Het Heerlijke Land

Het Heerlijke Land is a self-harvest vegetable garden (zelfoogsttuin) on the Grootstal estate in Malden, on the southern edge of Nijmegen, where about 150 members pick their own vegetables, herbs and soft fruit each week of the season.

Over 33 weeks members harvest from more than 100 kinds of seasonal vegetables, with at least five crops ready each week and up to 20 in summer, along with herbs, strawberries and other soft fruit. The beds are worked with the no-dig method, so the soil is not turned, and the vegetables are grown without artificial fertiliser or chemical pesticides. Their website calls the garden biologisch. Het Heerlijke Land holds no organic certificate; what qualifies it here is the growing itself, on undug beds with no synthetic inputs.

Joining means taking a subscription for the season, which lets you harvest each week as much as you will eat in a week of meals. Members set their own contribution above a minimum, children take part at half the rate, and a fifth of the places are reserved for people around the poverty line, paid for by donations and subsidies. A Monday email says what is ripe and how much to pick. In season members can harvest from Tuesday to Sunday between 9:00 and 18:00, and sign-up for 2027 is open as a waiting list.