Two Farms on the bottom of a lake

After a ride back from Hoorn and a lunch aboard the ship still in Amsterdam, we took another bus journey out to the North West driving through land which makes up half of the total land mass of Holland. Reclaimed is the term they use here and while it was first begun in the early 1500's with the introduction of technology over the course of the next 600 years clearly impoved their land mass grab. What the windmills represent that we all can picture in our minds is the Dutch Water Management system. The have learned through the use of Dijks, Canals, and riners that much like locks do to lift a boat between water levels down a river, you can use windmills to push water up to various levels till you get it back to the sea. Thus the have claimed land that was under marshes and as the tecnology improved went after larger areas. 

Today we are driving on what should be a lake bottom, but reclained from the water through massive pumps. We are visting two very different Farms. The first is a family run business where the Farmer and his wife and children live and operate one of the farms that produce fresh tulips to all of Europe. 

We were first invited in for some coffee and dutch sweet cakes while the Farmers Wife gave an amazing presentation on the life on a tulip farm and the process of farming. While I was expecting to see fields of colorful tulips, it is too early to see that. When the flowers do grow out and and bloom, they use a special machine that cuts them all off and crushes them as mulch. In the fields they grow tulip bulbs which they will catalog and harvest for uses in the greenhouses to make next years flowershop deliveries.

This is one of the farmer's wife's daughter who helped serve coffee and tend to her younger sisters.

They produce 8 million flowers every year that they sell at the Amsterdam Flower Auction Huis. I was surprised to learn that their is an auction house let alone that it operates 5 days a week with a fresh delivery every morning of flowers. Not blooming flowers mind you, but almost ready to bloom flowers. How? By hand mostly. They have a few inventive machines to help break the bulb off so they can get an extra centemeter or two (tuplis are paid for by the lenght of the stem, 1 or 2 cm x 8 million = a lot). It also counts, bundles, and rubber bands them into groups of 10 for shipment.

Thats the Farmer turning to Joan to say why he is looking and picking out rejects. He then takes a flower off the machine and presents to her. 

We then went into one of the many greenhouses to see the flowers grown for sale. The greenhouses are used exclusively to produce the flowers for sale because it is a controlled environment. They can control the amount of light and temp to ensure when a given group will be ready for harvest. This way they manage the number ready and can account for the 2 days the market isn't open.

I took this picture for Gavin. 

So now back on the bus and off we are to the next farm, also located on the reclaimed lake bed.

One of the other things that the Dutch have an abundance of is Wind. So we are visisting a Wind farm  with those giant prop blades you see between Arizona and Calfornia. They look big when you are driving by at the distance. Up close and personal, they are enormous. And the sound the blade makes as it desends towards you and passes a mere ten feet over your head before climbing off to the sky is like the sound they use in a slo-mo martial arts movie of a sword fights. A low frequency SSWWOOOOSSH. Its incredible. It costs the farmer about 1.4 million euros and pays for itself in about 10 years. Unlike solar it produces electricity day and night. They operate up through a 60 mph wind.

This picture of us at the base of a windmill has a line above our heads which marks sea level. If all the dams, canals, dijks, and windmills give out, this would be the level of water here. An impressive feat of human engineering are the Dutch.

Back on bus for the ride back to Amsterdam and a traffic jam of Los Angeles proportions, 3 bus lengths in 30 minutes. Can't wait be back on the boat for a First of the Day.