Spruitje

My name is Jonael van der Sloot, founder of the Spruitje brand. That name came about because I liked to experiment with the growth and life of plants and vegetables. My fascination for plants and raw nature was instilled in me from an early age. When I was six months old, my parents emigrated to Argentina with our family. They started a biodynamic farm there, so as a little boy I learned to look at nature holistically.
When I was nine we moved with the whole family – now eight children – to Chile, where we lived in a house surrounded by fifty hectares of forest. Ever since I came back to the Netherlands when I was twelve, I've been annoyed by the neat, tidy gardens in the city. I am used to free, uninhibited nature. Plants such as ferns and mosses that have survived prehistoric times, roots of various vegetables that go their own way and self-sufficient ecosystems fascinated me more and more. I started experimenting with plants and taught myself all about permaculture.
An oversized hobby, because after a while my whole house was full of projects. When my daughter was born, I had to give up space. This is how the sustainable worlds arose. 'Let's see what happens when I combine these plants in a glass jar', sort of. I received nice feedback, orders came in for installations on the walls of restaurants and slowly I was able to sell my work.