eggplant U-Pick farms

Perfect for an active and delicious day out in nature! Stroll through the rows of shiny eggplants, while the sun shines on your skin and your fingers delicately explore the smooth, purple skin. Picking your own eggplant is a delicious experience that will bring your senses to life! Bring your friends or family for a fun day at the farm, where you can choose together which ones are perfect to take home.

The art of picking is simple: look for firm eggplants with a deep, even color. A quick twist and snip, and the proud harvest is yours! Children will love discovering the different shapes and sizes, while adults can enjoy the soothing rhythm of harvesting.

Once home, your self-picked eggplant transforms into culinary magic. Try these recipes:

Roasted Eggplant with Honey and Thyme:

Slice the eggplant
Brush with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh thyme
Roast in the oven until golden brown
Drizzle with honey and serve warm

Creamy Eggplant Spread:

Grill a whole eggplant until the skin chars
Scoop out the soft flesh and toss with tahini, garlic, and lemon juice
Add fresh herbs and serve with warm bread

For a surprising twist, make an Eggplant Martini:

Infuse vodka with roasted eggplant for 24 hours
Strain and mix with a dash of dry vermouth
Garnish with a thin slice of raw eggplant

The satisfaction of picking it yourself makes every bite and sip even more delicious. Enjoy your harvest! Wander through the rows of glistening eggplants, the sun shining on your skin as your fingers delicately explore the smooth, purple skin. Picking your own eggplant is a delightful experience that will bring your senses to life! Bring your friends or family for a fun day at the farm, where you can choose together which ones are perfect to take home. The art of picking is simple: look for firm eggplants with a deep, even color. A gentle twist and snip, and the proud harvest is yours! Children will love discovering the different shapes and sizes, while adults can enjoy the soothing rhythm of harvesting. Once home, your hand-picked eggplant will transform into culinary magic. Try these recipes: Roasted Eggplant with Honey and Thyme: - Slice the eggplant - Brush with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh thyme - Roast in the oven until golden brown - Drizzle with honey and serve warm Creamy Eggplant Spread: - Grill a whole eggplant until the skin chars - Scoop out the tender flesh and toss with tahini, garlic, and lemon juice - Add fresh herbs and serve with warm bread For a surprising twist, make an Eggplant Martini: - Infuse vodka with roasted eggplant for 24 hours - Strain and mix with a dash of dry vermouth - Garnish with a thin slice of raw eggplant The satisfaction of picking it yourself makes every bite and sip even more delicious. Enjoy your harvest!

Wereldgroente Tuintjes

vegetables

noord-holland

Wereld Groente Tuintjes, located on the Osdorperweg in Amsterdam, offers garden plots in an unheated greenhouse (cold kas) to rent. Renting a plot gives you a longer growing season compared to outdoor gardening. During the warmer months, you can grow exotic vegetables such as sopropo, kousenband (yardlong beans), and aubergine until early November. As temperatures drop, the farm shifts to more local produce like cabbage, sprouts, and fresh herbs. A 25m² plot costs €64 per month, and you can rent multiple plots. Yearly contracts are used.

Landwinkel Arkelandshoeve

vegetables, flowers

gelderland

Landwinkel Arkelandshoeve is a farm shop located in Ermelo, Netherlands, run by Erik and Roelie Staal. They raise ducks and chickens without antibiotics, and also have sheep. The shop sells their own duck, chicken, beef, lamb and veal, as well as other artisanal products from farmers across the Netherlands. Since 2014, they have a vegetable and picking garden where customers can harvest their own produce. From late May, you can pick raapstelen, endives, the first pods and different types of lettuce. Later in the season, you can harvest broad beans, beets, courgettes, carrots, cabbages, and (pole) beans. In the greenhouse you can find cucumbers, various types of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and melons. There’s also a flower garden where you can pick your own bouquet of flowers, and a herb garden with herbs like parsley, celery, basil, mint, and maggi.

Pluktuin Gewoon Buiten

fruits, vegetables, herbs

noord-brabant

Pluktuin Gewoon Buiten is an ecological self-picking farm located in the countryside of Rijsbergen, near Breda, in Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. The farm cultivates vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers in a sustainable way, respecting both people and animals. It functions as a social project, offering opportunities for volunteers to work together outdoors and for people to become harvest participants (oogstdeelnemer) with a yearly subscription. Harvest participants can then pick vegetables weekly from April to October, and others can also purchase individual flowers and leftover herbs, vegetables, and fruit. The flower picking garden is open to everyone, even without a subscription.

Ús Hôf

fruits, vegetables, herbs

friesland

Ús Hôf is a permaculture farm that aims to restore the relationship between producer and consumer. They grow vegetables, fruit trees, berry bushes, and flowers without pesticides. They offer a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model where members pay at the beginning of the season based on their income and harvest their own vegetables weekly. If members don’t have time to harvest, they can subscribe to a vegetable bag delivered to Sibrandabuorren, Sneek, or Bolsward. Restaurants and institutions can also order vegetables.