Bleker roemt aanpak Middendelfland en wil boeren belonen

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Middendelfland wordt gezien als een groene long in een sterk verstedelijkte omgeving. De landbouw werkt daar samen met gemeente Delfland en omliggende steden en provincie Zuid-Holland aan het open en groen houden van het gebied en tegelijk beter toegankelijk maken voor de stedeling. Kringloopboeren is een van de programma’s die wordt ondersteund (zie voor kringloopboeren ook www.duurzaamboerblijven.nl/category/middendelfland):

Als een groene long, middenin in Metropoolregio Rotterdam Den Haag, ligt het open agrarische veenweidelandschap van Midden-Delfland. Het karakteristieke open landschap met de rijke cultuurhistorie en landschappelijke waarde is voor inwoners, ondernemers en bezoekers om van te houden! De melkveehouderij is van oudsher belangrijk voor Midden-Delfland. De inzet van de boeren heeft ervoor gezorgd dat het oorspronkelijke en unieke karakter van het landschap zo goed behouden is gebleven. Naast de pracht van het landschap draagt het open en groen houden van Midden-Delfland bij aan uw veiligheid als inwoner of bezoeker. Voorbeelden daarvan zijn de waterberging, goed voedsel en het temperen van oververhitting in de steden.

In een video roemt Bleker de aanpak in Middendelfland en pleit voor een beloning voor de boeren om het gebied open en groen te houden en landschap te onderhouden. 

Hidden qualities of bean sprouts

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What do oysters, chocolate, caviar, figs and champagne have in common? They are among the most famous food aphrodisiacs. From a Western (historical) perspective though. There are completely other aphrodisiacs. Be careful with bean sprouts for example. While sharing food and stories in the Food Culture class, we learnt it can bring you sons… Continue reading →

Foodlinks News

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Here you can find the first edition of Foodlinks News! In this newsletter we would like to update you on the activities of the Foodlinks project and its communities.

A key characteristic of the Foodlinks project is that it brings together different types of knowledge and experience, not only from research but also more practical and tacit knowledge from policy and civil society representatives. Foodlinks organises a collective process of sharing and integrating this knowledge around particular problems of food systems. You can read more about Foodlinks on our website and if you would like to receive the next edition of Foodlinks News you can subscribe here.

Would you like to become a member of one of our communities? Sign up for the Short Food Supply Chain, Revaluing Public Procurement or Urban Food Strategies Community of Practice!

Kapsalon-City?

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Last week, colleagues Erik Bakker and Anima Ruissen from the LEI in the Hague gave a guest lecture in the Food Culture Course on ethnic entrepreneurship. Food culture is often a resource at the disposal of immigrants on which they can build food entrepreneurship. There are often low barriers of entrance towards starting an ethnic restaurant where ‘authentic’ foreign dishes can be sold.

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Cola-chicken and slaughtherhouse meat

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In this 6th period of the academic year, I run a second course on Food Culture with similar topics as the course in February but with other teaching methods. The group is smaller, the period is longer and we can thus engage with the literature in a different way. One of the assignments in the course is the Food Assignment, where we have twice a lunch together based on brought food by half of the student group. A few weeks ago we had the first lunch and I was surprised how interesting it turned out in terms of food culture in practice.

 

source:travelpod blog

One of the Chinese students came with a dish he claimed as common and even widespread made in China, which has also very strong regional cuisines. He presented chicken cooked in cola. Lots of us present were first unclear if he really meant, cola, the soft drink. Indeed, this is what he meant and we could clearly taste the cola in the chicken meat. When searching the internet I found numerous examples of chicken-cola recipes, such as this one. 

Our ignorance and thus astonishment about this dish, just turned into the next astonishment when the type of meat was discussed. This student used chicken drumsticks whereas he actually needed chicken wings. But he hadn’t been able to find these in the supermarket. The Vietnamese student replied that she always bought meat at the nearby slaughterhouse. Again, eyes widened, especially among the Dutch students. Was she referring to the butcher or indeed meaning the slaughterhouse?  After asserting there was no Babylonian confusion of tongues, we were curious as to where then, this slaughterhouse is located. It turned out to be a small slaughterhouse in Opheusden within 15 kilometers from Wageningen, where it was possible to buy specific qualities and cuts of meat if sufficient quantity was bought. Hence, the Vietnamese students organise a collective order every now and then. I had no idea.