‘I think about sprouts every day’: Inside the Dutch factory growing your Christmas vegetables
In the world of Christmas vegetables, nothing is more divisive than a Brussels sprout.
And here, as I look out over a factory in the Netherlands, they are everywhere.
It is like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but recast in sprout form.
They roll along conveyor belts, get poured into huge machinery and tumble into chutes.
They’re photographed and lifted, sized and sorted, packed and chilled.
It is relentless, like watching a green magma flow. As more and more sprouts are delivered from farms, so they are fed into the machinery, and so the slow march goes on and on.
If you like sprouts (spoiler alert: I do) then this is a mesmerising sight.
Sprouts of all sizes are whizzing around us, being divided into huge wheeled tubs that fill up in minutes. The Dutch like the small ones. The biggest are off to Germany.
And there, in the middle, are the containers for the British. We like smaller Brussels sprouts with a crisp taste.
The fine sprouts, as they are described to me.
Read more:
Where do Christmas traditions come from?
Here’s how to jazz up your Christmas decor using AI
Would you charge your family to host Christmas? This man did
The world centre of sprout-growing
Peter van’t Woudt is the site manager at the Primeale factory in the Netherlands – the world centre of sprout-growing.
As the sprouts roll in, he studies them constantly, running his hand through the vat as it fills up.
This is a crucial time of the year in the Brussels sprout world.
“We are running for 24 hours per day,” he said, looking round his factory.
“This is the time of the year when we all have to work hard because everyone wants the sprouts. But here, we are a team.”
On a good day, it can take 34 hours for the sprouts to go from entering this factory to the shelves of a British supermarket, and being snapped up soon after.
It’s reckoned that British shoppers buy something like 750 million sprouts over the Christmas period, but that only around half of them will actually be eaten.
It is the vegetable that you either love or hate and, yes, even within the sprout factory I met some people who love them, despite spending the whole day staring at sprouts, and others who couldn’t bear the taste.
How do you even harvest a sprout in winter?
Then there is Jack’s Gravemade, whose job is to use infrared cameras to weed out the bad sprouts.
He said he used to hate them as a child, but has now become a devout fan.
This has been a tough year for them, he said, with the long hot summer affecting sprouts.
Last year, only about 8% of sprouts were deemed unacceptable: now it’s double that.
That’s tough for the farmers. Half an hour away, we are standing in a muddy field, talking to Frederique Sonneveld, Primeale’s product manager with oversight of Brussels sprouts, and she is worried.
Her parents worked in sprouts, and so did their parents before.
There is nothing she doesn’t know about these things, which is handy because really all I know is how to cook and eat them.
Sprouts grow out of the ground – they really do sprout up – on all sides of a thick stalk.
To harvest them, a slow-moving vehicle runs along the line of vegetables, with four people sitting in the front.
Huge cutters trim the stalk at ground level, then it gets lifted by hand and fed into a hole where a hidden machine strips the sprouts from the stalk.
The problem is that you can’t do any of this if the ground is frozen. And right now, the weather is cold, which is why Ms Sonneveld is worried.
“I’m nervous because this is such an important time of the year, but we can’t do anything if it’s too cold. We need to harvest as much as we can but…”, she shrugs and smiles a slightly anxious smile.
“They need our care and our love.”
Brussels sprouts being harvested in the Netherlands
‘I think about sprouts every day’
There is, of course, nothing you can do about the vagaries of nature.
The summer was difficult, she explained, but it wasn’t the only problem.
The spiralling price of energy has made farming more expensive, and so has inflation in the labour market. Sprouting sprouts is an expensive business these days.
Ms Sonneveld is an avowed fan of the taste of the sprout, although she does look bewildered when I ask if she eats them every day.
Frederique Sonneveld is an avowed fan of the taste of the sprout
“I think about them every day, but I don’t always eat them,” she replied. Probably very wise.
She presents me with what she considers to be the most beautiful example she can find – perfect size, no flaky leaves and a glistening sheen.
