CSAs, veg boxes & food co-ops in the Netherlands

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. You become a member of one farm, usually pay for the season in advance, and in return get a share of whatever the farm harvests, so members and grower share the good years and the bad. In the Netherlands many CSAs are zelfoogst (self-harvest) gardens where members pick their own share, and at others the grower packs it for you. CSAs, veg boxes and food co-ops on the map.

Zelfoogst means harvest it yourself. At a zelfoogst CSA the grower sows, plants and looks after the crops, and members come to the garden during the season to pick their own share from the beds. It is a membership, so you join for a season rather than paying per visit, which is the difference from a pluktuin (pick-your-own garden). Find a CSA near you.

A pluktuin is a pick-your-own garden or orchard, often for strawberries, berries, apples or vegetables, where anyone can come during opening hours and pay for what they pick, without becoming a member. Pick-your-own fruit and vegetables are included in the Field Guide when the grower uses no synthetic pesticides or fertiliser, certified or stated, and you will find them under vegetables and fruit.

Herenboeren is a Dutch model of cooperative farm. Local households own the farm together through a cooperative, hire a farmer to run it and share what it produces each week, such as vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat. Members pay a one-off contribution to join and a regular fee for the produce, which they collect at the farm. Herenboeren farms are on this page with the CSAs, because members pay ahead for a share of what the farm produces.

You become a member of a local Herenboeren cooperative, which usually means a one-off contribution towards the farm and a regular contribution towards running it. New farms start as local initiative groups that look for land and members, so a farm near you may still be forming. The Herenboeren website lists working farms and initiative groups, and we list working farms on this page.

No. A Herenboeren farm employs a farmer to do the farming, so members aren't required to work. Members do own the farm together and have a say in what it grows and how, and many farms have volunteer days for members who want to help.

In a CSA (community supported agriculture) the grower owns or rents the land and runs the farm, and members buy a share of the harvest for a season. In Herenboeren the members own the farm together and employ the farmer, and the farm usually produces meat and eggs as well as vegetables and fruit. Both are on this page.

With a veg box (groentepakket or groenteabonnement) you sign up with a farm or grower and receive a box of what is in season every week or fortnight, which you collect from the farm or a pickup point, or have delivered. Unlike a CSA, you usually pay per box rather than for a whole season. Our pickup points filter shows the farms with collection addresses away from the farm itself.

A voedselcoöperatie (food co-op), sometimes called a VoKo, is a group of households that order together straight from farms and producers, usually run by volunteers, with a weekly or fortnightly pickup at a shared address. Members place their own order, so it works more like a shop you belong to than a share of one farm's harvest. Food co-ops that buy direct from farms are listed on our CSAs, veg boxes and food co-ops page.

For a zelfoogst CSA you need to reach the garden regularly during the season, often every week, so it suits people who live nearby. CSAs that pack the harvest for you and veg box schemes often deliver or use pickup points, which widens the area they serve. The delivers filter shows the schemes that deliver to your door, and each listing names its pickup points where the farm publishes them.

Each CSA sets its own season and its own number of members, and many take sign-ups over the winter for the growing season ahead. Some have a waiting list, and others let you join part way through the season. The farm's own website gives the current season and how to join, and our CSA page shows the CSAs near you.

Some are and some aren't. Vegetables may only be sold as organic (biologisch) when the farm holds an EU organic certificate, checked by SKAL in the Netherlands, and some CSAs grow without synthetic pesticides or fertiliser but aren't certified, so ask the grower how they farm. In the Field Guide, CSA vegetables are included when certified organic or Demeter, or grown without synthetic pesticides or fertiliser as the grower states; uncertified gardens are shown as "organic methods, not certified". The certified organic filter shows the ones we found in the EU organic register.

CSAs, Herenboeren farms, farms' own box subscriptions and food co-ops that buy direct from farms are included when they supply food to members or the public. Shops that are only a pickup point for someone else's box aren't included, and food forests and community gardens have their own page. Advisory bodies and research projects without food for the public aren't included either. Our criteria for CSAs and co-ops.

The solid mark goes to farms where we found evidence of a practice beyond our criteria, in their own words or in a register, such as Demeter certification, no ploughing, cover crops, agroforestry, permaculture or a food forest. Each listing names the practice and the source. The goes the extra mile filter (what's this?) shows the CSAs and co-ops that have it.

Regenerative has no legal definition. A CSA is marked regenerative when it describes its own farming that way, or names practices such as no ploughing or cover crops on its website, and we don't verify soil outcomes. The regenerative filter shows these CSAs, and each listing names the practice it describes.