Zorgboerderij Nieuw Toutenburg

Zorgboerderij Nieuw Toutenburg is a care farm on the Dorpsweg in Maartensdijk, where people with intellectual disabilities or mental-health problems work alongside the farmers raising purebred Limousin cattle, vegetables and soft fruit for the farm shop.

The vegetables come from a 6,000 m² garden fed with manure from the farm's own animals and grown without synthetic fertiliser or pesticides. Alongside lettuce, beans and carrots they grow old Dutch vegetables such as broad beans, fresh peas, chard, salsify and parsnip, plus blackberries, raspberries and currants in the fruit garden and strawberries in a polytunnel. The Limousin cows graze in summer on the farm's meadows and in nature reserves around Maartensdijk, including the Oostelijke Vechtplassen, and spend winter in a deep-litter barn with free access in and out. Their ration is grass and hay, the calves stay with their mothers for nine months on average, and the cows are bred naturally by the farm's own bull. The beef is sold in portions and meat packs.

The shop is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:00 to 17:30 and Saturday from 9:30 to 16:00. It also stocks farm dairy and boerenkaas (raw-milk farm cheese) from De Kopermolen in Stoutenburg, organic chicken and pork, and honey from several Maartensdijk beekeepers, which we haven't checked ourselves.

The cattle graze nature-reserve grassland as part of the farm's conservation work with Natuurmonumenten.