Landwinkel Nieuw Slagmaat

Nieuw Slagmaat is a mixed farm on the border of Utrecht, Houten and Bunnik, where a family grows fruit, vegetables, wheat and maize and keeps Blaarkop cattle alongside sheep, goats and hens.

The beef comes from their own Blaarkop herd and is sold in meat packages that their website describes as 100% grass-fed; the same website also says maize is chopped whole as winter feed for the cows, so the feeding is worth asking about. The cows are indoors in winter and out on the pasture for the rest of the year. The orchards hold apples, including older varieties such as Cox d'Orange and Goudreinette, plus pears, plums, cherries, kiwis and kiwi berries, and the fruit is also pressed into juice and made into jam with nothing added. Dairy, barn eggs (scharreleieren), potatoes and boerenkaas (farm cheese) come from other farms in the region and aren't included in our check.

The farm shop is open on Fridays and Saturdays, and there are pick-your-own days for apples and kiwi berries, and for pumpkins every Friday and Saturday in October.

Pests in the orchards are kept down with beneficial insects, which the farm began experimenting with years ago, and with flower margins around the fields.