About five hundred people came to the farm in Dijk in Nagele on Friday evening to harvest their own spinach. They responded to a call on social media from the farmer’s wife, who saw her six hectares of organically grown spinach plants rejected by the buyer last week.

“The spinach has begun to bloom,” explains Animec Flamming from Boerderij aan de Dijk. “A number of plants become stressed, and then the plant wants to multiply. Then they make flowers, but I can no longer sell them as spinach leaves.”

Entrepreneurial risks
This resulted in a financial loss of thousands of euros for Fleming. “That’s just an entrepreneurial risk, it can happen and you also take that into account. But I thought it was a shame to plow the field and do nothing with this spinach, which is very good in itself. We can’t get it from the ground mechanically, hand harvesting was possible.” , But that was impossible for us for six hectares.”

So, on Wednesday, Vlaming made an appeal on social media. Those who wanted could come and harvest the spinach themselves on Friday evening. A small voluntary fee was appreciated. The call has been shared at least four thousand times. Interest flooded Fleming. “I would have been glad if fifty people had come.” became ten times more.

positive
Spinach gatherers came from far and wide. Lots of Noordoostpolder, but there were also people from Zwolle and Het Gooi. “I saw it on Facebook, and I thought my son would love to do it too,” said the father, who picked out a box and bucket full with his toddler. “This way he sees that the spinach does not come from the supermarket, but from the ground.” Fleming was also satisfied. “The fact that we were able to give it a little bit of a positive spin is very cool.”