Originally published on 20 October, updated 29 October (at the end).
I was very privileged to be invited to judge entries in the 6th annual audiovisual festival of biodiversity, organized by Crocevia, an Italian NGO. My own personal favourite was a Dutch film called Eeuwige moes. As I said in my comments, the film “was beautifully photographed and lit, and conveyed not only the beauty of agricultural biodiversity, but also the passion with which some people approach its conservation. At its heart, the film was a mystery that remained unsolved, and that made it very thought-provoking”.
Don’t just take my word for it, though. Take a look at this clip.
The bigger mystery, however, is the film’s title. The director translates it as “Eternal Mash”. But that doesn’t really mean anything in English. After the judging I spoke to Daniel, a young Dutch film-maker who helped organize the festival as a volunteer. I explained my difficulties, and he explained that moes had something of the connotation of the huge diversity and range of plants that grew. I didn’t really get it. But I did wonder about possible connections between a moes and a mess (of pottage).
The problem surfaced again today, and I did a little asking around, although no answers have arrived yet. I also did some additional Googling, and came up with this:
Eeuwige Moes, ook wel splijtkool, splijtmoes of stekkool genoemd, is een type kool (Brassica oleracea var ramosa) dat sinds lange tijd in Limburg wordt geteeld.
My Dutch isn’t brilliant, but my vegetal Latin is just dandy, and it seems to me that this is talking about a perpetual kale. In fact, “eeuwige moes, also known as split cabbage (?), split mash (?) or cutting cabbage, is a type of cabbage (Brassica oleracea var ramosa) has long been grown in Limburg”. Reading on, I gather that it is ready for eating very early in the year, and that the leaves are made often into a purée (moes sometimes translates (mechanically) as purée.)
Now, I feel, we’re getting somewhere. Not very far, but somewhere. If eeuwige moes really is the name of an old traditional crop plant, rather like, say, Hungry Gap kale then perhaps using it as the title of the film conveys layers of meaning that cannot begin to be captured by Endless Mash. If so, what the film-makers — and the rest of us — desperately need is someone who both understands Dutch and, perhaps more importantly, the nature of the passion for saving seeds and diversity that is the core of the film. They should watch the film and then we might be able to have a discussion about what it ought to be called in English. A simple translation clearly won’t do.
Later … After lots of useful input, not all of it in the comments, I’m convinced that Moes does indeed carry a significant freight baggage. And I believe that the kinds of ideas the Dutch title conveys might be better conveyed by something like “Eternal Leaf”. Let English-speaking viewers make the connection between Leaf and Life themselves. Anyway, it’s just a thought.
“Eternal” seems to refer to the fact that you can harvest leaves of the plant without destroying the whole plant. Which makes “Eeuwig Moes” a nice metaphor of agrobiodiverse cornucopia.
The race “Eeuwig Moes” is thought to be very old, perhaps even cultivated by the Romans (in the Netherlands, I presume).
Ruurd Walrechts’ work itself has become “eternal” only because of ex situ conservation of his materials in Wageningen.
Precisely. Thanks Jacob. It is a perpetual kale. But that phrase wouldn’t work for me as a title. Can you do anything with “moes”. What other kinds of ideas does it convey?
I’m not sure there’s an English variety name (or even crop name) that quite conveys what I think eeuwige moes conveys.
As for Ruurd’s work being endless because the seeds are stored at a lesser-known university in the Netherlands, that’s partially true. I like to think that the other passionate seed savers who are trying to maintain his stocks are a necessary complement to his work.
“Moes” may not mean “mash” in this context, although that is what it means in modern Dutch (“appelmoes” being a favorite word combination).
However, another meaning of “moes” is revealed by the word “moestuin”, which means “vegetable garden”, not “mash garden”. Which would make “moes” an archaic word for “vegetable”, I would guess.
Over to you for a proper translation.
Yes, you’re right: lots of other moestuin owners are continuing Ruurd’s work.
New discovery: “moes” simply means “kale” or “cabbage” in some Dutch dialects. That puts an end to this eternal mystery?
Moes also survives in Warmoes-straat in Amsterdam. Once a important central shopping street; later infamous as the location of a police-station that engaged with, and in, the type of (then) illegal economic activities Amsterdam has become associated with.
Warmoes is a type of chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla).
So while “Eternal moes” is a variety of kale, moes, it seems, referred to many, if not all, leafy vegetables and herbs. Illustrated by moestuin (vegetable garden) as Jacob pointed out, and by this recipe from 1669):
Also: Bladmoes (leaf-moes) is the Dutch word for mesophyll (i.e. the greater part of a leaf)
Moes seems to be from the same family as the German Gemüse which now means vegetables but originally referred to leafy vegetables.
Hej hej
Long ago in the Netherlands al vegetables where boiled in combination with rotvegetables and meat.A real mash.
This”moes”is cooked till an soft substance.The name was used for the most commen vegetables;cabbage and kale,borecole(moes) and silverbeet or mangold(warmoes) and gave her name to many vegetables markets in streets of big towns.An kitchengarden in the netherlands language is called-like sätt before-moestuin.
Eeuwige moes was brought to NL in roman times and was popular among in the cultural unity of SW NL)limburg),German Westfalen and eastern Belgium(Limburg).
Every sprout of this plant putting in soil will become new roots(Everlasting-eternel)and because it seldom bearing flowers it also will not stop living after seedproduction.
The plant is-allthough shorter-most related till wild cabbage(Brassica oleracea)and the ofspring like uncurled borecale(Westphälische fürchenkohl and Slättbladig grönkal)Springcabbage like Cotswold early etc from the UK and this many forms they growe in the south os the USA)and very old forms of Savoye cabbage(Endeniger advent,Maastrichter schelk,Venloer schelk(Limburg),Thousendheaded kale and some forms of the Italian Cavola Verza.
You can harvest it the hole year round and trives even on a soil pore in chalk
Ruurd Walrecht