rural areas the possibility to survive. In summer they grow lots of food which they eat immediately or conserve for scarce winter periods. Ok, it takes some effort, a freezer and a storage room, but at least they can enjoy their own grown food whenever they like.

Urban dwellers soon also have to find a way to fulfill in their own food needs. The increasing distance food has to be transported also has consequences for quality and prices consumers pay in supermarkets. Soon they will have to coop with similar problems as countrymen. What now mainly is done for the fun or out of an ideology might soon become a necessity. Balconies, rooftops, window sills and leftover spaces will all be used to grow one’s own food. Urban dwellers become urban farmers which are able to handle techniques and care for the plants. It might take some time until one gets’ the hang of it but in the end it will be satisfying.

The advantage of growing your own food is enormous. First of all will it make the city a bit greener and more comfortable to live in. The food you will grow and later eat is fresh and cheap and you as a person will receive great health benefits while being in the outside air, getting your hands dirty and your mind empty which in the ends will definitely give you a full stomach!

When are people self sufficient? Is this trend really helping to make a world greener and cleaner? Follow this discussion.

Food market(ing) - An essay IV

The book Eat this has ten suggestions for food hotspots which offer a good opportunity to create public domain. Most of them still give the user a passive role regarding to food (only buying and eating). There is one exception which also is the the most interesting to me.

The density of markets in the Netherlands is low compared to that in other countries. In the big four cities (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht) one can probably find one or more markets each day. However people in smaller cities – which we have a lot in the Netherlands – should be lucky to find a market even more than ones a week. This in contrast to cities in southern European countries like Italy and Spain where each little villages at least has a market ones a week and bigger cities have them each day.

For people who have a job from nine to five opening hours of the Dutch markets are very inconvenient. Therefore they might prefer the all day opening hours of a supermarket - with a small but steady assortment - over the cheap products of a market.

This is a missed opportunity since the market not only offers cheap products but also has a broader range to choose from. Prices are mostly low since merchants sell products from the season and usually their rents of space and transports costs are lower than the supermarket (check also an earlier post on markets).

Besides offering cheap products the market could bring the consumer directly in contact with the producer explaining about his products, where they come from and how they are best kept and prepared.

To make people stay longer at the market one could also decide to offer other services related to food. As many merchants already do, they not only sell fresh products. Some of them also prepare food like fried fish, grilled chicken, etc. But this still leaves the client in a very passive role.

Fast shoppers should be seduced to stay longer. Products sold on markets could also be prepared by a cook or even by the client himself. The cook explains what he did, bringing his enthusiasm for food and cooking to the consumers thereby stimulating them to enjoy the whole process of buying, preparing and eating healthy food. Different consumers come together to enjoy and discuss the meal they just ate.

To give an impulse to the markets in de Netherlands it is necessary to create markets which are organized on a more regular basis with longer opening hours. Climate wise the Dutch also have to consider protecting their clients against rain, wind or cold winter days. Rotterdam and The Hague are already discussing these possibilities.

A market might have all the ingredients to create public domain. I guess in general it is important to find a way in which people who usually not choose for healthy food are tempted to change their behavior in the nearby future. They have to ignore the unhealthy snack they usually buy on the way home or in the supermarket. We need to offer them a place – preferably on an easy accessible location which they would pass daily – where they can buy, prepare and enjoy the food they just bought. Public domain may be created when people from different cultures, countries, with a different income and education level, all come there. We need to consider to create a public domain where not only stomach but also brains are filled up with new energy!

Fun

The model as a result of the essay (roof is kept open to be able to look into the interior)

I just realized it is such fun to write this blog that I decided to quickly share this (short) story with you.

While summarizing and translating the last part of the essay Food as energizer for the public domain I realized I have learned a lot in the past few years. I wrote the essay when I was studying architecture. I just started my two year Master and decided I wanted to design a new building on a plot on the current Food Center in Amsterdam. The area used to be the location where products of farmers working and living close to Amsterdam were collected and distributed from.

Nowadays the area still functions as a Food Center but sales are only done by wholesalers to people owning a restaurant, a hotel or a (small) supermarket. It is a huge area in the middle of the historic centre of the city and a residential area closed off to the public. The Amsterdam municipality is discussing to develop the area in the nearby future.

