after a request from the local restaurant in the 1970’s by an organic farmer in Ubbergen, a
village near the German border.
Economically of interest is the collecting and selling of cranberries and its products on the
island in the north: Terschelling (Terschelling and Vlieland are the only places in Europe
Vaccinium macrocarpus grows in the wild); and also of some forest fruits and its juices and
marmalades in the centre of the Netherlands (Veluwe).
Both Salicornia europaea (glasswort) and Aster tripolium (lams ear) are served as local
culinary specialities in restaurants in the region Zeeland (in the south, near the sea); for that
purpose they are cultivated in salt marshes near the sea. Few people are still picking the plants
in the wild, as the collection of Salicornia is now under strict rules and requires a special
permit from the authorities each year.
A traditional meat product that can be bought in summer in most butchers stores in the eastern
central part of the Netherlands is ‘kruudmoes’ (herb mash); it is flavoured with local weeds
like Aegopodium podagraria, Myrrhis odorata, Ribes nigrum, Rumex spp. and Urtica urens
leaves. The restaurant Librije in Zwolle serves this and other dishes with wild plants, partly
based on family traditions, but the cooks are also innovative in using the local flora.