“Bling, bling,” she said, handing it over. Not, if I’m honest, an expression I’ve ever associated with a Brussels sprout before.
But it is unarguably a nice looking sprout. It’s the one I’m holding in our television report, and which I’m going to eat shortly.
The perfect Brussels sprout
The fact is that a huge amount of time, effort, money, passion and planning goes into delivering the humble sprout to your table. They are cherished and loved, coaxed to grow, and then sped to your table.
And all that for something that half of you won’t want. It’s a cruel life, being a Brussels sprout.
It feels like “the draft” has come six weeks early – the annual selection meeting in American football.
For three or four days, teams in the NFL attempt to woo players with the most lucrative contracts.
In a classic Emmanuel Macron manoeuvre, the French president deployed flattery in the Oval Office.
Three days later, Sir Keir Starmer the charmer upped the game, whipping out a letter from the King.
In their determination to entice the key player back onto Europe’s side, their tactical game was top-notch.
But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arrival at the White House is the moment of truth for their charm offensive.
The Ukrainian leader has stressed the need for security guarantees before signing any agreement.
President Donald Trump seems to be suggesting that a deal on rare earth minerals provides such security.
“Digging our hearts out,” as he put it, in an economic partnership, would certainly be ground-breaking diplomacy.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘What a beautiful accent’
This week’s flurry in Washington reflects Europe’s concern about Trump’s push to end the war.
Ten days ago, his apparent concessions to Russia sounded alarm bells across the Atlantic.
But his meetings with Macron and Starmer were more amicable than France and the UK dared hope.
Both fact-checked him in real time when he claimed European aid for Ukraine had been given as a loan.
Read more:
As it happened: Trump-Starmer visit
Starmer contradicts Vance over free speech claim
Read some of Trump’s letter from the King
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
An ‘intense session’ but ‘pretty good outing’
But rather than retaliate, he appeared to have heard their concerns about his U-turn towards Moscow.
Asked by one journalist if he still thought Zelenskyy was a “dictator”, he replied: “Did I really say that?”
Don’t underestimate that joke.
It is the closest Donald J Trump would ever come to a climb-down.
The publication of the detail is a pivotal moment in assessing which team he has opted to play for.
World
FBI most wanted drug lord among 29 cartel figures sent from Mexico to US as Trump turns up pressure on organisations
Mexico has sent 29 drug cartel figures, including a most wanted drug lord, to the US as the Trump administration cranks up the pressure on the crime groups.
The early days of the new US president’s second term were marked by him triggering trade wars with his nearest allies, where he threatened to hike tariffs with Mexico, and Canada, insisting the country crack down on drug cartels, immigration and the production of fentanyl.
With the imposition of the 25% tariffs just days away, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the FBI’s “10 most wanted fugitives”, was one of the individuals handed over in the unprecedented show of cooperation.
The FBI wanted poster for Rafael Caro Quintero. Pic: AP/FBI
It comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
Those sent to the US on Thursday were rounded up from prisons across Mexico and flown to eight US cities, according to the Mexican government.
Prosecutors from both countries said the prisoners sent to the US faced charges including drug trafficking and homicide.
“We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honour of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers – and in some cases, given their lives – to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels,” US attorney general Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
‘Cartel kingpin’
Quintero was convicted of the torture and murder of US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena in 1985.
The murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations.
Quintero was described by the US attorney general as “a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico”.
After decades in jail, and atop the FBI’s most wanted list, he walked free in 2013 when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for killing Mr Camarena.
Rafael Caro Quintero. Pic: Reuters/FBI
Quintero, the former leader of the Guadalajara cartel, returned to drug trafficking and triggered bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico state of Sonora until he was arrested a second time in 2022.
The US sought his extradition shortly after, but the request remained stuck at Mexico’s foreign ministry for reasons unknown.
President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador severely curtailed Mexican cooperation with the DEA to protest undercover US operations in Mexico targeting senior political and military officials.
‘The Lord of The Skies’
Also sent to the US were cartel leaders, security chiefs from both factions of the Sinaloa cartel, cartel finance operatives and a man wanted in connection with the killing of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy in 2022.
