The story of

Emiel Anssems

Farmers of Ekoto - Emiel

Many farm operations are centered around bulk food production or finances. Emiel focuses instead on the management of nature. With his herd of farm animals he aims to take care of the natural area by applying sustainable management practices. The animals feed themselves mainly on grass and in winter they get the presscake (a byproduct) of the camelina oil as a supplement. Emiel presses the cold-pressed camelina oil himself and he is experimenting with Dutch grown sunflowers as well. The farm of Emiel is less than 15 kilometres away from the Ekoto warehouse. Emiel's products are grown, processed, packaged and stored all within this 15 kilometre radius, before it gets shipped straight away to your front door! Now, that is what we call a short chain!

Emiel

The location of Emiel's farm is where his parents were also farming back in the days. Though due to scarcity of land in the neighbouring area they could not expand and so they quit their agricultural activities. Emiel worked for many years as an advisor in (mainly organic) agriculture. But a few years back he decided to switch his career to his parental roots. Now he is developing the farm of his dreams with a focus on nature management by herding an extensively fed cattle herd. Emiel is also developing an interest in oil crops. He invested in a large electrical oil press and he started with pressing Camelina Sativa into the delicious Camelina oil. Emiel would like to expand his assortment of gastronomic oils, and as soon as he does so, Ekoto will make sure to take it up in the assortment here on our online store.

Camelina Sativa Flowering

Heining & Hoef

Heining & Hoef was founded only a few years ago. In those few years the farm developed a lot already. More land was taken up for nature management, a large cave was built to improve the bat population, a variety of different farm animals roam the lands and of course the oil crops and the oil press found its way into Heining and Hoef. Emiel started around 2014 with trials of Camelina and he is now also working on trials with organic sunflowers and rapeseed. Untill then, we stick with the rich, creamy flavours of our Camelina oil. If you would like to see renowned French chef Alain Caron visiting Emiel, click here. He walks you through the whole process of oil pressing and he battles with a chef who is involved in the pioneering Camelina production. They prepare some salads with the Camelina oil of Heining and Hoef. Unfortunately the program is in Dutch, but it gives nonetheless a great impression.

The Camelina Sativa seeds are being harvested at Heining and Hoef less than 15km away from Ekoto's headquarters.

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