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Here I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international mushroom consultants. MEMOIRS about husband Pieter Vedder, who was a SCIENTIFIC PIONEER in Mushroom Cultivation Education. His practical handbook is in 9 languages and is called the MUSHROOM BIBLE: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/08/modern-mushroom-growing-2020-harvesting.html

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Visiting Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Georgia with Dad

On Tuesday afternoon, November 27 of 1990, we went with Dad to Warner Robins Airforce Museum.
As you clearly can see, we had a lovely, sunny day on November 27!
Dad loved reading all the information about the exhibited planes.
This Aviation Museum has been open to the public since 1984.
Next month The Museum of Aviation 35th Anniversary Celebration  (click on link).
Both, Pieter and I have been to the Museum of Aviation numerous times with our guests but it remains a very interesting place to go to!
It looks like Dad is shooting me in this picture...
Dad recognized several planes that he knew from WWII
Photo opportunity enough!
Dad really had a ball!
Studying this DOUGLAS C - 54G SKYMASTER

Hope you enjoyed some of the photos of this magnificent Museum of Aviation.
You can click on the website's: AIRCRAFT EXHIBIT GALLERY to see more...

Thanks for your visit and comment.


Related links:
Dad Visiting Chappell Grist Mill Dublin Georgia | previous post by me
Dad did tag along on November 11, 1990 for helping us move into our new home | previous post by me

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Dad Visiting Chappell Grist Mill Dublin Georgia

On Sunday, November 26 of 1990, we did visit with Dad the old grist mill; Chappell's Mill which is rather close to our home.
Dad standing next to the antique Chevron pump at Chappell's Mill.
Chappell Grist Mill Dublin Georgia, Georgia Promotions and Aerial Imaging just click to see this 1 minute drone video!
Yes, this screenshot from above short video shows that the Grist Mill got built in early 1800!
Husband Pieter (left) and Dad pondering over Chappell's Mill water...
How much Dad always loved the SPANISH MOSS trailing from the trees here in the South.
This was in November!
More Spanish Moss and Dad...
Chappell's Mill, Georgiaby Mickey Maust click link please.

Hope that you, like my Dad, did enjoy this little bit of History here in Dublin, Georgia!

Thank you for your visit and comment.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Dad did tag along on November 11, 1990 for helping us move into our new home

On Saturday evening, November 3 of 1990, we flew from Jakarta, Indonesia on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight 838 to Amsterdam, The Netherlands via Singapore and Delhi. Our month off from consulting work and our life in Indonesia.
This time it was very special, as we would move into our new HOME.
Dad had offered to tag along, for helping us!
So when we were in Amsterdam at Schiphol airport on November 4, we got the tickets for Dad at fl 1.739.00 cash, before Dad and our sister-in-law Bets met us at the airport.
Seeing our friend on his birthday that very day...
On Tuesday, November 6, we got up at 4:00 and by 5:30 we started our drive towards the Brenner Pass to Italy... From The Netherlands, through Germany, Austria into Italy with Dad's Ford Fiesta.
We even did meet on Thursday, November 8, Pieter's dear friend Harry Hollander at the very same hotel we were staying, with his wife and business associates!
Friday, November 9, we drive in 13 hours (taking turns!) back to The Netherlands...
What a schedule we lived by then!
Photo taken by Uncle Bo Whaley for his 3-weekly column about our return to Dublin, Georgia.
My brother Harry in his new Citroen BX had brought us to the airport on November 11, without Mom... she could not join us, as Harry had his little 3-year old son Johnny with him. Mom was sad!
Via Bergen op Zoom and Vlissingen, Harry's 'scenic' route to Schiphol airport we arrived there.
Flying once more on a KLM Royal Airlines Boeing 747 and we got all seated together in economy class. This was Dad's 2nd flight to Atlanta, USA, from The Netherlands.
We arrived in Dublin, Georgia by 9:00 PM and first we all went to see our NEW HOME!
Then we went to dear friends Somai (born in Thailand) and Bob where we would stay for 5 nights, till we unpacked ALL 110 boxes and transferred our container load of furniture.
Billy Brown had our goods transported on his truck and with the help of three extremely strong black guys it got delivered.
We ALL worked hard.
Photo by Uncle Bo Whaley...
Uncle Bo Whaley's 1st column... Monday, December 3, 1990
Uncle Bo Whaley's 2nd column, Wednesday, December 5, 1990
Uncle Bo Whaley's 3rd column, Friday, December 7, 1990


After 22 nights at our NEW HOME we all flew on Friday evening, December 7 of 1990, back across the Atlantic, Dad back home to The Netherlands and we continued to Jakarta, Indonesia, back to work...