The residential area used to be inhabited by immigrants, people with lower education levels and people having a low income. Research showed me that exactly those people have the risk to choose for cheap and unhealthy food and become overweight. The combination of these facts and the location convinced me to make a building in which food has an important role. The model of my design shows a market hall in which there is room for educational spaces as well. To me this could be an example in which food has a major role in creating public domain.

While working again on this essay after three years I realized I have learned a lot about food in the widest sense of its definition. I now doubt some assumptions I have made while writing the essay. I learned the assortment of supermarkets nowadays only seems to be very broad. In fact the consumer might have a smaller range to choose from than our ancestors had a hundred years ago. I now know some suppositions I have done in 2008 are not as easy as they then seemed to be. It seems easy to just change the products on sale on certain spots from unhealthy to healthy snacks. But entrepreneurs as well as clients cannot change overnight. It takes time and time only begin when someone starts to set in changes.

The research I have done to write this essay was the moment I started to realize something needed to change. I got completely enthusiastic about food, its relation to people and to cities and the rural. Slowly my bookcase started to need space for books on the subject. Books going from from Carolyn Steels ‘ Hungry City (which is very close related to my education) going to The truth abouth food by Jill Fullerton-Smith(which is a more technical approach to food)and everything in between and behind these two.

After some years I learned a lot but still need to learn a lot more. A lot of books needs to be read, films and documentaries need to be seen and people need to be discussed with. This blog enables me to share the inspiration I find in this subject again and again. I hope you are open to receive it and also realize we need to find a new role for food in our daily life. If you do get active and start today to enjoy and value the real food!

See you this Sunday for the last part called Food market(ing).

Fast food meets slow eaters - An essay III

Enjoying (unhealthy) food at a rock festival while getting in contact with others

In cities food can be obtained at wide range of locations going from kiosks along the street or at important traffic hubs to very intimate and expensive restaurants only accessible to the happy few who can afford them. Not surprisingly do the places offering cheap (and thus unhealthy) food attract the most wide range of people - young and old, poor and rich - come to have a quick snack. This week I will discuss the opportunities ad constraints of the different locations.

Since eating out became more popular in the 20th century the number of places where to get food grew more diverse. After the hot dog and ice cream seller kiosks at train stations popped up. Also snack bars with typical Dutch snacks started to be established in cities and rural villages. Although they attract a wide range of people, the atmosphere of the interior does not invite the client to stay longer than necessary. It’s mostly youngsters which meet here. Others just order and pay and leave as soon as their order is ready. Food will be eaten on the way or at home.

Big offices, hospitals and schools often also have their own restaurant or canteen. Mostly a caterer is responsible for this. Since contracts are usually for longer periods* it is not easy to change their behavior or have any influence on the products on offer. These restaurants usually only process the food to make it ready to eat; baking the prepared bread, fry or cook eggs and heat the soup. The opportunity here is that all the users of a building come here to have a snack, lunch or dinner, from cleaning lady to office manager.

A restaurant traditionally is the most luxurious place to go out for dinner (maybe except from having your own cook at home..…). Guests are served by a waiter and a lot attention is paid to the atmosphere replacing one’s own dining room. People really come here to talk to their partners, friends or family and enjoy the food and drinks they have ordered. By paying the bill you pay for quality time with the ones on your table. Compared to the above discussed locations the guest spent quiet some time them which makes a restaurant a good place to get in contact with others. In fact people will mainly talk to the people they join a table with.

One can see that each location (kiosk, canteen or restaurant) has its own opportunities and constraints to create public domain. When buying food in a kiosk one usually is in a hurry and combines eating with another activity like travelling. Most people buying here are individuals not open to get in contact with other people. Canteens and restaurants offer better opportunities for people to get in contact with each other since guests spent more time in here. Especially canteens attract a diversity of people from different backgrounds, with different interests, ideals, etc. Unfortunately this possibility is not exploited a lot.

To make food a guiding principle of the public domain (food causes the realization of a public domain) it needs to get a more active role on a specific location. There needs to be an activity which attracts people and which could also hold them for a longer period we are now used to. Food should be used as a mean to bind people from different groups and thus get them in contact with each other.

