de Buytenhof

De Buytenhof is a care farm in the Buijtenland van Rhoon, the polder park between Rhoon and Barendrecht, with a farm shop, a tea room and a pick-your-own orchard.

The beef is Piemontese from a cattle farmer in the Hoeksche Waard whose herd grazes nature meadows in the Oude Land van Strijen and, in summer, the fields at De Buytenhof; their website says the animals get no antibiotics as standard, spend most of the year outside, and calves are not taken from their mothers straight after birth. The pigs come to the farm at eight weeks old with their tails left on, and live in roomy straw pens with an outdoor run and a mud bath. The honey comes from hives on the farm and is cold-extracted. The Buijtenbrood is baked in Rhoon from the farm's own Saludo wheat. Vegetables, fruit, herbs and winter game are also sold, not yet confirmed.

The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9:00 to 17:00. Beef comes in packages of about 10, 5 and 2.8 kilos, ordered by email when the newsletter announces a round and collected at the shop, with no delivery. On Saturdays the farm has a stall at the Rotterdamse Oogstmarkt on the Noordplein, and on Wednesdays on the Julianastraat in Rhoon.

Crops move to a different field every year, the soil is tilled as little as possible, and flower-rich field margins feed bees and other insects.