Friday, April 9, 2010

One more "riet" story


This is how the "riet" bundles are transported to the ware house where it is resorted and re-bundled. It is sorted by tall, and shorter reeds. The installers need shorter reeds as they near the top of the roof, that is why it is sorted by taller, and shorter reeds. also it is bundled in bundles of aprox. 35 cm diameter so it is easier to handle. The bundles have to be tossed up on the roof so they can not be to big (heavy)
We learned all about this on one of our biking tours around the area and saw a reed farmer busy in the field. We were told that the product grows naturally. They don't have to seed,fertilize or do anything else to it. It is harvested each year. It grows on a bog which floats on top of the water. This bog gets thicker each year. When it gets to thick the reed quality becomes less, and after several years they have to bring in backho, and slice some of this bog off.
Very interesting indeed!

2 comments:

Anja said...

When we lived in Holland we had a "rieten dak" on our house. It's different, you don't know that it's raining because you don't hear it on the roof. Interesting pictures!

annie makkink said...

hallo, ik belde zojuist met Minny en hoorde dat jullie weer op stap zijn. Goede vaart! Jan zou vandaag terugkomen uit Indonesia maar is vanwege de vulkaanuitbarsting op IJsland in Kuala Lumpur blijven steken. Hopelijk komt hij snel naar NL. Wie weet tot ziens.
Altijd welkom. Annie, Enschede
anniemakkink@planet.nl