I recently found out about this farm, and not having seen many big-size farms in the Netherlands…read morebefore, decided to combine a visit to their open farm day with a separate dinner that was being organized here one fine Saturday evening. The experience was somewhat surreal! If you are looking for a day trip outside the big city and into nature's arms, this is your spot. Easily accessible by public transport, De Marsen is about an hour's trip from Amsterdam's central station. You take a bus all the way to Landsmeer and then walk about 15 minutes through a beautiful flat landscape and across a stream to arrive at the farm. The farm is open to all and they do arrange tours every now and then. Being off season for most crops and also because the farm recently switched management, there wasn't much to see in terms of animals or plantations, but they had a donkey, a chicken coup, some goats, and a pig farm where their legendary pig, named 'Uh-oh' lives. Along the tour, the new head farmer remarked how the huge pig has its own fan-following with people coming to see it regularly. Walking through the coup was quite awesome. The animals were enjoying. We took some time off to walk around the surroundings, which were really quiet and serene. I will go back, I liked it so much. We stayed until about 10PM after socializing with a lot of people we met on the farm. It was a great evening with a bonfire, spotting a hedgehog, and playing with the farm kittens. Netherlands is more than windmills and cheese. It has a lot of flat open space where people still farm their food!

Fruittuin van West is a lot of fun. It's a farm where you can pick your own fruit! What a unique…read moreconcept and something that you cannot do everyday, especially within a city the size of Amsterdam. The farm is big, but not too big.. You can cover the whole thing in an hour or two. Apples, pears, all sorts of berries, strawberries. Plus they have chickens roaming around that lay eggs in which you can pick from the bins in their coops. In the center of the farm is the entrance building which also has a shop to buy biological foods and a newly built cafe that serves healthy lunches. The farm is organic and biological, so buying fruit here is not only fun, but you'll be supporting local growers. The only downside is that it is a bit out of the center in Amsterdam West, which is easily accessible by car. With public transport you can take a bus, but then it's a 15-20 minute walk past the necessary stop. Watch our video here: https://youtu.be/jF0P52gT144

It was a special treat for us to be able to stay on a cheese farm. This place is one of few…read moreorganic cheese farms left in Holland. We didn't get a chance to see them make the cheese since we were still jet lagged, but we did taste them all in the tasting room and bought some to take home with us. We loved the walnut gouda cheese and the black truffle gouda the best. The farm had cows which the owner gave us fresh milk. Our son got so spoiled by the fresh delicious milk that he didn't want to drink the milk at home anymore. I appreciate dairy products so much more seeing how hard these people work to care for the cows, the maintenance, cleaning, etc. Then making of the cheese and aging process. I just wish I had a chance to eat the fresh eggs, they were out due to Easter :-(

This is the place to go! Not only is this "the" Cheese…read moredistrict to go to, this family is just so nice! Home made Cheese, milk, meat and education! They even run a very charming B&B on the premises. A fun place for kids too, as you are allowed to walk around the farm and see all the wonderful animals. The Frisian horses are just beautiful! Peacocks, cows, chickens and Queeny, ask for her. A family run business and all passionate about it, they love telling you about all the processes and produce, we received a tour around the cheesery from the father and an animal tour by one of the sons. Absolute must see if you are into farms and cheese!