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Garden Writers
Amsterdam Belgium 2006
July, 2006
Wednesday July 5th we were up very early to
get to Aalsmeer Flower Auction by 7:30 a.m. but I think we all agreed it was
worth it. We were met by our guide and taken through the process. We all
wore headsets so he didn’t have to scream at us and we could hear every word
he was saying in that somewhat noisy environment. As a cooperative
enterprise, Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer offers globally producing growers and
globally active wholesalers and exporters a total concept: a central
marketplace for the buying and selling of floricultural products with a
balanced range of marketing channels, good facilities for growers and buyers
and effective logistics. Aalsmeer, the most prominent auction in the world,
thus contributes significantly to processes of distributing and pricing
flowers and plants. Auctioning at the VBA goes according to the system of
‘Dutch Auction’. This means that the clocks run from the highest to the
lowest price, which is always per unit - i.e. per single flower or plant.
When this process takes place, the buyer sees the lights around the clock’s
edge run back from 100 to 1. If a buyer notices a product he wants to buy at
a price which agrees with him, he quickly pushes the button and the clock
stops at the desired price. If the number of the buyer appears on the clock
face, it means that the buyer was the first to stop the clock and therefore
he is the buyer. At the same time he tells the auctioneer, using his headset
with microphone, how much of the consignment he wants to buy (the auctioneer
determines the minimum amount). The remainder of the consignment is put up
for auctioning again. The information of this particular transaction is
immediately entered in the central computer, from which the transaction
information is send to the buyers laptop, the invoice system of the VBA, the
system which determines the payment to the growers and the statistics of the
VBA. Per clock, some 1,500 transactions can be processed per hour. The VBA
consists of five auctioning halls: four cutflower halls and one plant hall.
In total there are thirteen auction clocks. The plant hall e.g. has four
clocks. This is the biggest hall and provides place for six hundred bidders.
All the halls together provide space for two thousand buyers at the same
time.
Interesting facts:
• Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer sells more than 20 million flowers and plants
every day;
• 7000 specialized growers from all over the world offer their flowers and
plants via Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer every day;
• The auction has an essential ‘break-bulk’ function: large lots are sold
within a couple of hours and divided into smaller lots;
• The customers who are situated at the auction (wholesalers and exporters)
can be on their way to the consumer, anywhere in the world, within a few
hours;
• With its 999,000 m² of floor space (soon to be more than 1 million), the
auction building is the largest commercial building in the world, according
to the Guinness Book of Records;
• Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer turns over EUR 6 million every day.
We got back to our hotel to either do something or rest until our walking
tour with Urban Home & Garden Tours Amsterdam. We visited and spent a little
more time in the flower market, then toured three different gardens…as you
can see one of our group is taking the opportunity for a bit of shut eye
while in one of them. Urban Home & Garden Tours Amsterdam was founded in
2000 by Andre Ancion. ‘We started with a small team and initially focused
purely on canal house gardens – Amsterdam's best kept secret! But soon we
decided we couldn't keep all those other interesting facts to ourselves: the
17th- to 20th-century canal house architecture and interior design and the
French etiquette of the noveau riche.’
Then back to the hotel to get ready and meet in the lobby for our tram
journey out to De Kas for dinner. Once we got off the tram it was just a
short walk past a very still and dark pond to the restaurant. “A kitchen
surrounded by fertile soil where vegetables and herbs thrive … Where
daylight shines in from all sides and where the chefs are free to express
their creativity daily using the best the season has to offer. It seems an
obvious concept, but I spent twenty years surrounded by white tiles under
fluorescent lighting before I came up with it.” In 2001, top chef Gert Jan
Hageman, who had earned a Michelin star in Dutch haute cuisine, found a new
direction for his own career and a new purpose for the old greenhouse that
belonged to Amsterdam's Municipal Nursery. The greenhouse, which dated from
1926, was due to be demolished. With a lot of luck and, most importantly,
with help from the municipality and his family and friends, Hageman
succeeded in converting the unique 8-metre high glass building into a
restaurant and nursery. Situated in Frankendael Park, between the Rembrandt
Tower and the nineteenth century facades of Watergraafsmeer, De Kas is an
oasis of calm for the fifty-thousand guests who dine there each year; either
in the breathtaking dining room designed by Piet Boon, or at the chef's
table in the kitchen, or - if weather permits - outside in the herb garden.
We enjoyed a three course dinner in the Garden Room. De Kas has a beautiful,
separate room for private dinners, presentations and meetings. This garden
room is located amongst the green of their nursery and has its own patio
adjacent to the park. ‘At De Kas we are convinced that food is at its best
when prepared using only the freshest ingredients, grown and harvested with
care for the environment. De Kas has its own nursery, where we grow herbs
and Mediterranean vegetables in the summer, and various kinds of lettuce in
the winter. We also own a piece of land in the Purmer polder, where we grow
seasonable vegetables outdoors. In addition to our own produce, we buy fresh
ingredients from local organic farmers on a daily basis.’
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