“Harvesting your own food creates a deep connection with nature”
In 'Spotlight' we speak with inspiring entrepreneurs. This time: Louis van der Kolk. He takes people into nature on educational foraging trips to stimulate a connection with our natural surroundings and educate on how one can use it as a food and health source.
On a windy autumn day, I’m driving to the pleasant and peaceful seclusion of a garden complex near the dune landscape of Heemskerk in North Holland. Turning from the busy road you enter a peaceful haven of vegetable gardens, with idyllic little cabins scattered around. ‘’A tight community of like-minded people,’’ says Louis van der Kolk about the people here. He has had his vegetable garden for many years now. In his two gardens there are apple trees, green beans, pumpkins, leeks: you name it. Although this time of year only a few species remain, but normally an abundance of fruit and vegetables is growing. For almost 20 years his garden has been tended natural, organic, and free of pesticides and provides him with an ample supply of natural food.
‘’When I teach my courses and take people on excursions, I don't have to pretend to be anybody else, I’m just myself and I do what I normally do in life,’’ says Louis about his motivation for his work. In his wild-picking trip participants are taught about the riches of nature and the applications of the edible and medicinal plants and herbs that can be found there. And, maybe even most importantly, their outing into the wild with Louis should rekindle their connection with our natural surroundings.
This need for being involved with nature all started in his youth. The father of one of his best friends was a horticulturist, ‘’he had a piece of land where we were allowed to experiment,’’ says Louis while we are sitting in his cosy, warm cabin situated in the garden. So, we experimented with growing fruit like grapes, in a little greenhouse. And sometimes we sold our produce on the street.’’
All his life he wanted to connect with nature. ‘’Maybe because then you come to your deepest primal feelings. Collecting your own food allows for this deep connection with nature.’’
Another childhood memory stems from this. ‘’We always used to pick dewberries when I was a kid, together with my dad. Most of the locals from the village of Heemskerk, where I grew up, went out picking. Because in those days there was just not so much fruit as now, mostly seasonal and local fruit, but no exotic fruits like kiwis for example. But when my father was a child there was even less fruit, especially in wintertime. An orange really was a delicacy back then. From the dewberries they made sauce and that was the fruit for the winter, with Christmas, or when there was a party.’’
Louis has continued the tradition and takes his kids out for berry picking too. Because he regrets how much of this knowledge is being lost and not transferred. ‘’On my courses I often tell people: what you are learning from me now, you should’ve learned from your parents or grandparents.’’
He now holds on to cherished memories, of ‘’warm august days, coming back with buckets full of berries. My mother cooked the dewberry juice, bottled and sealed it with candle wax. I still remember lying in bed at night, my legs hurting from the rubbing welts on me from the berry vine.’’
Louis thoroughly enjoys the special taste of the berries. As do others. ‘’I did an excursion with a group of chefs and let them experience the special taste of dewberry. Once I had a pastry chef make a sorbet out of it, the wild flavors make for a delicacy.’’
In touch with nature
In his courses, everything comes together that matters to him. ‘’Firstly, exercising, being outdoors, getting your hands dirty. Well, nowadays we can call the supermarket and they deliver it to our doorstep. But with this, you actually have to do something.’’ He fumbles in his container with seeds and holds them up. ‘’Here, these endive seeds. I have to sow them and nurture them, before you can harvest and eat.’’ Secondly, the connection with your surroundings is important to him. ‘’I am a real Heemskerker, my roots are here. I know every path in the dunes like the back of my hand.’’
‘’You can learn all the plant names, but what I like much more is that connection from your being with nature.’’ Being so actively involved with nature, with your hands in the soil, in touch with the flora gives an unexplainable feeling, probably as the result of touching upon some primordial sense.
Nature is a medicine
Louis shows two articles he often shows his course participants. ‘’Nature on doctor's prescription,’’ and ''Send them into the woods.’’ Nature can provide many sources that act as a medicine and the improvement to mental health and well-being for anyone who is in green surroundings or even looks out at a tree is enormous.