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Friday, October 18, 2019

Mushroom Friends in Austria and their Mushroom God Statue

Internationally both of us have met so many mushroom friends, so also in Austria.
On April of 1985, I joined Pieter as we both flew from Düsseldorf, Germany to Zürich, Switzerland and we visited with our Swiss mushroom friends, and went to Austrian mushroom friend Elmar Sohm.
It was on April 2, that this photo got taken by husband Pieter from me standing next to a kind of Pre-Columbian Maya type Mushroom God statue.
Oh, I'm wearing my favorite boots that I got gifted with, for doing my first consulting job in the Venice area of Italy. My embroidered suede boots or 'stivali di camoscio ricamato' in Italian. 
Elmar Sohm had a very unique patented Indoor Composting System where Pieter visited also with his Campbell Soup colleagues.
Here on April 16 of 1987, Pieter's American Campbell colleague is to the left, then Elmar Sohm from Austria (his name is also above their heads...), American Campbell colleague, Mushroom God, husband Pieter, son Dietmar Sohm and another young man.
~
Talking about a crazy schedule...
April 10 - Pieter just had arrived in Amsterdam from Taiwan after his 3-week trip to Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan on his People to People Citizen Ambassador Program.
April 13 - Pieter went early at 5:45 to the airport for flight from Amsterdam to England and got home by 23:30 after dropping his American Campbell Soup colleagues off at their hotel.
April 14 - Pieter went with American Campbell Soup colleagues to a mushroom farm in Boekel, The Netherlands and to Thilot, visiting Jan Thielen's plant where my youngest brother also worked at the time. Next Pieter visited with his American colleagues the Dutch Compost Cooperative...
April 15 - Pieter left at 4:45 to pick up his American colleagues at the hotel for driving to Düsseldorf, Germany for flight at 8:00 to Zürich, Switzerland...
By 9:30 my youngest brother called me that his boss, Jan Thielen, had not yet left for Switzerland where he'd have to deliver an engine at the very Kuhn mushroom plant where Pieter was on his way to...
I made a quick call and offered to be his designated driver and after Jan Thielen picked me up at my Parents', we left at 11:45. For lunch Jan had a beer, after he'd asked if I would drive. Sure I said and so I drove in his B.M.W. to Full in Switzerland. At 18:30 we surprised Jörg Kuhn, his son Hans Jörg and manager August Enzler. Pieter arrived by 19:00 after having been to their mushroom farm first. We went to the Bahnhof hotel and had a delicious meal with the Kuhns, senior and junior and the Americans. 
Bonus was that Pieter and I shared a great down duvet bed together!
April 16 - After breakfast, Jan Thielen and I drove to the mushroom farm in Full and Pieter went to the Sohm mushroom farm in Austria with his American colleagues, see photo above...
I'd driven with Jan Thielen, next to Herrenberg, south of Stutgart in Germany to visit another mushroom grower. We had lunch in a little village and by 14:45 I headed back to Horst, The Netherlands were I arrived around 20:30 after some 600 km and some 170 km/h...
Pieter had arrived only 10 minutes earlier, so flying sure does not beat driving!
April 20 - with Mom and Dad and lots of luggage in Pieter's rental car we all drove back to Amsterdam airport for our flight back to the U.S.A. - Mom & Dad's 1st Flight Ever...

Pieter did stay in touch with the advanced mushroom growing countries, for educating Campbell's Mushroom Plants' Staff and doing so in a language other than our mother tongue.  Pieter also was in the process of designing the newest Campbell plant in Hillsboro, TX which would be opened on October 7, 1987 - see post below.

