Boerderij Het Witte Water

Boerderij Het Witte Water is a mixed organic farm in Nijkerk, on the edge of Voorthuizen, that raises pigs and laying hens and grows vegetables.

The family has kept pigs since 1992. The pigs have plenty of space and can go outside whenever they want; indoors they lie on organic straw and get hay and lucerne, and the piglets stay with their mother for a long time and keep their curly tails. Their website says all the pork meets the EU organic rules and the three-star level of the Dierenbescherming's Beter Leven label, and it is sold frozen. Vegetables follow the seasons in the field, from rhubarb in spring to kale in winter, with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the greenhouses in summer, and pests are controlled with natural predators. The farm is certified organic (SKAL); we found its certificate in the register. The hens arrive as chicks and are raised on the farm, but whether their eggs are sold to the public, we couldn't confirm.

The vegetables are sold in their farm shop and through a few local outlets, among them De Pluktuin in Putten and the BioTruck. Their website gives no shop hours, and the pork webshop it links to no longer works, so contact the farm before a visit.

The pigs' manure goes onto the farm's own grassland and vegetable garden and to organic growers nearby, and the grass it feeds goes back to the pigs.