Industrial yet green
January 17, 2007
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Sunflower roots make a stab at world take-over
There’s something about the Montessori School poster-child in me that loves a good self-diagnosed field trip. I can never be too busy or have too many double-booked days to find time for some on-topic hookie, leaving the warm and productive nest that is culiblog HQ to head out into the freezing rain and darkness of winter. Yesterday I paid a visit to my sprout sponsor at their massive indoor farming complex in Broek op Langedijk.
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As it is outside so is it inside, only a bit warmer and a smidge darker, a watering installation at van der Plas
At the start of my tour of the sprout works, Rob van der Plas and I were greeted by an employee on a bike. The indoor farm is definitely large enough to need one and for a company that started off sprouting from a single bucket, the scale of their operations is impressive. Although I’m imagining that this is standard for all sprouting installations, I can’t recall having ever been in a cleaner environment. And I have a Jewish mother and have worked with the European Space Agency, so I know what clean is. This place was crazy clean. Confronting, yet clarifying, I was by far the dirtiest thing on-site.
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The sprouting process begins with a good soak
Van der Plas Sprouts is the Netherlands biggest sprout producer and is in the process of becoming mostly organic. Sprouting seeds, grains and beans on this scale is water-intensive and I asked the brothers van der Plas about their water use. Had they investigated the possibility of implementing grey-water systems? They informed me that they had done some research into the matter only to discover that their grey-water wasn’t really grey enough! Story to be continued, but the northwest of the NL is indeed a water-rich area, so to say that water is dirt cheap would be completely bass-ackwards. In this part of the Polar Circle, water is considerably cheaper than dirt.
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Peas, shoots and leaves
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Sunflower seed sprouting on the left, peas on the right
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Walking up towards the indoor farm, I actually thought that these were decorative planters and only realised much later that this was the ‘waste product’ at the end of the day.
debra at 15:31 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us
The amazing
Sprout (loves) Ikebana
contest
January 10, 2007
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Choreographer Martin Butler’s winning entry for the category, ‘Fleugalité (bamboo leaf, sango sprouts, rock chives, pea shoots)
The amazing Sprout (loves) Ikebana contest was carried out in honour of chef de cuisine Tal Amitai, who was not able to be with us this last week due to the loss of his beloved grandmother. Our thoughts are with you, Tal.
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Mediamatic’s amazing Marco Wessel created this vernacular-style photoshoot installation
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The winner in the category Solomon’s Oordeel (Solomon’s Judgement) uses embroidery and the world’s first new media technology, the lens. Bravo!
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Paparazzi, who is NOT in this picture?
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Mrs. Cameron (the artist formerly known as Karin Ras) wins the category, ‘Simplicité (fork, sango, pea shoot, pea asparagus, rock chives and anise sprouts)
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Writer and jury member Aya van Caspel photographs Mrs. Cameron’s entry for the category, ‘Simplicité
- Debra Solomon’s Amazing Sprout Ikebana Contest (Grow Yer Own Dang Food micro-green cuisine restaurant at the Mediamatic Night Garden Nov 4, 2006 – Jan 7, 2007
- Martin Butler’s Multi-player game, the Girlfriend Experience
from January 26 – March 9, 2007 at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
debra at 13:02 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us
Sprouts love ikebana
January 9, 2007
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My neighbours won the 2007 Sprouts Love Ikebana competition for the categories: 6 and under, 5 and under
From more than 300 images of the sprouts love ikebana competition this weekend at the Grow Yer Own Dang Food sprout restaurant, these are the first, last and middle ones. We had winners in more than 14 categories in the international adult competition. I’ll post the winning entries and some other gaieté tonight.
Today I’m off to London to help jury the Dott07 and Royal Society of the Arts Design Directions competition on Foodmiles. To offset the carbon emission that I will accrue during my taxi ride, I have decided to swim from Amsterdam to London and back.
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Sprouts cause ecstasy in infants
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One winner of the 2007 Sprouts love Ikebana competition for the category: Gaieté, gets his gaie on
debra at 1:55 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us
