Plukboerderij Grondig

GRONDIG is a picking farm with LEF: Local, Ecological and Fair. It produces vegetables, (small) fruits, eggs and natural meat in an ecological way for the short chain. The farmers have a fair income. The farm is not an island and the farmers are not strangers. Knowledge exchange happens in all directions at all levels and there is a commitment to community building. The only sustainable agriculture is the one with happy farmers. Agriculture cannot exist without nature, so here they are one.

One of the advantages of the CSA model is that quantification matters much less, so the contribution in kg/year is unknown. Plukboerderij Grondig currently has 460 adult equivalent vegetable subscriptions and 170 adult fruit subscriptions.

Pflanzliche und tierische Erzeugnisse

• Follow the natural production seasons: no heated and/or large-scale greenhouses; follow natural growing/milking/breeding seasons, …
• Promote short and local supply and production chains, with as few imports as possible.
• Use biodiversity-inclusive production methods: rotation of crops/fruit trees, mixed cropping, agroforestry/ecology, no pesticides or chemicals, organic/rational production, nature-based solutions, …
• Develop the land by incorporating biodiversity and provide an area dedicated to biodiversity (e.g. additional flowerbeds, permanent plant cover, no tillage/mowing/management in specific areas, insect hotels).
• Have respect for and/or improve the environmental and ecological characteristics of the area.
• As much naturalness as possible/as little alteration as possible of the surrounding environment (landscape, quality of water, of soil).
• Stimulate the preservation of green and blue areas by limiting the expansion of land use (e.g. rooftop agriculture, eco-grazing).
• Incorporate these practices into the surrounding environment (e.g. promote ecological continuity) to reduce their negative impact on the land.

Farmers take care of soil management, planting and seeding, weeding and hoeing, by, among other things:

• bringing in as much organic material as possible each year in the form of wood chips and compost (to boost soil organic matter levels);
• installing and maintaining beetle banks (wild strips of perennial grasses) between vegetables;
• choosing tall trees (longevity) between the vegetables;
• proper maintenance of the ditches that border the farm (every five years these are cleared);
• replanting, preserving and properly maintaining pollarded trees around the meadows;
• planting new, permanent hedges and hedgerows;
• aiming for a balanced ecosystem with plenty of nesting and habitats for natural pest controllers, so the use of pesticides can be avoided.