With the summer just around the corner it is rush hour at J.P. Poleij. The wholesaler in sea lavender and samphire from Kruiningen has its own sea vegetable nursery, but also harvests them wild from the marshes. "Here in Zeeland they only want wild grown sea lavender and samphire. In the marshes the vegetables absorb the salt when the tide flows over them and you can taste it," says Jan Poleij.
The Zeeuw has now been active in cutting and trading sea vegetables for thirty years and has his own 3 hectare nursery to meet the demand for sea vegetables from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in particular. He also imports sea vegetables from France from the Picardy marshes."
The season runs from the beginning of May until the beginning of September for samphire. For sea lavender it is from mid March to mid September. "The demand for sea lavender, but samphire in particular is increasing year by year. But there is also more competition from Portugal, Israel and Mexico, among others," says Jan.
In general the prices in the winter season, when the samphire mainly comes from Israel, are a lot higher than in the Zeeuwse season because there is less competition.
Poleij supplies his sea vegetables to catering, catering wholesalers, shops, grocers and fishmongers. "In Zeeland and West-Brabant the sea vegetables are the most well known and the sales are the highest. Samphire and sea lavender are good with fish and meat."
"They used to eat the samphire here with a 'bolle woste' (meat ball)" says Jan. "Now samphire is mostly eaten combined with asparagus. The flavours go well together and so do the colours on the plate."
For more information:
J.P. Poleij
Sandeeweg 6
4416 NJ Kruiningen
Tel: 0113-381760
Mob: 0031 (0) 6-23627231
jppoleij@zeelandnet.nl
www.poleijzeegroenten.nl