The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowHet Kleverland
- No synthetic pesticides or fertiliser (certified)
- Agroforestry
- Agroecological farming
- Regenerative farming
- Nature-inclusive farming
Het Kleverland is a market garden on the De Kleverbergh estate at Erlecom, near Nijmegen, where two farmers grow vegetables, fruit and herbs for weekly boxes and In de Tuin, the estate's restaurant.
Each box holds five to seven seasonal vegetables, such as spinach in spring, broccoli, cucumber and tomato in summer and carrots and pumpkin in autumn, with herbs in summer and often preserved vegetables (ingemaakte groenten) or dried beans in winter. They farm by regenerative, nature-inclusive methods, using no synthetic fertiliser, chemical pesticides or genetically modified seed and preferring open-pollinated varieties. Green manures keep the soil covered, and agroforestry rows of berry bushes and fruit, nut and pioneer trees run between the vegetable beds. Het Kleverland is certified organic (SKAL), which we confirmed in the EU organic register.
Buying means becoming a harvest participant (oogstdeelnemer): you sign up for a small, medium or large box, for one to five people, delivered every Wednesday all year to a pickup address or your home. You pay monthly by direct debit at one of three income-based rates, and while you are away the box can go to a neighbour or the food bank.
Hoeing, sowing and harrowing are done with horse traction, which keeps the soil from compacting, and the same horses supply the manure that feeds the beds.