Thomas Kiernan and John Turner travelled over to Belgium and Holland for a two day visit on the 15th and 16th of October.
The duo visited the Sterckx compost yard in Belgium and also found time to go visit some growers in France and Holland.
The two men were very impressed by the quality of the mushrooms that are being grown on the continent and were heading back with lots of thoughts; on filling compost; watering; casing depth and quality; flushing patterns and cropping temperatures.
The two Irish growers also dropped in with Hans Voet, who resided for some time in the Cavan area and will be returning to Ireland on holiday, at the end of the month. At Hans’s house they had time to drink a cuppa – it was a coffee, seeing as tea is not the popular beverage in Holland that it is in Ireland.
Also, Thomas managed to taste the very famous Belgian beer ‘Duvel’ (translated as devil) at the bar in the Breda hotel. Maybe it should be called duvet – something that is easy to relax with! It sure is a fine beer – but they do have many of them over there.