Joan Almekinders and Maurice Nio offer ten suggestions ‘to create central food spots which attract an interesting melting pot of city life’ in their book Eat this**. All places should be accessible to everyone; the rich and the poor, Dutch or immigrant from far away or close by. I will discuss the most interesting of these food spots next week in the final part of the essay ‘Food as energizer for the public domain’.

Click here to part IV - Food market(ing)

*European governments which launch a commission have to make a call for tenders if a certain amount of money is concerned with this commission

** Almekinders, J., Nio, M., Eat this, p.61, Duizend en Een publishers Amsterdam, 2006

Too much is still not good - An essay II

This is the second part of the essay ‘Food as energizer for the public domain’. Last week I dealt with the changes we’ve gone through during the 20th century. This week more about the effects these changes have caused.

Food now seems to be available everywhere. Each place where people have to wait or spent some time has a shop where food is sold: train stations, fuel stations, canteens, etc. People can eat whenever and whatever they want which has positive as well as negatives effects.

The shortage of food developed countries suffer from a hundred years ago has now changed into an excess of it which has caused many negative side effects: In 1996 we were first confronted with Kreutzfeldt-Jakob, the 21st century started with a growing number of (young) obesity patients and in 2007 there were many negative discussions about the weight and looks of catwalk models. Luckily there is also some good news to tell.

There are groups in society which have the possibility to have more attention for the quality instead of the quantity of their meals and the products available seem to be more diverse*

Food related problems are still mostly for the less wealthy people in our society. This is something which has not changed during the last century. Just the kind of problems is different now. These are not related to the quantity of the food those people receive, but the quality it has. In many cases the unhealthy option is cheaper than the healthy one. Education levels, income and (social) environment also influence the chance to become overweighed.

To decrease the number of obese one has to make people from more vulnerable groups aware of the influence of their situation on the way they eat. They should be convinced to eat healthier by making them aware of their habits. It should be made easier for everyone to resist the temptation of buying and eating unhealthy food. In public places more healthy food should be offered and maybe prices should become more favorable for these products.

The growing number of obese people has not been caused by the amount of food one has but also by the type of food offered. One does not only eat three meals a day but also has many opportunities to buy a snack between these meals. Usually these snacks contain a lot of calories which a normal person working in an office doesn’t need at all. Next week I’ll discuss some possible solutions which can be used in shaping public places.

Click here to part III - Fast food meets slow eaters

(*foodinthestreets: While translating this text I realize this is something which could be discussed: There might seem to be a bigger diversity of products because trade has expanded. At the same time the bio-diversity has decreased.)

Food as a necessity - An essay I

This week part one out of four of the essay ‘Food as energizer for the public domain’. The first two issues will mainly give an overview of the history of our relation to food and its’ availability. The last two issues will research its future role in public domain.

I wrote this essay in 2008 when studying architecture at the TU Delft in The Netherlands. After finishing the essay I wrote a program for a building in which food had a central place.
The essay is written from a Dutch perspective which means not all assumptions are valid for readers living in other countries. Questions about my sources and comments can be emailed to foodinthestreets@gmail.com

Everyone on earth needs to eat. Many of us are able to do this daily but there is still too many who cannot eat enough nutrients each day or who cannot eat at all. What and how one eats depends among others on the culture and wealth one is grown up or lives in. First an overview of the changes we’ve gone through in the last century.

Until WW II many people did not care what to eat but worried if they could eat. In the 20th century three events caused a change in the Netherlands and their relation to food; the industrial revolution causing the train becoming a popular way of transport, the growing number of immigrants and the changing lifestyle which is partly effected by the first two events.

The introduction of the train caused a big revolution in food. Not only did the distance over which food could be transported grew but also eating food while travelling was introduced.The industrial revolution which took place in the second half of the 19th century (in the Netherlands) also had a big influence on the way we eat. People became wealthier, labor was organized different and the quality and quantity of food production played a more important role.
Starting around 1920 the assortment of (prepared) products grew and more snacks where eaten in between meals. Only during the economic crisis in the ‘30s and during WWII there where shortages in food.

