Join us this summer to the first Food Forest of the Netherlands: Food Forest Ketelbroek!
This project started about 150.000 years ago, when in this region enormous glaciers of land ice coming from Scandinavia reached as far south as exactly this spot. Hence a relatively low place was created, surrounded by hills being pushed along.
Later wind did bring fertile loess, with dust storms originating from the North Sea (in those days without water). In 2009 in this area 2.4 hectare of bare land was purchased. They are currently creating a food forest, an orchard for production of cider and establishing nut production (silvoarable).
Hedges have been planted, for beauty, biodiversity and windbreak. Many fruit trees (for instance peach, pawpaw, Japanese plums, kaki), nuts (chestnut, hazel, walnut, heartnut, hickory) and shrubs (as gooseberry, Nanking cherry, Siberian peatree) do promise rich harvests in future times. In between, open spaces are created, both for making ponds and growing our fast food (sun loving crops as potatoes and pumpkins).
Costs: 3 euro (including drinks)
Date: 30th August
Depart: around 12:00 (more info will follow)
sign up: st.boerengroep@wur.nl
=========== RECAP OF THE EXCURSION===========
What a nice first activity of the new year! With more than 30 (!) participants, we had to split the group into 3 smaller groups, who all got a tour throughout Ketelbroek, a food forest with more than 400 different species of trees, shrubs and plants. Our favourite one was the berry tasting like banana-chocolate, yummie!