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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Seakale crops: huge hit from saline land
14:05 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Dutch farmers raise seakale on saline land: get top prices from Dutch restaurants:
By Adriana Stuijt. Agricultural land is becoming increasingly saline all over the world. Some 1,5-billion hectares of agri-land is threatened by salinisation each year. However, this does not have to be a disaster: Dutch farmers instead are creating markets for saltmarsh vegetables such as the very tasty seakale – and are experimenting with new potato cultivars which could be grown on saline land, especially in the tropics.
Traditional oceanside plants which used to be harvested by fishing communities many centuries ago, now are being introduced in the Dutch market, grown on saline land which never was suitable for ‘mainstream’ vegetable crops. The new trend was kicked off by farmer Mark van Rijsselberghe (pic) started in 2008 with an experimental 150 square-metre test-patch on the saline soil of Texel island. Within a year, he was marketing his product - and found to his delight that it was snapped up at top prices by all the top Dutch restaurants. It is indeed a delicious and versatile vegetable, Dutch chefs have found. And seakale also is the ingredient for a biologically-friendly new line of pharmaceuticals: http://www.zeekool.nl/producten.php recipes: http://www.zeekool.nl/EN/stichting.php
Salination can’t be stopped – so… adapt the crops:
For the past 20 years the Sint Donatus Foundation on the island of Texel has supported such experimental farms through research-departments at the universities of Amsterdam and Wageningen to create more saline-resistent new cultivars. The underlying idea is not to try and stop salination on existing agricultural lands by pouring billions of litres of fresh water on it to keep the salt at bay – but instead to create new crops for salinised land. The matter is urgent in the Netherlands, which is well below sealevel in most places, and where some 150.000 hectares of agricultural land is threatened by the problem. http://www.zeekool.nl/EN/stichting.php
In the province of Friesland (where I live), ordinary citizens hardly get a look-in when it comes to buying seakale: but one does occasionally find it in my supermarket if you are lucky - and it is delicious. Hopefuly this will change as, I’m being told, more Dutch farmers are planning to plant seakale crops. There’s clearly a demand for it.
- Video: delivering Friesland’s pampered veggies the eco-friendly way
- http://www.ntvideo.nl/id208-Eerste_elektrische_gekoelde_vrachtshuttle.html
More information can also be obtained from http://www.horecavers.nl/vergeten_groenten.php and http://www.horecavers.nl/nieuws_nieuwsbrief.php?nid=26837
The search for saline-resistent potatoes has been going on for several years, according to the crop-research institute in Kollumerwaard, Friesland. "Dutch companies deliver a lot of seed-potatoes to the tropics and in those regions they often use saline water for irrigation because there's nothing else available, said LTO Noord-manager Upt Hiddema : "In our coastal areaswe can't irrigate in the dry season: we can't use surface-water because of the dangers of brown-rot infection; and the ground-water is just too salty for these current potato-cultivars. On saline soil the practice has grown in the Netherlands to create a market for saltmarsh-vegetables such as seaweed, and this is also being done in the province of Zeeland. They created their own market-economy around their own saltmarsh-cultivars. ” http://www.frieschdagblad.nl/index.asp?artID=40220 source: http://www.waddenzee.nl/Zilte_landbouw_op_Texel.2486.0.html
