These are booming times. Certainly in our phyto refinery, where everything grows just a little faster. In fact, these are almost pruning times again, because such a sunny spring does wonders. And we have a first: on April 13, the first VezelBrickz will be ‘planted’ in the yard of farmer Beenen in Gramsbergen. Together with NIOO-KNAW, Grondslag and SGI Compliance, we first visited the location and made a plan that is both practical and scientifically sound. And then we sincerely hope that the growing miscanthus and the blooming fungal culture do their job and break down the asbestos that is in the soil here.

In the context of Fiber2Fiber, the Westerdijk Institute has already discovered fungi that love PFAS and thrive on it. So that’s very interesting green matter. The phyto-refinery of the WWTP sludge, which we have been working on for years together with the Drents Overijsselse Delta water board, is also thriving, aimed at remediating WWTP sludge and converting it into sustainable biomass. At the beginning of this year we noticed that we have already reached the point where we could apply for a patent. And that’s what happened last month.

We also immediately applied for a patent for the production method of our Brickz. Because contacts with the RVO showed that this was indeed possible. With this we hope to have laid the foundation for a growing and thriving company.

Also exciting was the large order we received from Verhoeve Groen to produce Brickz for a project on Vlieland, called ‘Boswijk’. Our Brickz are of course extremely suitable as a growing and flowering medium on the sandy soil of this beautiful Wadden Island. It reminded us for a moment of the trips to China where we had wonderful contacts with the various governments with our fungi and the Brickz long ago to combat desertification, among other things. That was all a long time ago, but we still have the bone in our mouths.

Because in the meantime, our new employee Daan Houwers has taken on the task of completing his study on the subject of ‘Brickz and nature restoration’. More specifically, is it also possible to design Brickz that can function as an alternative to stone flour? As manager of the mycoretum, he is also practically actively involved in a new piece of fascinating nature development: a pond. Then it will bloom again.

Senio scientist Diederik Visser is, among other things, busy with the VezelBrickz and the assignment from the Delfland water board to see whether we can use saline dredged material as a growing medium. And the exciting thing is that it looks like this is certainly possible.

In the evenings, under the cozy light of the green desk lamp, Tom Bade works on the book for Greenhouse Horticulture Netherlands about housing for migrant workers and about taking advantage of the growing number of opportunities that come to our thriving company. But more about that in the coming newsletters.