OVERASSELT - In a few days, Jana Flohr will turn 40 and her oldest son 10. It's a surprise what guests will be served, but the garnishes are already clear: mustard cress, radish cress and garden cress.​

The seedlings still have a while to grow, but their roots are already enthusiastically gasping for water. In an ingenious dish that Flohr and her partner Thomas Linssen designed themselves and will soon be selling as far away as America.

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Colorful seeds

The Patella Crescenda ("growth bowl") is the latest invention of the Overasselt-based design agency House of Thol, which the couple form together. In their workshop near the Hatertse and Overasseltse Vennen they develop practical items to encourage people to make a 'green behavioral change', but without the smell of woolly clothing and a finger wagging at them. The items are cool to have and nice to give, is the idea.

"Yes, you can also make the stuff by the hundreds of thousands out of plastic. But that's not going to happen."

Thomas Linssen, House of Thol

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Because take this patella. From a terracotta dish and a stainless steel cover plate with holes protrudes a cute "light bulb" that you only have to fill once with water. Around it lie the colorful seeds, which, thanks to the constant supply of just enough moisture from the bulb, transform into tasty seedlings within about five days, which you can put on the table with crescenda and all."Think of it as a salt and pepper shaker", says Linssen (40).

Flohr: "You don't have to wash the vegetables: there's no soil involved. I can already picture it on the table in a nice restaurant."

Terracotta Baker in Portugal

It's not there yet. The Overasselt couple can make a good living from the sale of their self-made products, but must first sell a few hundred via crowdfunding site Kickstarter to start production. That terra cotta manufacturer in Portugal can't work for just one patella dish, and the stainless steel plates have to be etched in Italy.​,,This way we also gauge whether people want it. 90 percent of the 16,000 euros we need is already in," says Flohr. ,,And then you see the benefit of such an international site. A third of the dishes will soon go to the United States, and there are also many buyers in Germany. We sell products through agents in stores in France and Germany. We are not talking about mass production, mind you. But of the Waterworks, we do sell a few thousand a year.

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Cellar Climate

That Waterworks, in short, is a pot in which a plant also controls how much water it drinks. And then you have the Flower Constellations, a disc with holes that makes it easier to (re)arrange flowers, so you don't have to throw away the whole bunch right away.​Also a success: the Patera Magna, a fruit bowl that creates a kind of cellar climate in several compartments so that the different fruits do not rot together. Linssen currently makes the large bowls, and the separate trays that go with them, one by one herself in the workshop, but the two hope that the Portuguese manufacturer will soon be able to help with this success number as well.

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Awards

House of Thol won last year's Entrepreneur Pitch Rijk van Nijmegen and a year earlier Minister Sigrid Kaag even honored the couple with the national MKB Export Award. "Unfortunately, because of corona, that went digital and then did not immediately lead to a boost in sales," says Flohr.Because of course House of Thol wants to become more of the general public, although that is not a sacred goal. Linssen: "Yes, you can make the stuff by the hundreds of thousands out of plastic, too. But that's not going to happen. In fact, our clientele also appreciate the design and natural materials."