Nuts

De Boer van Middelburg is a family farm situated on the outskirts of Middelburg in Zeeland, with a farming legacy spanning over 100 years. The farm focuses on sustainable and unsprayed cultivation, offering a variety of fresh, local, and seasonal produce. Customers can access vegetables through a weekly subscription service, which provides enough diverse, unsprayed produce for three healthy meals. This typically includes green leafy vegetables like lettuce and spinach, sturdy options such as carrots and sweet potatoes, and colorful beets, with offerings varying by season. These vegetable packages are prepared weekly on Tuesdays or Saturdays and are available for daily pick-up.

Pluktuin Schipluiden is a vibrant organic pick-your-own garden nestled on the outskirts of Schipluiden. Established in 2020, this community-driven initiative aims to be a diverse haven for both people and nature, diligently maintained by a team of dedicated volunteers. The garden practices circular organic farming, strictly avoiding artificial fertilizers and pesticides, and actively nurtures soil health through composting, a worm hotel, and Bokashi methods. It also features its own beehives, a smart water storage system, and a barefoot path for children.

This city garden operates as a self-picking farm located within the NoordOogst urban agriculture project in Amsterdam-Noord. It comprises a 4000 m2 vegetable garden and a 2000 m2 food forest, cultivating produce using natural methods, without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and with a strong focus on ecological health. Members can visit weekly, from April to November, to harvest their own vegetables, fruits, and herbs from sunrise to sunset. The farm encourages harvesting “as needed” for household consumption. Occasionally, members can also pick a small bouquet of flowers.

Voedselbos Benthuizen is a food forest dedicated to transforming a meadow into a thriving ecosystem where both people and animals can enjoy nature and a bountiful harvest. The farm cultivates pure, sun-ripened produce directly from the soil, without the use of pesticides, fostering a healthy, climate-resilient environment with high biodiversity. Visitors can participate in guided tours and “Pick & Taste” walks, offered from March to November, where they learn about and directly sample various edible plants, fruits, and berries grown on the premises. For a more immersive experience, annual or trial memberships are available. Members have the unique opportunity to visit weekly for self-picking or to join communal harvesting days and activities such as planting, maintenance, and processing the harvest into products like jam, stewed pears, and medlar mousse.

This cooperative farm, Herenboeren Op ’t Lies, is situated on the outskirts of Breda, encompassing approximately 20 hectares. It operates on principles of sustainable, nature-inclusive food production, managed collectively by around 250 member households and a professional farmer. The farm actively avoids chemical pesticides and preventive antibiotics, focusing on regenerative practices that aim to go beyond standard organic requirements and achieve a fully circular system. Members receive a weekly share of fresh, locally harvested produce. While much of the harvesting is handled by the farmer, members have direct opportunities for self-picking. Visitors to the farm can pick fresh herbs from the dedicated herb garden, various fruits from the orchards, and flowers to create field bouquets from the bloom-rich field edges.

Boerderij Eetmeerbosch is a regenerative community farm and food forest situated in Nijmegen. It practices agro-ecological farming methods without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, focusing on enhancing local biodiversity and fostering a healthy, edible landscape. The farm primarily offers a self-picking model where individuals can become ‘harvest members’ and collect their own fresh produce. Visitors can typically pick between 5 to 15 varieties of seasonal vegetables weekly, complemented by fragrant herbs and a selection of over 15 types of colorful cut flowers.

Pluktuin van Geesje is a self-picking farm and garden situated on 2 hectares at the northern edge of the Geestmerambacht recreation area, near Alkmaar. Founded in 2019 by Yoram van de Reep and Sarai de Haan, the farm operates on principles of biodynamic and nature-inclusive agriculture, prioritizing healthy soil, biodiversity, and closed ecological cycles. It is committed to cultivating produce without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, even uniquely refraining from spraying its fruit trees. The farm integrates animals, utilizing pigs to prepare the soil and sheep for grazing, fertilization, and wool production, fostering a comprehensive farm ecosystem.

StroeBerries is a self-picking garden located in Stroe, within the wooded Veluwe region. This farm offers visitors an opportunity to relax, explore, and gather their own fresh produce directly from the garden. The garden provides a diverse selection of items for self-picking. Available fruits include blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears, redcurrants, gooseberries, and a unique raspberry-blackberry hybrid. Visitors can also pick various flowers, such as tulips and summer flowers, along with nuts like walnuts and hazelnuts. All produce is unsprayed.