Related links:

Monday, October 14, 2019

Husband Pieter's Design for the Campbell Mushroom Plants in Dublin, GA and Hillsboro, TX

Some of you might not even know the reason WHY we live in Dublin, Georgia/USA...
Guess it's about time to tell you about that!
Let's start back in The Netherlands, or as they mention here Holland...
Husband Pieter shown here with a mushroom drawing and the Dutch flag wrapped around.
Limburg International Magazine had a publication about him in August of 1983
Drs. Pieter Vedder, 
Vice-President of Camsco
 On Page 22, the article appeared.
By the way, Limburg is the Dutch Province where I am born and grew up!
Pieter is born in the above Province of Gelderland...
Drs Pieter Vedder
becomes a Vice-president at Camsco
Drs Pieter J.C. Vedder, 54 who has headed the Mushroom Growing Training Centre in Horst, North Limburg, since its foundation in 1963 (Pieter was the founder!), has been appointed Vice President for Training and Development of the Mushroom Division of Campbell Soup Corporation in Dublin, Georgia, USA with effect from August 1st, 1983. He will be in charge of the training centre, combined with a mushroom farm for instruction purposes, currently being built in Dublin for Camsco Mushroom Company Inc. by Veciap Holland, a consortium of three North Limburg companies (see Headlines in the Limburg International Magazine issue for April 1983).
"My role within the Campbell organization is a dual one," explains Pieter Vedder "On the one hand, I will be expected to be actively involved as a board member in present and future developments in the field of mushroom growing and, on the other, I am responsible for training company staff in this field."
Pieter Vedder ranks as one of the scientific pioneers of mushroom growing in the Netherlands which is now the fourth largest mushroom producer in the world after the United States, France and China.
Virtually all the Dutch growers received their initial and "in-service" training at the Training Centre in Horst (called the C.C.O. after its Dutch initials) which remained the only teaching unit of its kind in the world until the creation by Pieter Vedder in Dublin, Georgia of this second, 
almost identical, school.
There are over 500 mushroom growers in the United States but about half the total production is supplied by only three percent of the companies. The largest producer is Castle & Cook, 30 million kg per year, followed by Buttler County, Campbell Soup and Ralston Purina which each produce about 20 million kg.
Campbell's Mushroom Division now operates nine mushroom farms. The tenth, with an annual production capacity of 3 million kg is currently being built in Dublin as a turnkey project by Veciap Holland and will begin production in October.
"Within the Campbell organization, there is a high level of technical skill in mushroom growing." comments Pieter Vedder who has maintained extensive links with Camsco for a number of years and has previously arranged courses given to staff within the company. 
"Mushroom growing in the United States is generally characterized by constant levels of both production and quality. Yield per square meter and efficiency are both higher in the Netherlands but this is associated with general lower quality."
Pieter Vedder notes that the Campbell Soup Corporation - with its headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, over 100 production plants for foodstuffs and an annual turnover of three billion (Am.) dollars  primarily supplies the market for fresh vegetables and processes into soup those not sold on any given day. "In the Netherlands, much to my regret, the reverse now applies. About 70 percent of total mushroom production is bottled or canned and primarily exported to West Germany where the Dutch product has to compete against those from Asia and Eastern Europe. If the Netherlands had concentrated on the export of fresh produce to West Germany, the only competition to be dealt with would be that of France."
Pieter Vedder, who has been associated with every development in Dutch mushroom growing since 1956, is leaving at a significant point in time. "Up to now, Dutch mushroom growers have regarded each other as colleagues but I expect that within a few years - as a result of tensions arising from price trends and the major expansion of a small number of real businesses - they will end up confronting each other as competitors just as has happened in the United States. That could mean that a lot of knowledge and research no longer benefits everybody and also results in the loss of the friendly relationship between the growers." ~ Jan Derix

