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In April, flowering pear trees pop from the lush fields surrounding the rural village of ’s-Gravenvoeren in the Limburg region of Belgium, where the population has declined in recent decades despite European Union subsidies to small-scale farmers. Pears are not the only thing growing in ‘s-Gravenvoeren—the seventeenth-century Commanderie castle behind the church is home to Belgium’s oldest trout farm. Fed by underground springs that become the Voer River, the farm specializes in the traditional techniques of trout aquaculture, including fertilizing the fish eggs with a goose feather. It takes them twice as long to grow a rainbow trout as a more modern facility, but the fish farmers of Commanderie say you can taste the time in the quality of their product.

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In April, flowering pear trees pop from the lush fields surrounding the rural village of ’s-Gravenvoeren in the Limburg region of Belgium, where the population has declined in recent decades despite European Union subsidies to small-scale farmers. Pears are not the only thing growing in ‘s-Gravenvoeren—the seventeenth-century Commanderie castle behind the church is home to Belgium’s oldest trout farm. Fed by underground springs that become the Voer River, the farm specializes in the traditional techniques of trout aquaculture, including fertilizing the fish eggs with a goose feather. It takes them twice as long to grow a rainbow trout as a more modern facility, but the fish farmers of Commanderie say you can taste the time in the quality of their product.

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