From plums to Beveland fries and from pears to home-made jam
Get on your bike and discover the salty and sweet flavours of the Bevelanden. Look, listen, smell, touch and taste. The Smaek van Zeêland foundation and local entrepreneurs invite you to explore lesser-known regions of Zeeland: Noord- and Zuid-Beveland. They live and work in a flavourful (sea)scape where land and water meet. This salty-sweet landscape is steeped in culinary history that tells stories of the world as it once was.
This part of Zuid-Beveland — Goes, Kapelle-Biezelinge and Wemeldinge — is the fruit region of Zeeland. In shops and at fruit vending machines you can taste apples, pears, plums and strawberries the way they are meant to be: bursting with aroma, flavour and juice. People here take the time to tell you what you're tasting, and have time for each other. Time slows down here. You can also find stories about the history of fruit growing.
Monks began cultivating fruit here in the twelfth century. The fertility of this land brought prosperity for centuries — a legacy recalled by the many castles that once dotted Zuid-Beveland in the late Middle Ages. Most of those castles already had their own orchard, just as farmers did later.
Today two worlds of fruit exist side by side. The world of low-stem orchards, focused on production, efficiency and control. And the world of tall-stem fruit, where flavour, heritage, landscape and experience take centre stage. See for yourself: cycle past orchards, dikes and villages, and enjoy sweeping views of the water from the Eastern Scheldt boulevard. This is a place to wander on your bike.
On this ride, flavours and scents, nature and landscape, people and history come together. A journey of discovery through Zilt Zoet Zeeland, past and present. Check the opening hours of the participating businesses in advance. Enjoy your ride!
This route was created by Gerard van Keken, Smaek van Zeêland/Merkwaardige Identiteit
Zeeland is a land of crossroads: routes, waterways and flavours. On this cycling tour through the fruit heartland of Zeeland, you'll encounter them all. The area around Kapelle is the centre of Zeeland's apple and pear growing, but also of plums, cherries, strawberries and seafood. The route passes farm shops, vending machines, orchards, historic harbours and places where Zeeland's salty character comes through most clearly.
Setting off from Goes, you soon pass the Hollandse Hoeve: a freely accessible traditional orchard where you can pick fruit straight from the trees. In Kloetinge, the Oostmolen windmill stands in the middle of an orchard — it once kept the surrounding land dry. Organic vegetable farm Harinck Organics and Hoogstrate's farm shop represent the raw, honest side of the land.
Towards Kapelle, the landscape becomes a sequence of orchards. At the Zeeuws Fruitmuseum, you can discover the rich fruit history of apples, pears, plums and cherries. Outside, the collection orchard preserves rare and sometimes nearly forgotten varieties. Around Kapelle and Eversdijk, you'll pass the Vitaminecarrousel, the Remeeus fruit farm and Fruitkotje, where you can have lunch or dinner next to the orchard.
Then there's the sea — or rather, the Eastern Scheldt. In Wemeldinge, the salty world takes over: oyster pits, tidal pools full of marine life and the historic Sluisplateau. Here, the itinerant merchants once supplied passing ships, and vessels set off towards the Atlantic. The route comes full circle at the historic harbour of Goes, with its medieval fish market.
