For years the Mostert family has been active in the Portuguese Majorca - on the coast between Porto and Lisbon. After the cultivation of tub plants, flower bulbs, snails and pointed cabbage, Aad and Ester Mostert have now been in the cultivation of bottle gourds and broad beans. Versland Selection takes care of the sales and in collaboration with Gebr. van den Ende from Maasdijk the bottle gourds are also processed into a new line of soups and meals that will be marketed under the name 'Boer Janus'.
"We planted the first bottle pumpkins again this week," says Aad. "Last year both the cultivation and sales went well, which means we are investing a little more this year and expanded to an area of 5 hectares. The demand for bottle gourds is growing. We have good contact with Portuguese growers and aren't in one another's way."
"The broad beans are also growing well again. We hope to harvest them in a few weeks and they will all go to the Dutch market. The first harvest of bottle gourd pumpkins is expected at the end of June. The cultivation on Portugal is popular among the Westlanders. "We come from greenhouses and didn't have any experience with open ground cultivation, but we learnt a lot in the past years. We now harvest the pumpkins with battery powered pruning shears," according to Aad.
The husband and wife sought contact with soup and meal producers Van der Ende last year, which resulted in the new line 'Boer Janus'. "I used to have the nickname Janus, from Adrianus, so I thought it was a good name," laughs Aad. "Most of the bottle gourd pumpkins go into soup and it's a good sales opportunity for the slightly less aesthetically pleasing pumpkins in particular."
"It's also a good opportunity for us to become more well known and come into direct contact with the end customer. We can offer the bottle gourds, mostly from fresh harvest supplemented with a small volume from storage, all year round. And more products may follow under this brand name. We are open to everything," Boer Janus concludes.
"It's also a good opportunity for us to become more well known and come into direct contact with the end customer. We can offer the bottle gourds, mostly from fresh harvest supplemented with a small volume from storage, all year round. And more products may follow under this brand name. We are open to everything," Boer Janus concludes.
For more information:
Aad Mostert
0031 (0) 6-13162722
aadmostert@hotmail.com
www.boerjanus.nl
For sales enquiries:
Versland
Peter de Koning
0031 (0) 174-225343
www.versland.com