The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowBoerderij De Groene Geer
- No synthetic pesticides or fertiliser (certified)
De Groene Geer is an organic dairy farm of about 35 hectares at Geer in Nieuwland, with just over 50 horned dairy cows, sheep and laying hens, whose farm shop sells its own milk, meat and eggs alongside a full organic grocery range.
The cows graze grass, clover and herbs in summer, come in at night in early spring and autumn, and spend the wet winter months in a straw-bedded barn on hay and silage made on the farm. About 100 hens range in the meadow, and the 12 sheep graze under a high-stem orchard. Animals go to a SKAL-licensed butcher in Est who does his own slaughtering, and beef, veal, lamb and pork (whole pigs bought from an organic farm in Buren) are sold fresh in 5 or 10 kg boxes holding every cut in its natural proportion, or frozen in small packs. They also sell raw milk, colostrum (biest), rendered beef tallow, and bones and marrowbones for broth. The farm is certified organic (SKAL); we found it in the register.
The shop is open Thursday from 13:00 to 18:00, Friday from 10:00 to 20:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00, and Ekoplaza webshop orders placed by Tuesday 20:00 can be collected there.
Cows are dried off at the end of lactation by cutting their feed back to hay, without the antibiotic dry-cow treatment used on many conventional farms.