“I don’t want to keep up with the times; I want to stay ahead of them.”

As the initiator and co-founder of De Bolster in Epe, 76-year-old Bart Vosselman has no intention of retiring. He derives far too much joy from his work for that. In the company, his two passions converge: plant breeding and innovation. Together with Bart, we look back at the steps De Bolster has taken over the years.

Hard worker

Throughout the summer, Bart still works six to seven days a week on what he calls his hobby: breeding tomatoes. In addition, he often dives into trade journals, eager to acquire new knowledge and share it with his colleagues.

Bart has never been afraid of hard work. At a very young age, he helped his parents on their small farm. He especially loved gathering potatoes. But he became even more enthusiastic when strawberries were grown on the farm for the first time.

By the age of 16, Bart knew for sure: he wanted to be a grower. By then, the strawberry acreage had grown to more than 1 hectare, and he was solely responsible for managing the harvest with a large group of 20-25 peers. He also went to the auction. There, Bart quickly became known as the leading supplier of quality strawberries.

He says: “When you’re allowed to do these kinds of things at such a young age, it naturally motivates you to pursue that direction later on. Eventually, I chose to study Plant Breeding at WUR, which I thoroughly enjoyed.”

Eliminating pesticides

In 1983, Bart and his wife Elly took over his parents’ farm in Epe. Almost immediately, he decided to minimize the use of pesticides and stop using them entirely a few years later. In those years, it quickly became clear to Bart what toxic substances those products were. Bart was already a critical student in Wageningen, and Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book Silent Spring (1962) about the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment made a deep impression on him.

His father didn’t like his decision at all. “That’s never going to work,” he told his son. But Bart was undeterred and eventually convinced his father that it could be done without them. From then on, the company focused entirely on growing various vegetables, flowers, and potatoes on a total of 7.5 hectares. Bart and Elly sold all the products in their own farm shop. Bart: “It was a real thrill that so many people came from far and wide to buy our products. But the downside was: always working, working, working.”

“It was a real thrill that so many people came from far and wide to buy our products.”

Taking over De Bolster

In 2001, the high workload and government administrative demands became too much for them, and they somewhat impulsively closed the shop. From then on, they focused on seed multiplication and breeding; a leap into the unknown that turned out to be a wise choice in hindsight. Two years later, they heard that the owners of the organic seed company De Bolster in Kielwindeweer wanted to retire. In 2007, the time finally came, and Bart and Elly, together with their son Frank and Patrick Hoogendoorn, took over the company’s goodwill and customer base.

Investing fully

Bart: “It was an exciting time with many investments: a major renovation, a packaging machine, new full-color seed packets, and a catalog. At the same time, we started breeding programs for broad beans, pumpkin, tomato, zucchini, and arugula, among others. Within four years, I had already developed two new, successful pumpkin varieties. I still find breeding wonderful to do. For me, it’s a way to express my creativity.

My greatest pride is the pumpkin variety ‘Amoro F1’. It took no less than thirteen years of development to realize this variety in 2016. This variety is currently grown on a large scale in various countries. Its popularity is due to the fact that it gives growers double the yield. This required Elly and me to spend many hours observing large numbers of plants, literally sitting on a chair next to them. But it was all worth it, because it became our blockbuster, making us an important international player. It’s still a trade secret how I managed the breeding,” laughs Bart.

Vigorous tomatoes

He continues: “As a relatively small company, we face a lot of competition from large non-organic companies, so our varieties must be just as good, or preferably better, than those of the competition. It remains an important ambition for me to contribute to the further development of De Bolster. Furthermore, I find it very rewarding to develop specific varieties most suitable for organic growers. I know many growers personally; some are my friends.”

With tomatoes, I’ve made it a challenge to develop vigorous tomatoes with good flavor using as little nitrogen-rich fertilizer and water as possible. That has worked out quite well, although it still requires some extra effort to convince growers that they can achieve good results with less fertilizer and water.

“Our varieties must be just as good or, preferably, even better than those of the competition.”

Investing requires courage

Bart concludes: “For me, innovation isn’t about keeping up with the times, but about being ahead of the times. Innovating means being creative and investing. This involves taking a risk, but we have the courage and the knowledge to take that path. It’s wonderful that the cooperative members have trust in us, allowing us to continue making these investments.”