Nature & More Grower Harrie Grows The Tastiest Apple Of The Netherlands

An organic Dalinco apple of fruit grower Harrie van den Elzen from the little village of Zeeland was chosen "Tastiest  apple of the Netherlands" on Thursday in a live television broadcast. "It's like biting into a piece of summer" said one of the jury members. The jury also praised his Red Topaz and Santana apples. Harrie van den Elzen works under the biodynamic Demeter label and offers transparency about his orchards through the Nature & More 'trace & tell' system. Harrie's apple won because it's not only delicious, but also sustainable in many different ways. The election was organised by a popular Dutch food blog.

The jury elected the winner from five finalists in a blind tasting session. Out of these five, four were organic growers. In the pre-selection, the jury attached a lot of importance to the direct relation between farmer and consumer. In the announcement of the contest, one of the initiators wrote: "Sometimes the apple eaters – if they are above 40 – may know the name of the apple variety, but rarely do they know anything about the grower or the growing methods." Upon winning the contest, Harrie van den Elzen commented: " The quality of my apples is a result of the way I treat the soil, the plants and animals in my orchard. It's important to me that consumers can find out about that."

Harrie van den Elzen can be found with code 572 on www.natureandmore.com, together with his colleagues of organic cooperation Biofruit. Here, Harrie explains about his unorthodox pruning methods and the special apple varieties he grows. Dalinco, his winning apple, is an organic, scab-resistant variety. Nature & More is a transparency scheme by Dutch-based organic trader Eosta; it makes an effort to bridge the gap between grower and consumer by putting a sticker on the apple that shows the face of the grower and a reference to his web page.

Nature & More is an online system for transparency about food sustainability, and was developed by Dutch-based organic distributor Eosta. See also www.natureandmore.com and www.eosta.com.

Source: Eosta B.V.