From lecture hall to love affair, a Valentine’s story from Wageningen: Lonneke and Rik tell how love blossomed

From study friends in Wageningen to partners in building a sustainable brewery in Limburg. Lonneke and Rik show how love, entrepreneurship and the Wageningen spirit can go hand in hand for 20 years.

“We first met while studying Food Technology at HAS Den Bosch. Through our student association, we became close friends. We just had so much fun together – and that feeling only grew stronger when we discovered that we both wanted to continue our studies at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Unbeknownst to each other, we had both chosen Food Technology, because of our passion for food and drink, as well as our hunger for deepening our knowledge.

We both left for Wageningen. We were even roommates on Haarweg for a few years, but it was still just a warm friendship, although we were very close even then. Of course, we were a bit older than the average student, because this was our second study programme, but we really enjoyed the different people we met, from a roommate with a pet caiman to exchange students and fellow techies. The atmosphere in Wageningen was particularly open. We never felt like we were just a number and we had a lot of freedom to choose our own path when it came to internships and graduation projects. That freedom helped us discover who we wanted to be – both as professionals and as people. After our studies, Rik moved back to Limburg. Only then did we realise how much we missed each other. Sometimes you have to spend time apart to realise who is really important to you. When the chemistry finally clicked, no one around us was surprised – except we ourselves.

When we were not studying, we spent quite a bit of time at De Vlaamsche Reus, a Valhalla for speciality beer lovers, where Lonneke also worked during her studies. During that period, Rik had the idea of starting his own brewery in Stein, Limburg. Together, we translated that dream into a business plan. We already knew each other inside out, but one question remained: could we also work well together? All around us, we saw examples of ventures by couples or friends in which either the business or the relationship eventually collapsed and we clearly did not want that to happen. We decided to try and run a business together first. When, after two years, we were still working together without fighting, we got married.

What shaped us strongly during our studies was the realisation that you have to look beyond your own framework. The ecological footprint of the food industry is huge – and that felt like a responsibility to us. This gave us the idea of starting a small-scale production company in which sustainable thinking would also translate to short chains.
In 2006, we started in a dilapidated farm complex with listed status, without water, electricity or sewerage. This was our chosen location for developing a small-scale brewery, distillery and tasting room: Gasterie De Fontein and Brouwerij De Fontein.

As a small business, sustainable investment is not always easy. Large installations are often unaffordable. So we decided to focus on what could be done. We do not have a heat exchanger, but we do have Tamworth pigs eating the spent grain from the brewing process. We distil residual beer into our own liqueurs, jenever (Dutch gin) and gin. We now have a vegetable garden, herb garden, bee hives and a high-stem orchard. Everything is processed seasonally as much as possible and sold almost exclusively in Limburg. During tours, we show visitors how spoilt we have all become as consumers, and that things really can be done differently. In fact, they have to be done differently if we want to keep the earth habitable.

Running two growing businesses alongside a family with two daughters was intense. So we split the businesses and sold off the hospitality segment two years ago. This created more room – for the brewery, the land around it, and for our family. This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of our brewery. That is something we are proud of.

Explore and discover as much as you can. Use your study time to experience, experiment and learn – in lectures, during internships and graduation projects, but certainly also outside and beyond them. Even experiences of which you later say ‘once was enough’ can teach you a lot.

Many friends from our Wageningen days have since left the ‘Wageningen nest’ and are spread across the Netherlands and abroad. Yet they still know to find us: after all, Stein lies on the scenic Maastricht/Heuvelland/Ardennen/Aachen route, and the beer is always cold.

We have a special bond with Professor Rob Nout, now retired food microbiologist, with whom Rik completed his graduation project. Nout was associated with a number of projects in Africa and Asia where working with local knowledge and resources played a central role. It was a great match and that passion still connects us.

Whenever we visit Wageningen, we drop by café H41. On our first official date, we ate a Toet D'amour there and after all these years, it is still on the menu. We also often go to the theatre together. At one of the last performances in Maastricht, comedian Jan Beuving mentioned Junushoff Theatre in his performance as the greatest theatre in the Netherlands, which did make us vicariously proud.

During WUR's 100th anniversary in 2018, the cover of Wageningen World magazine featured this sentence: ‘We have an obligation to keep contributing to the big issues.’ That sentence has always stayed with us. In our own modest way, we too try to make that kind of contribution. What once started as a student friendship in Wageningen grew into a life together, with that same Wageningen feeling as its lasting foundation.”