Today we visited a tomato Greenhouse, which they refer to as Glasshouse. There are glasshouses all throughout the Netherlands but there is a high concentration of them in this area. It is quite a complicated and interesting operation. I had no idea what all goes into getting produce into our grocery stores (kinda the feeling I had a flora holland about the process of flowers). The seeds are not put into soil, but into a kind of installation. The installation has water and nutrients put into it. The tomato vines are hooked to wires and grow up to about 10 meters high. Someone has to continuously watch over the plants. They wrap the new vine around the wire, they cut leaves from the vine, they make sure they are not damaged, someone checks the ripeness, etc. All of this is done by hand by about 40 people. There are also bees which help with pollination. This is just the growing part of it all. Then it has to all be weighed, measured, wrapped, and delivered. They sure make some great, juicy tomatoes!
I learned that almost all vegetables should not be put in the refrigerator. They should be kept at room temperature. This actually keeps the taste fresher.
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