Nose in the books or boots in the mud? Both. As a student, I really enjoyed my time at University College Maastricht (UCM) and in Barcelona, where I did a master’s in political philosophy. Writing is a wonderfully creative process. But when I was a tutor at UCM, I felt a little out of place. It’s an academic bubble, whereas I want to be more involved in society – not just analyse what’s going wrong, but actually come up with constructive solutions. You can make your point in words, but I prefer to communicate through food. It’s been my language since childhood. I’ve always worked in hospitality – kitchens, front of house, and now as a supplier. What started with renting a small plot of land has since grown into a full farm with a great team and 6 hectares of farmland. I never imagined I’d end up pursuing a PhD until I came across this opportunity at MERIAN (Maastricht Experimental Research In and Through the Arts Network). It lets me do research through making and doing, part-time, alongside running my business.
In ten years… I hope to have bred at least one or two new varieties of cabbage. Many farmers used to breed their own vegetables, resulting in a wide range of local varieties and strains of crops like carrots and cabbage, each slightly different in sweetness, smell, growth rate and disease resistance. Much of that variety has now disappeared. Large companies focus on a small number of varieties that can be sold on a large scale, which is worrying. It gives them power over our food supply, and a smaller gene pool reduces our options for the future – for example when developing resistance to new diseases. I don’t think the answer lies only in preserving varieties in seed banks. More importantly, we need to promote the culture that creates diversity. Through my research, I hope to develop new intermediate varieties myself and inspire everyone in the chain – from consumers and chefs to farmers and food specialists – by showing that there is still room for creativity.
"My work brings together everything that makes me me – who I am and what I want to stand for"
I’m the one who cooks at home. Yes, but I don’t spend enough time in the kitchen these days. You can’t do everything at once, and I like to focus on one thing at a time. I barely have time for a life outside of work. But my work brings together everything that makes me me – who I am and what I want to stand for.
I wish I had the time to… travel more. As a farmer, you can’t just leave everything behind. I sometimes miss the inspiration you get from visiting other places and meeting fellow nerds in the field. But there aren’t a lot of breeders and growers nearby. Luckily, my PhD gives me the chance to visit more of those places. My next trip is to the Veneto region of Italy, where one of my supervisors is working on crops like radicchio, cabbage and pumpkins. I’d also love to visit North Holland, where more than half of the world’s vegetable varieties are bred in a few small villages, and the coasts of northern Germany and southern England, where you can still find wild cabbage.
"I hope I inherited my mother's fire, she has a strong sense of justice"
Wine or beer? Wine. I grew up in and around my parents’ wine shop in Maastricht. For a long time, I thought I might follow that path. Wine is fascinating – no other branch of agriculture pays that much attention to flavour, origin and varieties. At UCM I was in a wine-tasting club that included Teun Dekker [a professor and former UCM interim dean]. Thanks to him, I was able to take two courses on grape-growing and winemaking in California. But for all its beauty, the wine world can also be exhausting – especially when it stops being about the product and turns into showing off how much you know or what you drink. The vegetable world could definitely pay more attention to flavour, but I like that it’s more down-to-earth.
I take after… I hope I inherited my father’s interest in food and people, and my mother’s fire. She has a strong sense of justice, always wants to do the right thing and is deeply affected by injustice. What kind of injustice? Just turn on the TV or leaf through a newspaper. There’s so much going on in the world that makes you feel powerless.
Dutch or Belgian? [Sighs] I think that’s a meaningless distinction. I feel like a citizen of the Jeker Valley; I’m just from here. I feel at home moving between the Netherlands, Flanders and Wallonia. That’s not to say I don’t notice the differences. The Walloon food culture is healthier, more flavourful, more diverse and more focused on eating together. The Netherlands and Flanders could learn from that. In the city centre of Liège alone, there are nearly twenty organic food shops selling local produce. In Maastricht and Tongeren, there are hardly any. Wallonia has captured my heart. I sell at the weekly market in Visé, which is incredibly important to me. If Wallonia wasn’t so close, I wouldn’t have stayed here.
"I love the energy, the boldness and spirit of hip-hop"
Favourite music? I like classical music. But I can’t stand the bombastic Romantic repertoire that dominates concert programmes in this city – Beethoven with a brick on the piano pedal, so to speak. It lacks the elegant freshness of Baroque and Renaissance music. I especially like the latter, which is even freer and more playful. I also enjoy Dutch and French hip-hop – the energy, the boldness, the grit and spirit.
Do you ever pray? Yes. [Pauses] I grew up here, so I was shaped in part by the Judeo-Christian tradition, even though I’m disgusted by its excesses. At the same time, I believe humans can’t live without a sense of meaning and purpose. Everyone ultimately commits to a certain system of values and finds their own way in it. Farming has taught me that doing good means creating the conditions for life to flourish, and then resisting the urge to control everything. A good farmer isn’t a helicopter parent. I don’t pray in the hope of divine intervention. As far as I’m concerned, God has already done His part. When I pray, it’s more a way of organising my own intentions and clarifying my task.