Flandria

On 20-21 October, a two-day taste event dubbed 'tast.toe' was held in the Belgian town of Roeselare, partnered by the REO auction, to promote cooking with local farm produce.

Dozens of stallholders from Flanders and the Netherlands offered product samples, while REO Veiling highlighted the Flandria quality label.

A carpet made of autumn and winter vegetables welcomed visitors, who were given a chance to taste soup from the Flandria bus and vegetable dishes prepared by Flandria chef Koen Verachtert.

Herwig Willaert, head of communications at REO Veiling, commented: “The delightful little Flandria bus was a colourful focal point and an attractive place to sample soup. In addition to leek soup, we also deliberately went for chicory soup in order to tie in with the 'Chicory spreads its wings' campaign that has been running since 1 October.'

In addition, the East Flanders Vegetable Cultivation Experimental Station (Proefcentrum Groenteteelt Oost-Vlaanderen) organised chicory and lettuce tasting sessions, while the Malines Auctions offered tastings of sweet pointed peppers and ordinary red peppers.