When Hans van Haalen was Principal of Farrer Primary School from 1995 to 2004, his belief that learning is enhanced when it includes a hands-on perspective, led to his desire make the school a beacon by setting up an Environment Centre. This was done by harnessing the total support of the community in bringing his vision to fruition. The children at that school were able to fully engage in growing, harvesting, and cooking fresh food in a sustainable way through studies of science and the environment. This initiative was one of the first of its kind and definitely the first in the ACT.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As Stephanie Alexander wrote in The Canberra Times on October 19, she decided to test a similar idea at Collingwood College in Melbourne in 2001 and that led to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.
Hans van Haalen was born in the Netherlands and migrated to Canberra with his family in 1956, a time when the population was 35,000 and many migrants grew vegetables in their front yards. His love for gardening was inspired by his father, Leo, who grew fruit and vegetables at the family home in Ainslie and kept chickens. Even though Hans had three siblings, it was always he who worked in the garden when his Dad was at work and it was Hans who slaughtered the chickens for the table and fought with the rooster.
Since 2006, Hans has been living in Kambah. The soil in that garden has been improved by huge quantities of sheep manure from his sister's farm with him mucking out under the shearing shed.
He keeps three Orpington chickens which supply him with three fresh eggs every day. Cleaning out the chook run provides chook manure which, with his own wood shavings, worm castings from his worm farm and homemade compost, the raised garden beds are the perfect base for vegetables to thrive.
While he was a teacher in the 1980s, Hans studied horticulture at Weston TAFE, attending night school to obtain his diploma as a horticulturist. As he talks about plants, his extensive knowledge and understanding of particular vegetable requirements is obvious. Hans has been a Friend of the National Arboretum Canberra since 2006 and he was a member of the first group of guides there.
His spring crops include Asian greens, mixed lettuce, radishes, carrots, beetroot, potatoes, broccolini, kale, snow peas, baby spinach, garlic, onions and rocket. Most of Hans' vegetables are grown from seed, either seed saved from last year's crops or commercial supplies from Bunnings or Diggers including just-sown Japanese cucumbers and butternut pumpkin.
Large coriander plants are allowed to go to seed so the supply is never-ending and there is French tarragon and an impressive dill plant which is added, raw, to salads. From an olive tree planted just four years ago, with the apt name of Kolossus, Hans picked a sufficient quantity of olives this year to produce his first jar of preserved olives. His meals are guided by what is available in the garden.
His favourite dish is frittata with home laid eggs and anything thrown in that is currently growing. He also relishes early spring season greens and stir fries. Regarding Dutch food, his only interest is dishes influenced by the Indonesian colonial past. However he does love Dutch honey cake.
A pair of Ballerina apples, 'Waltz' and 'Polka' varieties, frame the garden beds and, along the fence line, are a pear tree grafted with the three varieties Beurre Bosc, Packham's Triumph and Williams.
There is a peach tree, a nectarine and a lemon. Red currants, strawberries and rhubarb grow in separate beds.
At the Southside Farmers Markets in Phillip, Hans recently bought from stall holder Paul de Jong of Bungendore, a variety of tomato seedlings which include Grosse Lisse, Apollo, Beefsteak and Cherry. He is also trying the low acid yellow tomato, new tomato for him called Mande and the tomato 'Indigo Ruby' an F1 hybrid bred by Peter Mes in Oregon USA, which has fruit that looks like plums with extra antioxidants. Ripe tomatoes are bottled late in the season.
He has fond memories of his father growing huge watermelons in Ainslie, a long sausage-shaped light green variety which no longer seems to be available. This year he is sowing seed from Diggers Heirloom Legends collection, the watermelon Moon and Stars.
While he was living in Melbourne, Hans started botanical art classes at the Royal Botanic Gardens and he is now with the Botanical Artists' Group at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. His home is filled with works by well known local artists and his own paintings of pears greet visitors at his front door and his interest in art extends to his gardening t-shirts which are MC Escher and purchased from the Escher Museum in The Hague.
At the Urambi Community Centre in Urambi Village on Saturday November 12 from 10am to noon, Hans and a friend will have a small exhibition of their work. His paintings include Jap pumpkin, also known as Kent, and a king mushroom.
Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.