A drawing of the Campbell Soup Corporations mushroom farm in Dublin, Georgia currently being built as a turnkey project by Veciap Holland. The view shows, in sequence from the back towards the front, the compost hall, the tunnel complex and the growing cells. The packing plant is on the right. The construction of the total 16,000 m² plant will cost 17 million guilders.
The prefabricated elements and all of the technical equipment were produced in the Netherlands. The plant will begin production (3 million kg per year) in October and will soon be expended by the addition of a school, headed by Drs. Pieter Vedder, that will feature an instruction farm and a research department.
Husband Pieter's design for labeling the mushrooms...
Governor Joe Frank Harris speaks at Camsco dedication.
The industry employs 200 people and produces over 125,000 pounds of fresh mushrooms each week ― 85 percent of which are packaged fresh for the produce market and 15 percent of which are used in Campbell's Soup.
It was announced during Tuesday's ceremony that the local farm has been chosen as the site for a school to train personnel in the modern technology method of growing mushrooms.
Pieter Vedder, a Dutch citizen and world recognized expert on mushroom growing technology, heads the school.
The Laurens County facility was prefabricated in The Netherlands by Veciap and shipped and erected on site for a total $ 7.3 million investment. The current payroll for the operation is $ 2.5 million annually.
June 19, 1984 from the CEO of Campbell Soup: R. Gordon McGovern
DEDICATION OF THE DUBLIN MUSHROOM PLANT
Tuesday, June 12th, was really Pieter Vedder Day in Campbell Soup Company.
The Dublin, Georgia mushroom plant would not have been without your input.
We appreciate all the hard work and stress of putting such a project together and getting it started.
It was a fine day of dedication.
Thanks, again, for your major role.
Gordon McGovern
President
June 25, 1984 Dutch firm to build training center here
Camsco will use the new center to train personnel for employment in its existing and planned mushroom growing operations. The center will be modeled after the one located in Horst, The Netherlands, the only facility of its kind in the world.
The announcement said the Laurens County center will be managed by Pieter J.C. Vedder, vice president of Camsco Mushroom Co. 
Vedder managed the Horst operation for many years. He was its founder as well!
"Veciap Holland's expertise has resulted in a very fine facility for Georgia," Harris said in the announcement. "This complex is the only such facility in North America and represents high technology at its best."
On July 30, 1984 We're Proud To Be A Part Of Laurens County
We Employ 225 Employees
April 23, 1985 We employ 220 people...
1986 ― Camsco spent $ 5.6 million in Dudley area during year and had an average employment of 223.
1987 ― Campbell's spent $ 6.2 million in Dudley during the last fiscal year. The farm, which employs around 195 people...
Meanwhile in Hillsboro, Texas another Dutch technology mushroom plant got erected with Pieter's help in design and training for the start up.
Here you see the aluminum shelf-beds being erected.
They also form a connection with the roof.
Official opening of the Hillsboro, Texas farm was on October 7, 1987
-- "In the last ten years, mushroom growing has changed from an art to a science," says Pieter Vedder, Campbell's expert in mushroom technology.
The Hillsboro, Texas farm was really a state of the art farm!
I, myself finally got to visit this farm when Pieter did a seminar for Campbell's and I was joining him on Monday, December 06, 1993.
Don't forget to view video with subtitles/closed captions— way below post—bottom of related links...
When Pieter got 'forced' to move to Pennsylvania, we both decided to move to Italy and work there instead.
This is what President Gordon McGovern wrote to husband Pieter:
Dear Pieter:
The announcement of your leaving for Italy could not pass by without my writing a note of thanks for your contribution to Campbell mushrooms.
You brought a world-renowned professionalism to our operations when they sorely needed expertise.
All of us here wish to express our appreciation and best wishes. We hope succeeding generations can live up to your standards.
Regards,
Gordon

