Spruitje,

Spruitje,
Door Jonael van der Sloot

My name is Jonael van der Sloot, founder of the brand Spruitje (little sprout in Dutch). I chose the name because I love to experiment with the growth and life of plants and vegetables. My parents fed my fascination for plants and raw nature from a young age onwards. When I was six months old my parents emigrated to Argentina with our family. They started their own biodynamic farm, meaning that I learnt to look at the nature in a holistic manner when I was a little boy. At the age of nine we moved with the entire family, which by that time consisted of eight children, to Chile. Our house there was surrounded by 50 hectares of forest. When I came back to the Netherlands at the age of 12, I was bothered by the tiny neat gardens in the city. I was used to untamed and wild nature. Plants like ferns and moss that survived the primeval times, roots of different vegetables that do their own thing and self-sufficient ecosystems fascinated me more and more. I started experimenting with plants and I taught myself everything about permaculture. A hobby (literally) gone wild, because before I knew it, my whole house with filled with little projects. When my daughter was born I had to hand in some of the space. That’s when the sustainable worlds were first created. “Let’s see what happens when I combine these plants in a glass pot and light.” I got good feedback en I started to get assignments for installations on walls in restaurants, and slowly but surely I got more attention for my works.

We have prepared a short video to illustrate more about Spruitje, check it out:

https://vimeo.com/272329964