Land in Zicht

Land in Zicht is a social enterprise on Tuinpark Laakzijde at the edge of Amersfoort Vathorst, where care participants and volunteers, led by professional growers, run a self-harvest garden for vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers.

They grow about fifty crops, from turnip greens (raapstelen), spinach and broad beans in spring to tomatoes and courgettes in summer and kale, celeriac and pumpkins in autumn. Their website says the soil is fed with manure it describes as organic, with compost and with green manures and that the vegetables are grown without spraying or synthetic fertiliser.

The vegetables are sold only through harvest shares (oogstdelen). Joining means you buy a share and then come once a week, any day from Tuesday to Saturday between 9:00 and 16:00, to pull your own vegetables from the beds, guided by a weekly email with harvest instructions and recipes. You bring a knife, scissors and a bag, and if you can't come, someone else may harvest in your place. Flowers and summer soft fruit are not part of the share and are sold separately in a pick-your-own garden. The tea house, open Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 16:30, has a shop corner that sells seasonal produce from the garden.

Around the beds they sow flowers, plant trees and shrubs and leave untidy corners as shelter for bees, butterflies, birds and hedgehogs.