Groningen sits like a green oasis in the middle of some of the most fertile arable land in the Netherlands. The Groningen Ommelanden consist of heavy, rich clay soils that have yielded excellent harvests of grain, sugar beet, and increasingly soft fruits for pickers over many centuries. The open, wide landscape with its characteristic farms and deep ditches breathes a unique tranquillity that makes a visit to a pick-your-own farm a very special experience. From the Hogeland to the Oldambt: around the city you’ll find a surprising number of farms where you can roll up your sleeves and pick.
U-Pick Farms in and around Groningen
Around Groningen, Hoogezand, Leek, Winsum and Bedum you’ll find a variety of pick-your-own farms and fruit gardens where you are very welcome. You can pick strawberries, raspberries and seasonal flowers, and on many farms buy freshly picked vegetables and local produce. Also take a look at u-pick farms in Groningen province .
The best u-pick farms near Groningen: our picks
Groningen has a certain stoicism: the city stands straight, the horizons are wide and the countryside around it makes no concessions to cosiness — it is simply large, open and productive. But precisely in that space, the organic market gardens that have emerged here over recent decades thrive on Groningen clay soil that has few equals in Europe.
Five kilometres from the centre, het Proefveld in Haren has set up its plots as a self-harvest garden with more than fifty varieties: strawberries, potatoes, aubergine, basil, cauliflower, kale — a catalogue of flavour on a certified organic field that is open from April to December.
In Ten Boer, eleven kilometres east, Ten Boer cultivates its rows in a way that reflects what Groningen clay can deliver: tomato, cucumber, pepper, berries and courgette, all without pesticides. As a member you harvest weekly alongside the season.
Seven kilometres away in Groningen-Noordwolde, ’t Plukgeluk is an organic self-harvest garden with vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs on a single plot. A complete garden for home cooks and flower lovers alike in one visit.
In Veenhuizen, more than twenty kilometres to the west near the historic Society of Benevolence, De Tuinen van Weldadigheid has woven its organic flower growing into the remarkable cultural heritage of this protected village — a visit that offers two things at once.
For asparagus lovers, Boerderijwinkel Hoorn in Drenthe at twenty-four kilometres is the only address in the region where you cut your own asparagus — a unique spring experience found almost nowhere else.
Tip: het Proefveld in Haren regularly organises open days. Keep an eye on the website for current opening times and the weekly availability of crops.