Van der Valk Hotel Assen has its own kitchen garden. Fresh from the garden straight to our restaurant!
Our kitchen garden is approximately the size of a football pitch. We follow organic gardening principles and therefore do not use artificial fertilisers or conventional pesticides. Instead, we use natural fertilisers and control diseases and pests with natural products in collaboration with ECOstyle. As part of our commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility, we believe this is a wonderful initiative that allows us to make a positive contribution to the environment.
The garden follows a six-year crop rotation, which means that the same vegetables are grown in the same location only once every six years. This helps minimise the risk of specific diseases and pests. In addition, we use green manure every two years to stimulate and improve soil health.
The kitchen garden is home to a wide variety of herbs, including chocolate mint, which we use to make fresh tea. During the growing season, our fresh, crisp vegetables make their way from the garden to our guests’ plates every day.
The garden also features a charming thatched cottage where we welcome groups. It is the perfect setting for corporate barbecues, as well as for schools looking to give their pupils the opportunity to learn outside the classroom about growing and eating vegetables.
We grow a wide variety of vegetables and herbs in our kitchen garden:
- Various herbs, including mint, chives, coriander, sage and rosemary
- Various types of cabbage and related vegetables, including white cabbage, red cabbage, pak choi and broccoli
- Various leafy vegetables, including different types of lettuce, spinach and leeks
- Various root vegetables, including chicory, beetroot, carrots and parsnips
- Other produce, including beans, cucumbers, courgettes, rhubarb and strawberries
Our kitchen garden at Hotel Assen is also home to some very special guests: honeybees. These fascinating little creatures are lovingly cared for by our own beekeeper and banqueting team member, Nalini.
Nalini ensures that the bees have the ideal conditions in which to thrive. We have three beehives where the bees produce their honey.
What makes these bees particularly special is that they not only have a positive impact on the environment, but also delight our guests’ taste buds. Thanks to our beekeeper, we can enjoy our very own delicious Hotel Assen honey. The honey is carefully harvested and processed by Nalini before making its way to our kitchen, where it is used in a variety of dishes. Of course, you can also purchase our honey in the Valk To Go Shop.
How to find our kitchen garden
At the end of the car park, turn left by the pond and the goats and follow the path towards the woods. Keep left on the path alongside the motorway. After approximately 250 metres, you will find our very own Valk kitchen garden on your left.