Zelfoogsttuin Hof Bredelaar

Zelfoogsttuin Hof Bredelaar is a self-harvest market garden in Park Lingezegen, between Arnhem and Nijmegen, where members pick their own vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers.

Since 2022 the growers have raised a wide range of crops without any spraying, pesticides or synthetic fertiliser. Their website describes this as growing by organic methods (op biologische wijze); the garden holds no organic certificate, and what qualifies it here is that nothing is sprayed. The season runs from spinach, radish and rhubarb in May through broad beans to tomatoes, courgettes and sweetcorn in summer, and ends with pumpkins, kale, Brussels sprouts, leeks and Jerusalem artichoke.

Joining means buying a harvest share per adult in spring, with a cheaper share for children under 14, which lets you pick as much as you need for 30 weeks between 1 May and 1 December. You can come any day from sunrise to sunset, and before the season starts the growers give a tour; a weekly harvest letter then says what is ready. From 15 July there is also an eight-week summer share, payment can be spread on request, and the garden accepts the Gelrepas and the Meedoen schemes of Lingewaard and Overbetuwe.

Members share the risk as well as the harvest, so how much there is depends on the weather, the soil and the wildlife that eats along.