The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowHof van Gunterstein
- Cattle, sheep or goats graze on pasture in the grazing season
- Pigs and poultry live free range: outdoors on pasture, in woodland or a run
- Heritage breeds
- No synthetic pesticides or fertiliser (certified)
- Zero waste
Hof van Gunterstein is an organic dairy farm of 75 hectares on the Gunterstein estate at Breukelen, between the Vecht and the Loosdrecht lakes, which keeps Blaarkop cows and sells raw milk, beef, eggs and vegetables at the farm.
The Blaarkop is a dual-purpose Dutch breed recorded since the fourteenth century, with about 1,600 purebred animals left, and the cows are out in the meadows day and night whenever the weather allows. The milk is sold raw and unprocessed, and you bring your own clean glass bottles. The 100 laying hens live in a mobile henhouse that is moved to fresh pasture every few days, following the cows, and they spend the whole day outside. The farm is certified organic (SKAL); we found it in the register.
The farm shop is open on Friday and Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00, and raw milk can be collected daily. It sells Blaarkop beef, eggs, vegetables from the one-hectare garden, and sourdough bread from an outside baker; the cheese, yoghurt and quark in the shop are bought in for now, and the farm plans to make its own once part of the barn is a dairy room. Vegetables are also available as a self-harvest share (zelfoogst) or a weekly bag collected at the shop, and the flower-picking garden is open in season.
Thanks to low manure use, 60 to 80 plant species now grow in the grassland.