After WWII another change influenced the eating habits of the Dutch. More households bought kitchen machines like a refrigerator, a stove, a microwave oven but also a washing machine. This gave women a lot of freedom – they didn’t have to spend that much time on housekeeping anymore – so they could find a paid job. In the end this meant they had less time to prepare a meal. The introduction of ready-to-eat-meals and fast food was a fact and even stimulated by the popularity of the television. Meals became less important and the value of food decreased.

Meals became more exotic when more immigrants came into the Netherlands. They took their eating habits and started to import products from their home countries. Cooking their own meals remembered them to their identity and gave them a feeling of solidarity.

By the end of the 40’s many Indonesian restaurants were opened which were mainly visited by students and artist and later by former soldiers which were excited about the new food. Eventually more people got interested in eating out which finally caused immigrants with different nationalities to open a restaurant. This is why we still can enjoy so many food cultures in the Netherlands.

Click here to part  II - Too much is still not good

Meltdown

A few weeks ago I wrote about the temptations one gets’ when walking in a city. Restaurants try to convince passers-by to enter their restaurants by offering delicious meals for reasonable prices. Sometimes it’s hard to resists these. Let alone an ice cream seller offering delicious ice creams on hot summer days.

The first ice cream sellers used transport bicycles to go out and sell their ice cream. Not using any electricity he should sell its ware as soon as possible thus going to a strategic place where many consumers would come; the beach, a park or near a play ground.

Later this mobile food stall was not only dependent on human power anymore and could travel a lot further and hold more ice cream for a longer period. Off course the seller still went to places were many people would pass. Freezers enabled the craftsmen to open shops – some of them even more than one - having only one kitchen were the ice creams are made. Not only does he sell his ice cream in his own shops; he also distributes it to other places like this mobile shops and restaurants.

Like many other products nowadays most of the ice cream is made in big factories. For small businesses it is hard to compete with them. Except when he has costumers which really taste the difference between ice cream made with natural flavors and lots of love an the ones made in a factory.

For this summer I suggest you go out on the streets and look for the best ice cream in town. Be critical, taste different flavors and try to find out if it is homemade or not. Then enjoy!

For now I go on holiday for a few weeks. The blog continues. Every week I will post a chapter of an essay I wrote in 2008 Eten als energiebron voor het publieke domein (Food as energizer of the public domain). While writing this the essay my love for food, people and cities started. Hope you like it.

Green pearls



More pictures of the Nutstuin (including top views) can be seen on Flickr

 Inner cities are usually densely built with shops, offices and housing. It seems not much room is left for green spaces, besides some parks or trees along old lanes. However I bet you would be surprised about the amount of green you would see if looking to the city from above.

Many European cities have a long history. Once erected on a strategic place in the landscape, close to a harbor or on the crossing of some rivers or routes. Traders started small and simple but expanded when business was running well. Warehouses, offices and housing where built. Each city had its own styles, depending on local traditions and climate.

The biggest secret of this inner city buildings are the enormous backyards they usually contain. It has the width of the house and stretch sometimes out over more than 10 meters! If you grow plants and flowers it could become an oasis in the city!
For offices or (semi-)public buildings it is often quit hard to maintain a garden. Some gardens are used for lunch breaks or as an extension of the museum cafe. Others are left for the green to grow wherever it wants.

In The Hague a former bank building (1920) was transformed in 2006 into a centre for local art and society: Het Nutshuis. The building is situated right in the centre of the city and surrounded by buildings from different periods and different qualities. The neglected parking lot emphasized this difference and made it an uncomfortable place to be.

The owner of the building decided something had to change and asked the landscape architect Jos van de Lindeloof to design a public garden which is sustainable and offers a podium and meeting place.

The garden recently opened to the public. The green in the garden not only attracts the eye but also has a function of feeding and connecting the neighborhood. The landscape architect added a fruit and vegetable garden which is maintained by the people living close to Het Nutshuis. The collected rainwater brings refreshment on hot summer days, flowers do attract a lot of bees. These could use the beehives in the garden. In a (solar powered) greenhouse tomatoes are grown.

The garden is open to the public during office hours and also hosts some events on summer evenings. Hopefully this garden inspires more owners of unused backyards to share their green pearls with an audience. Go and look if you can already find some!