Otto Vloedgraven Fruit

Otto Vloedgraven Fruit is a fruit business in Wageningen that gathers unsprayed apples and pears from high-stem orchards in the Betuwe and the Binnenveld and has them made into juice, syrup and other fruit products, alongside pruning work and pruning courses.

The fruit is picked and gathered over almost two months each autumn in old and young orchards around Lienden, Echteld and Tiel, in the orchards of Gelders Landschap and in the Binnenveld, and it is nearly always old varieties such as Bellefleur, Notaris, Zoete Ermgaard, Zwijndrechtse Wijnpeer and Legipont. Each product is a mix of several varieties with nothing added: apple, pear, apple-pear and pear-redcurrant juice in litre bottles, 5-litre packs and small 0.2-litre bottles, and apple-pear syrup, made since 2021 by a small syrup maker in Belgium. The redcurrants are picked near Tiel.

The products go to shops, cafés, caterers and private buyers, with a minimum order of four boxes or trays, and are sold as locally as possible in a short chain.

High-stem orchards are no longer commercially worthwhile, so much of their fruit is left lying; a high-stem orchard project in the Betuwe is what gave the idea of turning it into juice.