After 50 years of just growing tomatoes, Henk Gerichhausen is now back with his boots in the greenhouse. In Huissen, Netherlands, he started Het Groente Paradijs, where he grows his own organic vegetables and sells them fresh directly to his home without intermediaries. "I grow everything myself and don't buy anything on the side. Growing delicious, fresh vegetables is my passion. So far, I really enjoy doing it."
In recent years, Henk has been active as a cultivation consultant, in places like China and Austria. He enjoys growing himself again, growing as complete a package of seasonal organic vegetables as possible. He does so on 1,000 square meters. Late October crops include a variety of lettuces.
"Growing lettuce I remember from my youth. Back then, we grew tomatoes and lettuce." Besides various types of lettuce, the now 69-year-old grower currently grows endive, turnip greens, rocket, and lamb's lettuce, among others. "And today I planted cauliflowers. These will be ready in January."
Really fresh
With The Vegetable Paradise, the former tomato grower wants to show what is really fresh. "Of course, I also go to the supermarket and see a lot of vegetables there that are not really fresh. Vegetables are often at least one day old, and sometimes tomatoes are even a week old, I know from experience. Here, things are different. Vegetables are only really fresh once, and that is right here from my greenhouse, right after harvest."
Fresh, organic, taste, and forgotten vegetables are talked about a lot, Henk notices. Now that he has just started growing and selling, he is curious to know how many people are willing to go for vegetables that are actually fresh in their homes. "They have to pick it up here at my place in Huissen," he says.
Alternative to fitness
Henk's greenhouse is in the middle of the local greenhouse area. "My challenge is to be able to offer everything and not have to throw anything away. Also, of course, I don't want to have to say 'no'. I don't yet know exactly what customers want." Especially in spring, he expects it to be busy, when fruiting vegetables also go into production. "Then I also grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, and peppers. That will be a busy time."
For now, Henk does all the work himself. He laughs and sees it as an alternative to fitness. "If I can choose, I prefer a bit of raking," he says. It does him good. "I've already lost four kilos since I started. I eat more, but also healthy."
Contact with customer
The biggest difference compared to his time growing tomatoes is that Henk now gets positive feedback from buyers much more often. "It used to be that you mainly got comments if something wasn't right. Now that is different. Customers are completely happy with what they buy. 'Oh, what a nice spinach', you'll hear. That does me good."
What does surprise him is how little people sometimes know about the vegetables they eat. "People regularly walk into the greenhouse here. Then they really don't know what they see, even though it's just endive, for example. Or people ask for a pulse of rocket. But of course, you don't buy it that way. What I can show people here is really an eye-opener for them."
For more information:
Het Groente Paradijs
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