Eemweide boerderij

De Eemweide is a small urban farm on the A.P. Hilhorstweg in the Eempolder between Amersfoort, Soest and Baarn, where three or four cows of old Dutch breeds are milked and the milk is made into cheese, kefir and yoghurt on the farm.

The cows include a Fries-Hollandse, a Lakenvelder and a Fries-Rode, a breed with only about 400 animals left, and the calves are Maas-Rijn-IJssel. They are milked once a day, eat mainly grass, and get hay from nature land nearby in winter. Every three days the cooled milk is turned into cheese, kefir and yoghurt, and the whey goes to the farm's pigs. There is also honey from the farm's bees, and potatoes and pumpkins from a 1,000 m² plot, vegetables from a small kitchen garden and cut flowers; eggs from the farm's Vredelinger hens are sold too, not yet confirmed. Their website calls the farm biologisch, though it holds no organic certificate; what qualifies it here is the small herd that eats mainly grass and the dairy made on site.

Their website says the produce is sold locally but gives no shop days, so contact the farm by WhatsApp or email to arrange a visit.

The Vredelinger is a dual-purpose breed developed on this farm since 2009, so the cockerels are raised for meat instead of being killed at a day old.