Got Seeds? We do!

Hello world, reporting back from the chocolate group!

Today we began our first full day in Leiden, Netherlands. After a very early 7:00 am start and a quick breakfast, we hopped on the bus for a 27km ride to the Flora Holland Flower Auction Aalsmeer. Because Holland is the most densely populated European country, beating traffic can be a little rough; however, today luck was on our side, and our bus driver Hugo managed to get us to the auction in a short 40 minutes.

At the flower auction we were warmly greated by Isabella who gave us a tour of the huge facilities. Even though 7:00 am was early for us, the buyers at the auction had already been working for two hours by the time we arrived! It was very similar to the vegetable auction we visted in Beglium, but instead of vegetables the warehouse was bursting at the seems with cut flowers. The workers zipped around on small trolleys hauling long trains of flower trailers. We saw the buying floors and flower testing rooms in addition to the immense warehouse. At the end of the tour we visted the showroom where large buyers can view a variety of plants and flowers which they can purchase outright. Overall it was a great experience seeing a bit of the flower industry and we definitely started our day off quite colorfully.

Then we took a longer drive to DeRuiter Seeds again arriving early with the help of Hugo. Gianni Bernardotto, Managing Director, welcomed us to the facility with a presenation about the company. Following this we enjoyed a delicious lunch of sandwiches and potato salad, compliments of DeRuiter-the leading seed breeding company. After lunch, we were able to take a tour of many of their greenhouses where they grow over 1,100 varieties of tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, melon and cucumber. It was really cool seeing how they harvested the seeds from the fresh vegetables. We were surprised by how indepth the sanitation and regulation procedures are! After the greenhouses we got to see the research labs where the whole process begins. The conclusion of this visit was a presenation given by Jan Kampers where we discussed some of the challenges of being involved in this industry. Side note: do not refridgerate your tomatoes, and bell peppers have more vitamin C than oranges!

All in all today was another success among the many we've had in Europe. Tomorrow brings us to Amsterdam with a visit of ADM Cocoa. We only have one day left, and other groups are begging to write the blog so the chocolate group appreciates you following our trip, and we'll see you back in America!

Posted by Nick Fogle, Hilary Labrash, Sara Petranek, Austin Verbeck