The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowVrij Waterland
- No synthetic pesticides or fertiliser (certified)
Vrij Waterland is a biodynamic school market garden on the Spaarne in Haarlem-Schalkwijk, belonging to the RS College and the Rudolf Steinerschool, which grows vegetables and fruit for weekly boxes and its farm shop.
Pupils from classes 7 and 8 help sow, plant, tend, harvest and pack the boxes, and the garden has been running for more than thirty years. The growing follows biodynamic methods: crops rotate over six plots, the compost is made from the garden's own land, sowing and planting are timed to the right moment as far as possible, and the biodynamic preparations are sprayed over garden and crops. The garden is certified organic (SKAL); we found it in the register.
The vegetable and fruit boxes run as a weekly subscription that can be cancelled at any time, and you can skip a week or more by telling them by the Sunday before. Boxes are collected from the packing room on Wednesdays from 14:00 to 20:00 and Thursday to Sunday from 8:00 to 20:00, though sign-ups were closed in October 2026. The farm shop (Landwinkel) sells organic and biodynamic vegetables and fruit loose on Thursdays and Fridays from 9:00 to 16:00 and is closed in the school holidays.
The box subscriptions give the garden the secure income that lets it keep teaching the pupils.