Stadstuin Kweekland is an urban garden and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) initiative located in Arnhem, encompassing an 8,200m² site on a south-facing slope adjacent to Sonsbeek park. It is designed as an “edible landscape,” striving for a diverse array of edible trees, shrubs, crops, flowers, and greenhouse vegetables. The garden operates under a foundation dedicated to education, social reintegration, and fostering connections with green initiatives. The primary method for self-picking is through a CSA membership, where individuals purchase an “oogstaandeel” (harvest share) at the beginning of the season. This membership grants unrestricted access to harvest from the garden throughout the season, typically running from April 1st to December 1st, for their own needs.

Fruittuin van West is a bio-dynamic farm and garden located in Amsterdam, inviting visitors to experience nature and harvest their own produce. Open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 18:00, it features a self-picking orchard, an organic shop, and a garden cafe. The farm emphasizes sustainable and circular practices, holding a Demeter certification. The 6.5-hectare orchard offers a rich variety of fruits for self-picking, with the main season typically running from mid-June to mid-October. A diverse selection of over 20 fruit types includes numerous apple varieties (like Allurel, Elstar, Santana, Boskoop, Rubinette, Opal, Natira) and pears (such as Beth, Conference, Concorde, and Gieser Wildeman). Berry enthusiasts can pick blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, rosecurrants, blueberries, gooseberries, kiwiberries, jostaberries, blackberries, summer and autumn raspberries, Japanese wineberries, loganberries, tayberries, honeyberries, cranberries, and strawberries. Stone fruits such as cherries, plums (including Mirabelle), peaches, and nectarines are also available. Additionally, the orchard grows various nuts, including almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, pecan nuts, and hazelnuts. During colder months, medlars can sometimes be found for picking in the food forest edge.

This site describes a collection of fruit orchards and a dedicated picking garden located in Sittard-Oost, Netherlands, with activities centered around pruning, picking, tasting, and enjoying a variety of produce. The network includes the high-stem orchard ‘De Lahrhof’ and the ‘Fruit Oppe Grens’ orchards spread along the German border, which collectively boast hundreds of fruit trees. Additionally, there is the ‘Marina Poussart Picking Garden’. Visitors have opportunities for self-picking directly from these locations. From the ‘Fruit Oppe Grens’ orchards, one can pick apples, pears, plums, cherries, walnuts, and quince. The ‘Marina Poussart Picking Garden’ offers flowers, herbs, and small fruits for self-harvest. Seasonal walks through the orchards also allow for snacking on ripe fruit, specifically cherries in June-July, plums in August-September, and apples and pears in September-October. All self-picked fruit is organically produced and unsprayed.

Located in De Glind, Très Jolie is an ecological small fruit farm that operates as an “experience garden,” emphasizing tranquility, connection with nature, and biological cultivation. Established in 2002, the farm features a unique five-sided layout with different berry varieties arranged in blocks, a central flower circle, and a windbreak containing various wild fruits and nuts. During the harvest season, typically from late June to mid-September, visitors can come for self-picking on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Tuinpark Laakzijde is an ecological garden park located in Amersfoort, Vathorst, dedicated to promoting biodiversity and ecological gardening. It serves as a vibrant hub for community interaction and education for both local residents and visitors. The park offers several opportunities for individuals to connect with nature and obtain fresh produce. Through a self-harvest garden, participants can subscribe to a “harvest share” that allows them to pick their own organic vegetables and herbs weekly, eating seasonally. Produce available for self-picking from this garden, depending on the time of year, includes spring items like turnip greens, spinach, and broad beans; summer crops such as tomatoes, beans, and courgettes; and autumn harvests like kale, celeriac, and pumpkins. Other common vegetables often found for self-harvest are lettuce, endive, carrots, potatoes, and cucumbers. Additionally, a flower picking garden operates from mid-June to mid-October, inviting visitors to pick dahlias, marigolds, zinnias, and various other summer flowers.

This self-picking garden, known as Plukbos Paardenspeelwei, is a community-driven initiative established in 2021 within a larger children’s playground area. Created by local residents, its purpose is to offer a public space where visitors can enjoy and pick a variety of fruits, nuts, and seeds from ecologically valuable trees and shrubs. While inspired by permaculture principles to enhance biodiversity and soil quality, it functions as a ‘picking forest’ rather than a full-scale food forest due to its smaller size and developmental stage.

The Sieradenbuurt is home to a 5.5-hectare Food Forest, established in 2015-2016 through a community initiative with the municipality of Almere. Designed using permaculture principles, this green space serves for urban agriculture, recreation, and education. Visitors can engage in self-picking activities, with available produce including cherries from large trees, as well as apples from an orchard, nuts from various nut trees, berries from extensive berry bushes, and fresh herbs from dedicated mounds. The forest also cultivates grapevines. Furthermore, a local beekeeper offers honey sourced directly from the beehives within the Food Forest.