Why I’m Glad I Don’t Live in Amsterdam
I look on jealously as my FavorFlav colleagues have Michelin-worthy dishes delivered. I live in the heart of West Friesland, and here the takeaway menu more or less stops at Thai food, a jumbo bag of fries or a pizza. But what we do have here – and city types don’t – are roadside stalls. In recent weeks, there have been more and more of them, and by now you can buy almost anything except cat litter from wooden stalls in the polder. A few euros in a jam jar, a quick toot of the horn and off you go!
Those stalls are a familiar sight in the polders of North Holland. I think almost every village has stalls where you can buy products directly from the farmer. Always lovely: a bunch of tulips so fresh they still have mud on them, or a jar of honey from the beekeeper. When fruit is being harvested, you can sometimes pick up cheap plums or strawberries by the roadside if you feel like making jam, and during cauliflower season, a cauliflower for one euro is easy enough to take along, but it actually costs about the same as in the supermarket, so it’s not worth getting in your car for. Until now.
Away from the supermarket
‘Years ago, I started a website featuring those roadside stalls,’ says Peter de Rooij, founder of Verkoopstalletjes. ‘But it didn’t amount to anything. It was difficult to convince farmers to be listed on the site, and difficult to keep everything up to date. So I abandoned it. Until last week: I saw a post on Facebook from a supplier of fruit and vegetables who didn’t know what on earth to do with all his produce. I was already at the supermarket, but immediately turned around to do my shopping with him, because at least that way you’re helping an entrepreneur.’
Going wild at the weekend
Once home, Peter thought about his dormant website. ‘I mentioned the initiative on a site where people offer coronavirus help. It exploded immediately. I opened the Facebook group West Frisian roadside produce stalls, and before long we had more than 20,000 followers. A friend made an online map showing all the addresses. And this weekend it really took off.’
Completely safe, because West Friesland is big
Growers didn’t know what hit them. Everything sold out. Farmers got ten times as many customers as usual. ‘The best thing is that it’s all safe,’ says Peter. ‘You stay in your car, get out briefly to collect your things and then drive on. You can pay with a Tikkie or put the exact amount in a jar; you don’t speak to anyone and everyone keeps their distance. West Friesland is very spacious, the stalls are spread out and those twenty thousand people aren’t all out exploring at the same time, so there’s really no risk.’
Happy browsing
On the same Facebook page, people show what delicious things they’ve managed to find. It turns out the selection is much wider than a bunch of tulips and a bottle of farm yogurt. You can buy animal feed at one stall; another sells fresh strawberries or hot-smoked salmon. Of course there are potatoes, but also barbecue meat, cheese and peonies. Peter now spends hours a day managing the page and website, but that doesn’t matter, because his teeth-whitening salon also had to close due to coronavirus. ‘I actually hope this continues, even once the restrictions have been lifted.’
