For a long time, I bought my lettuce at the supermarket. Until the first vegetable box from our own market garden. The lettuce I cut into that week turned out not to be lettuce at all, but just a few watery green leaves compared to what grew here. Fuller, firmer, with a flavor that surprised me. Since then, I look differently at what a vegetable box from Flevoland actually is.
A vegetable box that moves with the season
A vegetable box from Flevoland is a weekly selection of fresh vegetables from a local grower, put together based on what is ripe and harvestable at that moment. Not planned in advance. Not flown in. Not self-selected. What the garden gives that week, that’s what you take home.
The difference with a supermarket purchase is this: in the supermarket, all seasons lie side by side simultaneously. Strawberries in January, tomatoes in March, green beans in November. With a seasonal box, you eat along with what the Dutch landscape produces at that moment. Late May is different from early October.
At Yūgen Forest, we put together boxes every Friday on a 52-hectare nature estate in Dronten. Four to six types of seasonal vegetables per box, sometimes supplemented with herbs or fruit from the land. The season runs from late May to late November. After that, we let the garden rest and the soil do its work, because that’s the only way a market garden remains fertile twenty years from now.
Our cultivation is regenerative. That is a step further than organic. Regenerative cultivation is agriculture that doesn’t exhaust the soil but enriches it, through biodiversity, no pesticides, and active management of soil life. Using principles from permaculture and agroecology, the land becomes more fertile each season instead of more depleted.
Some vegetables span multiple seasons. Potatoes, onions, and garlic, for example, which we harvest in the summer and then store for a long time. Because of this, you often have a base for an evening meal in a box, alongside the changing seasonal variety.
Spring and early summer (May to July)
The season starts gently. The first boxes from late May and June are light and green, with many leafy vegetables that grow quickly as soon as the soil warms up.
What you can expect in a Flevoland box during these months:
- Various types of lettuce, from butterhead to oak leaf and cutting lettuce
- Spinach and Swiss chard
- Spring onions and scallions
- Radishes and turnip greens
- Purslane and winter purslane as a follow-up
- Rhubarb and the first strawberries in June
- Broad beans, snow peas, and sugar snaps in June and July
- Fresh “green” garlic (garlic scapes) from late June
- First early potatoes (small varieties, June and July)
- Fresh herbs: chives, parsley, dill, basil
This is also the period when you taste the difference between the field and plastic packaging most sharply. A field-fresh head of lettuce, just cut, tastes different from lettuce that has been on a shelf for days. The texture is firmer, the juice clearer, the flavor fuller.
High summer (July to September)
In high summer, the box becomes more colorful and heavier. The fruiting vegetables get going and the garden gives in abundance.
What you can expect in a Flevoland box during these months:
- Tomatoes in many types and colors, from beefsteak tomatoes to cherry tomatoes and heirloom varieties like Black Krim or Green Zebra
- Potatoes in various varieties, early and later types
- Fresh onions, shallots, and red onions
- Garlic, fresh and then dried after the July harvest
- Zucchini and pattypan squash
- Cucumber
- Bell peppers and eggplant
- Green beans and runner beans
- Beets, early carrots, and parsley root
- Berries, raspberries, and blackberries
- Edible flowers such as borage, nasturtium, calendula, and pansy
- Mediterranean herbs: basil, oregano, cilantro
This is also the moment when heirloom tomato varieties stand out. A Black Krim has a deeper, almost smoky flavor that you won’t find in any supermarket tomato. The varieties are not selected for logistics, but for what they deliver on the plate.
Late summer and autumn (September to November)
The last part of the season feels different. The box becomes denser, earthier, and carries the light of a shortening day within it.
What you can expect in a Flevoland box during these months:
- Various pumpkins and squashes: Hokkaido, butternut, muscat
- Storage potatoes in different varieties
- Storage onions, shallots, and garlic from the summer harvest
- Parsnips and parsley root
- Celeriac and kohlrabi
- Various cabbages: pointed cabbage, black kale (cavolo nero), savoy, red cabbage, and curly kale
- Chicory and lamb’s lettuce
- Carrots and beets from the late harvest
- Late apples and pears
- Walnuts and hazelnuts in October
Pumpkin deserves a special mention. A Hokkaido grown on healthy soil and fully ripened at harvest tastes like chestnut, not like the watery tuber from a shelf. You notice that difference as soon as you roast it or make soup from it.
