This week, the Dutch postal service, PostNL, introduced six new stamps. Various vegetables are depicted on the Mijn groententuin (My Vegetable Garden) stamp sheet. They are shown in the most important stages of cultivation. These stages are sowing, growing, and harvesting. The vegetables were photographed from various angles.
Mini calendar
Vegetable gardens can be found everywhere in the Netherlands. They are planted as part of a garden or as a separate vegetable patch. They can also form part of a community allotment, be a market garden or even a horticultural business.
The 'My Vegetable Garden' stamp sheet shows six vegetables. These are oak leaf lettuce (a leafy green), aubergine (a fruit-vegetable), and fennel (a stem crop). There there is radish (a root vegetable), sweet potato ( also a root vegetable), and turnip greens (also a leafy vegetable).
There is also a mini calendar at the edges of each sheet of stamps. It describes which months are most suited for sowing and harvesting. This calendar is for greenhouse as well as full ground cultivation. There is one of these mini calendars for each type of vegetable depicted on the stamp sheet.
Garden pride
Vormforensen designed these stamps. This graphic design company is based in the Dutch town of Arnhem. It is made up of Anne-Marie Geurink and Annelou van Griensven. In their design, the vegetable garden is depicted in such a way that the different cultivation stages are clearly visible. Being proud of one's garden also had to have pride of place.
"Hence, My Vegetable Garden instead of just the vegetable garden", says Van Griensven. She explains that, during the shoot, the scenes were not raked over and nothing was added to them. "We wanted to show the beauty as it is. At the most, a leaf was moved so, for example, a potato could be seen better."
Matching colors
The vegetables were selected by what the designers found nice to portray. The colors also had to match. Geurink says, “We opted for a mix of oak leaf lettuce as the base vegetable and the more trendy sweet potato. There are the lesser-known turnip greens and fennel, which is increasing in popularity. Then there is the almost surreal aubergine en the good old radish.”
Availability
The My Vegetable Garden stamps are of the Dutch 1 denomination. These can be used for domestic letters within the Netherlands weighing a maximum of 20g. These stamps have been available since 19 October. The can be bought at Bruna post offices and via www.postnl.nl/bijzondere-postzegels. The stamps can also be ordered by telephone from the Collect Club on + 31 (0) 888 689 900. They have an undetermined validity.