{"id":41,"date":"2024-10-08T08:18:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T08:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.instawp.xyz\/?page_id=41"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T11:46:30","slug":"our-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/ons-verhaal\/","title":{"rendered":"Our story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luc Schokkaert<\/pre>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Our heritage<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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On St John the Baptist, we mark the end of the asparagus season. Asparagus cultivation once dominated Klein-Brabant, but now the roadsides are rare.<\/p>
Despite the rise of other crops, tradition remains alive here. Discover the history of this local speciality.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Photos: Luc Schokkaert<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The beginning of asparagus cultivation in Kalfort<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The first asparagus was sown in the region from 1885 on the Coolhem estate of the Van de Wiele family. The Kalfort flax merchants Huyghe had brought the asparagus seed from Lille, where they had sold their flax and noticed the asparagus crop. The asparagus seed was sown by Henricus Josephus Leyers, permanent gardener of Coolhem domain since 1872. <\/p>
Calfort was known as a prominent asparagus place, as far away as Paris, thanks to Baptist Vertongen (1856-1924) who introduced the \u201cAsperges de Calfort\u201d.<\/p>
Many residents of Kalfort made a living from growing asparagus. Early in the morning, asparagus were harvested, bundled and taken to the auction. Around 1960, however, asparagus cultivation began to decline. This was due to high labour costs, high taxes, competition from imported asparagus, soil depletion and tiring manual work. Eventually, asparagus cultivation disappeared from Kalfort. Nevertheless, \u201casparagus\u201d remains inextricably linked to Kalfort.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Expansion and success of asparagus cultivation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Gradually, cultivation expanded. At the time, Puurs-Sint-Amands was a poor region. In winter, farmers swung flax, which they bought from the surrounding area to earn something on the side.<\/p>
However, asparagus cultivation became profitable and general prosperity increased noticeably. After World War II, cultivation became even more important and there was even an association of asparagus growers in the region.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Luc Schokkaert<\/pre>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Luc Schokkaert<\/pre>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Changes in asparagus cultivation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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By 1960, asparagus cultivation was past its peak. Excessive social charges and taxation, soil depletion, labour-intensive work and an asparagus fly plague soon caused the area of asparagus grown to drop by 75 %.\u00a0<\/p>
With better fertilisation techniques, other vegetables could now be grown, which required less manual labour and much greater productivity. Gardeners therefore switched en masse to leeks and cauliflowers.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The process of stabbing and processing<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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For younger readers, who still only see asparagus in glass or tin cans, a word of explanation. Asparagus grows in raised and nicely levelled sand beds.<\/p>
You can recognise the places, where the asparagus almost pokes its head up, by cracks in the verge. If you don't catch it soon enough, the fast-growing asparagus will rear its head during the day and a few hours of sunlight are enough to turn the head blue and greatly reduce its value.<\/p>
The asparagus is partially exposed and cut with a long knife. The vegetables are carefully washed, bundled in a wooden \u201cdonkey\u201d in half-kilo bussels, cut evenly to a length of 22 cm and packed in 8 kg boxes. From there, they go to the vegetable auction in Sint-Katelijne-Waver.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The end of the season<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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24 June inexorably marks the end of the season, which began in early April. After that, asparagus is allowed to advance to give the plant a chance to regain its strength. 
If this is not done, it is impossible to harvest from the same plants for 10 or 12 years. 
Then, in August, the red asparagus bulbs appear on the plants.<\/p>
Older people will remember how angry boys used to aim these pellets at unsuspecting passers-by with a musseflapper.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Luc Schokkaert Ons erfgoed Op Sint-Jan de Doper markeren we het einde van het aspergeseizoen. Ooit domineerde de aspergeteelt in Klein-Brabant, maar nu zijn de bermen zeldzaam. Ondanks de opkomst van andere gewassen blijft de traditie hier levend. Ontdek de geschiedenis van deze lokale specialiteit. Foto’s: Luc Schokkaert Het begin van de aspergeteelt in Kalfort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"iawp_total_views":417,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 14:30:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":172,"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2598,"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41\/revisions\/2598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspergepunt.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}