Magazine: Organic Times

Check out my article in the Organic Times Magazine created completely by WUR MOA students! Page 9.

Final Report: FSE Internship at Landgoed Zuylestein

Designing a diversified cropping plan for a historic vegetable garden at Landgoed Zuylestein

Introduction

The parameters and goals for the internship I selected were to design a cropping plan in space and time while considering the historic value and aesthetics of the garden. The client wanted a garden that would have a high yield with less work. We decided to accomplish this through a combination of crop rotation, intercropping, mulching methodologies and a historical component after meeting with both Wageningen and Zuylestein. The program was under the management of the Farming System Ecology Department at Wageningen University and Research (supervisor Dirk van Apeldoorn) and Landgoed Zuylestein under co-supervision with owner Jemima de Brauwere and garden manager Thea Dengerink. The internship started October 4, 2017 and concluded May 9, 2018, with 4 additional check-in dates throughout May. I was considered part-time until period 5 (March 19, 2018). Until this point I worked 100+ hours on items such as plant lists, planning charts, soil sampling, manure quantity for C:N ratios, and composting methodologies. Afterwards I worked on-site to create and plant/maintain the garden, specifically the 3 test beds (4, 6A, and 8).

Zuylestein Composting Day: May 10, 2018

On Saturday, May 10th, 2018, I attended a Volunteer Day at Zuylestein. There were 21 volunteers including myself and 2-3 members of the Zuylestein garden crew on hand to work in various activities. I worked with the garden manager, Thea, on creating compost and beginning the garden beds in one of my test plots (7A).

Zuylestein Castle Planting Guide for Spring 2018

So, the main focus of my internship at Castle Zuylestein is to create a garden plan that incorporates:

• rotational cropping
• companion planting
• composting methodologies
• historical garden design

Zuylestein Soil Sample Analysis #1 (Internship)

Zuylestein Soil Sample Analysis #1

Medieval Medlars

Medlar Recipes

In the book, Food in Motion: The Migration of Foodstuffs and Cookery Techniques, an entire chapter on Medlars and their introduction to the Netherlands provides us with recipes and history.