So, nature acts both as a mental and a physical medicine. One of the workshops Louis gives is thus titled Vitality from Nature. ‘’For example, I show that sea buckthorn is actually a dietary supplement. I try to let them experience that they are part of that, how important it is to integrate vital products in your diet, what is the healing power of certain herbs.’’ Louis often tries to put together what he calls ‘’a home pharmacy, that could consist of amongst others linden blossom tea, elderflower tea and tinctures from horsetail.’’
Nature’s kitchen
Finally, Louis really enjoys cooking with all those fresh and wild ingredients from nature. ‘’Recently I cooked a dinner where I prepared a dessert called flavours of the dune. I used sea buckthorn dewberry and thyme, added goat curd from a local farm and dune honey from a beekeeper, so everything is locally produced. It had a very deep, rich taste.’’
Perhaps even just the idea of having produced your own food makes you feel that it is tastier, agrees Louis. ‘’Food is also emotion, and the idea that you’ve been working on this for a long time definitely plays a role.’’ Although it is more work than having the supermarket deliver your groceries, the bliss of tending your own garden is incomparable. ‘’It gives a very rich, satisfying feeling. It’s just happiness to me, and very hard to describe exactly. Still, after all these years of growing vegetables I consider it very special that if you take a seed, put it in the ground and a while later green chicory emerges.’’
‘’Every time I let people taste my vegetables, they say it doesn’t taste at all like the products from the store. It is just a nicer taste. Especially wild products with their unique taste.’’
After gardening for so many years, all the ins and outs are now in his system. ‘’Sowing and harvesting is self-taught, you’ll learn by doing and experimenting. That information is now in me, it is automatic. My children also like it, try to plant those seeds with them.’’
What it ultimately boils down to, is a deep connection with everything. ‘’In April I was sitting outside in the sun with my wife, it was a beautiful moment,’’ Louis recalls. ‘’Your senses are sharpened, your thoughts eb away, your mind is eased. You feel carried by the earth, you feel the April energy, the birds chirping around you. In such a blissful moment it all comes together. It is the feeling of being carried by the earth. Quite literally, when you’re lying on the earth. It makes me feel calm and content.’’ It is being in touch with nature, actually feeling the elements of it that produces this feeling. ‘’I also have that feeling when I'm fishing for shrimp in my waders in the sea. It is a kind of power source. And then I try to feel one with that. Although you can't even try that, it comes naturally.’’
Inspiring others
Louis believes that it doesn’t take much for people to find this connection. ‘’Someone only has to eat a shrimp that he has caught himself to feel this connection.’’ One of the most important things we can do in nature conservation is spreading the word, Louis thinks. ‘’It has a lot to do with awareness. So, I take people into nature, inspire them, instill a renewed sense of wonder and appreciation in them and hopefully an urge to protect our natural environment. In this way I hope to contribute.’’
Louis is concerned about the loss of biodiversity and decline of the landscape. ‘’we have to put a concerted effort into reversing a number of processes that are currently happening.’’ This degradation of nature happening over time is maybe hard to notice. ‘’But I remember when we used to drive to Friesland on vacation, the windshield of your car would be so full of insects that you needed a special sponge to wipe them off. Now that is no longer needed.’’
For the future he hopes that our food supply becomes more natural. ‘’There is a way to influence this, by only buying organic, local and seasonal products. In that respect the consumer has power. Although it is of course dependent on the prices. But me with my gardens, I can grow more than enough for me and my family and friends.’’
Louis emphasizes that the starting point is to be in nature with respect for the animals and plants. ‘’Don’t take too much. I always explain that we humans have to use nature to eat. A carrot that you cut in half lives too, vital food is food that is alive. But we should always harvest and eat with respect to nature.’’
Want to get to know more of Louis? Send us a message to get in touch. | Photos by Thijs Broekkamp
