Limburg police on the hunt for what they thought was a secret marijuana plantation in a private home discovered instead that the owner was cultivating chicory (witlof).

Police had been given an anonymous tip about the plantation, and after noting that electricity may have been illegally tapped, decided to check out the house in the industrial town of Geelen.

The surprised resident was happy to show the police around, and once in the cellar one of the police officers spotted a wooden construction which, he thought, was hiding the marijuana from public view.

Instead he uncovered buckets of chicory growing in the dark. ‘The man of the house grows chicory as a hobby and the woman forgot to tell us,’ the police officer said on Facebook.

To produce chicory, also known as Belgian endive, the root of the plant should be buried in soil and kept in a cool dark place, to force it to produce pale, densely packed leaves.