The Field Guideby Moss & Marrowde Bijsterhoeve
- Cattle, sheep or goats graze on pasture in the grazing season
De Bijsterhoeve is a small cattle farm on the Bijsterenseweg outside Putten, where a couple who moved there in 2018 raise beef cattle and sell the meat in packages from a shop in the old barn.
The beef is from the farm's own cattle, raised slowly on feed their website calls as natural as possible. The animals live in a loose barn (vrijloopstal) on a thick bed of reed, and from spring to autumn the barn doors stand open to the pasture, so the cattle choose for themselves whether to be in or out; what they eat besides grass, in winter especially, is not stated. At about two years old they go to the local butcher. The meat comes as packages of about six or twelve kilos, as single cuts, and as offal and bones: tongue, liver, oxtail and a soup package. The shop also carries eggs and other regional products, which we did not check.
Most of each animal is sold in advance: orders open through their website and social media, the slaughter date is fixed once enough is sold, and packages are collected fresh on a pickup day. What is left is frozen and sold from the shop on Friday and Saturday from 10:00 to 15:00.
The reed bedding and manure from the barn are composted and go back onto the garden and the land.