The Auction House for vegetables straddling a canal that centers a vast network of canals
Tuesday morning our little duckling line of bikes set out for the historic Langedijk (Long Dike) vegetable market about 8 miles away. We wound through Schoorl via bike lanes and trails, then hit a bike trail that led us along a canal through open countryside toward Langedijk.
The area around Langedijk, as well as the town itself, is reclaimed salt marshes called the “Realm of a Thousand Islands”, but in fact over 15,000 islands have been created over the centuries. How do you make an island? You dig a canal in the marsh, mound the dirt on one side, and voila!, you have an island AND a canal. Now you can farm the island. This creates a dense archipelago of tiny islands (a typical island may be 30 m. x 300 m.) for cultivation, each one accessible only by boat and connected via a vast network of canals.
A new visitors center has a map showing the archipelago of islands etched onto the glass of its facade
How do you get your produce to market? By boat, of course, to a wholesale auction house that straddles a canal. The system is ingenious and organized, and it thrived until the 1960’s, at which time roads, trucks, large-scale agriculture, and filled-in canals overtook its function. Today it exists as an experiential museum for visitors and the small islands are farmed by volunteer groups of organic farmers. It remains a fascinating look at Dutch engineering, collective industriousness and social organization.
A water-level view of an island amid the canals
For decades, the thousand islands were farmed by hand. Now a tractor can be landed by barge on an island to do the plowing and tilling.