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, a once leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “The Lord of The Skies”, who died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997, was among those turned over to the US.
As were two leaders of the now defunct Los Zetas cartel, brothers Miguel and Omar Trevino Morales, who were known as Z-40 and Z-42.
The brothers have been accused of running the successor Northeast Cartel from prison.
Soldiers escort a man who authorities identified as Omar Trevino Morales, also known as Z-42. Pic: AP/Eduardo Verdugo
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales after his arrest. Pic: AP/Mexico’s Interior Ministry
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the purported leader of the Juarez cartel, pictured after his arrest in 2014. Pic: AP
Trump-Mexico relations
The removal of the cartel figures coincided with a visit to Washington by Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente and other top officials, who met with their US counterparts.
Read more from Sky News:
Mount Vesuvius eruption turned man’s brain into glass
Andrew Tate arrives in US after travel ban lifted
Council finances ‘becoming unsustainable’
Mr Trump has made clear his desire to crack down on drug cartels and has pressured Mexico to work with him.
The acting head of the DEA, Derek Maltz, was said to have provided the White House with a list of nearly 30 targets in Mexico wanted in the US on criminal charges and Quintero was top of the list.
It was also said that Ms Sheinbaum’s government, in a rush to seek favour with the Trump administration, bypassed the usual formalities of the countries’ shared extradition treaty in this incident.
This means it could potentially allow US prosecutors to try Quintero for Mr Camarena’s murder – something not contemplated in the existing extradition request to face separate drug trafficking charges in a Brooklyn federal court.
A man’s brain was partly turned into glass after Mount Vesuvius erupted.
Researchers discovered dark fragments resembling obsidian in the skull of a man in the ancient settlement of Herculaneum.
Along with Pompeii, the ancient settlement was obliterated in 79AD when the volcano erupted, killing thousands and burying both under a thick layer of volcanic material and mud – preserving them in excellent condition for future archaeologists.
The remains of a custodian killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Pic: Reuters/Pier Paolo Petrone
The man was first discovered in the 1960s inside a building called the College of the Augustales, which was dedicated to the cult of Emperor Augustus.
He is thought to have been the college’s custodian and was killed in his bed, around midnight when he was assumed to be asleep, in the first effects of the eruption as the burning hot ash cloud hit.
The city was buried in the latter stages of the geological event.
But after his remains were re-examined more recently, the glass fragments were discovered.
In a paper published on Thursday, researchers said this was the “only such occurrence” of this happening on Earth.
It was caused by a super-hot ash cloud that is thought to have suddenly descended on his city, likely instantly killing the inhabitants.
The glass was formed by vitrification, the process of transforming a substance into glass, when the brain’s organic material was exposed to the incredibly high temperatures – at least 510C (950F) – before rapidly cooling.
“The glass formed as a result of this process allowed for an integral preservation of the biological brain material and its microstructures,” said forensic anthropologist Pier Paolo Petrone of Universita di Napoli Federico II, one of the study’s lead researchers.
The archaeological site of Herculaneum with Mount Vesuvius visible in the background.
Pic: Reuters/Pier Paolo Petrone
He added: “The only other type of organic glass we have evidence of is that produced in some rare cases of vitrification of wood, sporadic cases of which have been found at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
“However, in no other case in the world have vitrified organic human or animal remains ever been found.”
Read more from Sky News:
Jailed Kurdish leader urges group to disarm
Kenyan police ‘confident’ of catching killer of Scot
Trump tells Starmer UK may get ‘great’ trade deal
Mr Petrone continued: “I was in the room where the college’s custodian was lying in his bed to document his charred bones.
“Under the lamp, I suddenly saw small glassy remains glittering in the volcanic ash that filled the skull.
“Taking one of these fragments, it had a black appearance and shiny surfaces quite similar to obsidian, a natural glass of volcanic origin – black and shiny, whose formation is due to the very rapid cooling of the lava.
“But, unlike obsidian, the glassy remains were extremely brittle and easy to crumble.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway