Frank van Eerd, Friend of Via Belgica
Author: Harry Lindelauf
Photography: Philip Driessen
Who, besides Marcus Agrippa, once worked on the Via Belgica, we will never know for sure. But we do know who is putting the Roman past on the map today: the Friends of Via Belgica. Entrepreneurs, volunteers, institutions, and public authorities. By joining forces, they are turning the Via Belgica into a true road of connection. We are pleased to introduce you to some of these Friends. This time: Frank van Eerd.
“My main connection with the Romans is the grain spelt. They brought it to South Limburg. Because with the hills, the Romans quickly realized: this is grain country.” Frank is a baker, but above all also a researcher and innovator. His quest focuses on improving our diet, combined with the ideas of the Slow Food movement. “I believe that food can be medicine.” And preferably food from our own region. According to Frank, after the Second World War Western food lost touch with its foundations — which for thousands of years lay in grain, and therefore bread. In his search for healthier nutrition, he focuses mainly on ancient grains, “because there is so much to learn from them.”
“You need to dare to think beyond boundaries.”— Frank van Eerd
Brownies for Better Recovery
“Every type of grain has its own quality and characteristics. Did you know that spelt contains more protein than eggs?” Recovering that knowledge takes a lot of research (“all roads lead to Rome”). Sometimes it yields results, sometimes it doesn’t. “If it goes wrong, I go back and start over. But you have to be willing to look beyond boundaries, otherwise you’ll just keep doing the same thing.”
And when it goes right, on the other side of that boundary lies the desired outcome. This is how Frank developed, among other things, special breads for athletes and unique brownies. “The brownies contain lupin and tritordeum (a new grain created by crossing spelt and durum). That helps hospital patients in their recovery.”