A treasured 'mushroom' Editorial Review...
This is a slide that Pieter often used for his seminars...
Sadly, when CEO Gordon McGovern was no longer in charge, they started to do away with this successful motto of the past; QUALITY...
On January 22, 1992 Pieter received a nice photo album of Campbell Soup Company's Mushroom Operations.
This is an aerial view of the Dublin mushroom farm
This is nine years after its start and they had gone from producing mushrooms for the fresh market, by hand harvesting high quality, to only mechanical harvesting for the canned food plants.
Husband Pieter also was involved in the design of the Dutch technology Hillsboro, Texas farm, opened on October 7, 1987.
The Hillsboro farm originally was also designed and set up for producing hand harvested quality mushrooms for the fresh market...
It was very sad that they went from first quality, closed and firm button mushrooms to open, lower quality soup and canned product. That way also they opened the door for cheap mushrooms from e.g. China. Sure, it saves on the payroll as harvesting is the biggest part of labor but mechanical harvest never can yield high quality...
Campbell Soup decided to sell off all produce plants; a sad day for many that lost their jobs.
Money's a Canadian company loved to purchase the Dublin and the Hillsboro plants but they were kind of forced by Campbell Soup to purchase ALL of their nine mushroom plants!
That did not work out in the end... A SAD day.
Both of us had pledged to be involved in starting up again for the new owner and to train the people.
The Dublin farm...
Now the Dublin and Texas plants were again on the market. We had as before, vowed to some serious business people, wanting to purchase the Dublin and separately the Texas plant, to help them start up. But they did not get the full support from the local development authority. There seemed to be little interest in FIGHTING for maintaining this huge employment opportunity.
As a matter of fact, in 1983, when husband Pieter designed the Dublin plant, it was designed for doubling it! BUT the restriction at that time was, that size went above the cheap state loan... and their tax-exempt Industrial Revenue Bonds, so they had to wait for 5 years! 
Without enough legal support from the local Chamber of Commerce and development authority, let alone from the Georgia Chamber, these two state of the art high tech mushroom plants got auctioned off in Delaware.
A sleazy business deal, for a fraction of the value and the buyer was ONLY interested in taking out his biggest competitor. There was a clausule built in that no one ever again could grow mushrooms in these plants!
He cannibalized the plants for use at his own mushroom plants across the US...
A very SAD day for both of us! Even more so for our community...
The reason we ended up in Dublin, Georgia and now some 400 jobs out of the window and all the ripple effect of purchasing the wheat straw from all over Georgia, using the waste product (spent lime) of the sugar industry in Savannah, in a great way of recycling. The transport etc. etc.

Both of us also MISS having access to the great spent mushroom compost for the garden...
Thanks for your visit back into history!


Thursday, October 10, 2019

Atlantic City Boardwalk, New Jersey

Fond memories of our trips with friends to the Atlantic City Boardwalk, New Jersey!
With husband Pieter on a sunny day in July of 1987...
There are 4 miles, 6 km of wooden board walk!
Fun feeding the pigeons!
To the right is Aron Kinrus, Pieter's colleague from Campbell Soup at that time.
Perfect outdoor day...
With Aron's wife Shyfra I'd been there previously, by bus from Wilmington, Delaware.
Never forget my FIRST attempt to swim in the Atlantic Ocean there.
Walking briskly into the ocean, together with some Russian ladies that were with us, I made a quick return to my beach towel. SO COLD in July! 
Guess I am spoiled by living in the South and being used to the warmth...
Here Pieter and I were standing in front of OCEAN ONE the mall built in the shape of a ship!
Ending a perfect Sunday with friends at the Golden Nugget restaurant in Atlantic City...
Blissful Relationship with Friends together.
GOLDEN NUGET, Atlantic City, N.J.
In the previous year, I'd visited on my own together with Shyfra, while Pieter was several days away for Campbell Soup.
That was my FIRST ever encounter with a Casino...
A couple of days later, I did write about that experience in our local newspaper's section: OPINIONS
We met a retired FBI agent who was a columnist and writer, Bo Whaley was his name.
He became my 'Uncle Bo'...
Left column, bottom I wrote:
Any man (or woman) who pops chewing gum. Last week I spent a whole day in Atlantic City. On the boardwalk, in the ship-like built shopping mall called Ocean-One, there is a nice restaurant with a view of the beach and of course inside some of the famous casinos. Though I didn't play, I had more fun watching all the fanatic playing people. I'm not sure how it's related to gambling or to loosing or winning (but) it was a fact that the beautiful carpet looked alright in the alleyway, but along the automats it was covered with sticky grey spots, a flat remainder of chewing gum. How does it get there, I wondered, and I watched people win and lose their quarters and dollars, anxious to see when they drop it... It's still a big question mark. How human beings can behave... Nobody said hello or asked, "How are you doing?" I suppose I even could walk topless and still go unnoticed! Now after watching those dirty-handed (from all the coins) crowds, I was certainly glad to return back to Dublin... because I was leery of them!
The entire OPINIONS was a reply to "Uncle Bo's" column on his being leery of...
Oxford English has a different meaning for it as meaning "just"; knowing, sharp, smart, alert.
In American it means suspicious of.

Have any of you ever observed people at a casino, gambling?

Thanks for your visit and comment!

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