Delft '26 Day 10: Tomatoes and Kayaks

This story is one of a series written by students in the Gonzaga in Delft program, a course from the Civil Engineering department exploring sustainable practices of the Netherlands.

Today, the students set out for Tomato World to learn about the Netherlands’ sustainable agriculture techniques. The greenhouses are a field lab to test automatic growing and robotic technology for horticulture.

Tomato World is a 50 minute bike ride through the countryside. The bike path is separate from the busy road, encouraging alternative transportation.

The hot day was amplified by the greenhouse’s glass roof and humidity. Silvester, our Tomato World guide, gave a short presentation on Tomato World, then showed us around some of the displays that exhibited the technology used in growing the tomatoes.

We were allowed to enter the tomato growing area after decontaminating our hands and shoes and changing into protective clothing. Inside, we saw the tomato vines bearing large, red tomatoes hanging from the ceiling. The rest of the vines extended horizontally through each row. We saw the bug solutions and some of the other technology before we headed out and tried some cherry tomatoes. Everyone seemed to enjoy those.

In the afternoon, there was an optional kayaking activity at Delflandhoeve, which was a 15 minute bike ride from our hotel. At the campgrounds, students got into two- and one-person kayaks to enjoy the water course. The kayaking activity was nice for a hot day.