Forgotten varieties you won’t find in the supermarket
One of the most beautiful things about a local regenerative box is that you encounter vegetables that have disappeared from the collective menu.
Ice plant, for example. A glistening succulent leaf with naturally salty crystals. A guest recently told me: “I didn’t even know ice plant existed, but now I eat it with every salad. That crunch surprises everyone at the table.” The kind of comment we hear more often once people have been eating with the season for a few weeks.
Other varieties that may appear in our boxes:
- Salsify, once a staple on the Dutch winter table
- Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, with a sweet nutty flavor
- Vitelotte and other heirloom potato varieties, with deep purple flesh and nutty flavor
- Golden beets and Chioggia beets, with striking pink-and-white rings when sliced
- Good King Henry, a wild spinach that grows on the forest edge
- Cardoon, a relative of the artichoke
- Heirloom zucchinis, yellow and round, which you won’t find in any supermarket chain
With every box, we send a handful of recipes via email. That’s not an extra service, but what makes the box usable alongside your regular weekly groceries. Especially for vegetables where you don’t immediately know what to do, it helps to get concrete suggestions. Many box subscribers let us know that these recipes have changed the way they cook.
What makes a vegetable box from Flevoland different
The difference with a large, national box subscription isn’t just the distance from the land to your kitchen. It’s in how the vegetables are grown.
Research shows that vegetables on healthy, regeneratively managed soil achieve a higher nutritional value than vegetables on exhausted agricultural land. American professor of soil science David Montgomery describes in his work measurable differences in minerals and plant phytonutrients between regeneratively and conventionally grown crops. The soil does the work, not just the seed.
In practical terms, this means the flavor is more intense and a smaller portion can provide more than a large portion of watery vegetables. It’s not a claim we made up ourselves. It’s something you’ll start to notice once you’ve been participating for a few weeks.
In addition, our soil is PFAS-free and we work without pesticides or artificial fertilizers. What you taste comes directly from the land, with all the flavors and minerals the soil provides us.
How it works at Yūgen Forest
The season runs from May 29th through November 27th. Every Friday you pick up your box on-site between 9:30 AM and 6:00 PM in Dronten. We work with three sizes of vegetable boxes: a small box, a normal box, and a trial box of four Fridays in June for those who want to get acquainted first without committing to a whole season.
For each box size, we have three price levels. Not as a sales trick, but because we want everyone to be able to eat with us according to their means. Every week you receive an email with updates from the market garden and recipes for that week’s vegetables.
What you pay directly benefits the regenerative development of the nature area and our social goals. Eating with us is literally participating in making a piece of the Flevoland landscape richer.
Want to see where your vegetables come from first? On our monthly open day during the high season, our regenerative farmer takes you through the market garden. Past the no-dig beds, the deep-mulch garden, and the greenhouses, with all his stories about what goes well and what goes wrong.
Frequently asked questions
What is in an average Yūgen vegetable box?
Four to six types of seasonal vegetables, sometimes supplemented with herbs or fruit. What’s inside depends on what is ripe at the market garden that week. No two boxes are exactly the same.
What is the difference between an organic and a regenerative vegetable box?
Organic cultivation excludes chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Regenerative cultivation goes further and actively focuses on enriching the soil and strengthening biodiversity, using principles from permaculture and agroecology. The soil becomes more fertile every year instead of more depleted.
When can I order a vegetable box from Yūgen Forest?
The season runs from May 29th to November 27th. You can sign up for the whole season or for the trial box of four Fridays in June. Outside of this season, we do not deliver boxes, as the land is resting.
Where do I pick up my vegetable box?
On-site at Yūgen Forest in Dronten, every Friday between 9:30 AM and 6:00 PM. A half-hour drive from Lelystad, Kampen, and Zwolle.
Do I get recipes with my vegetable box?
Yes. Every week you receive recipe suggestions via email for the vegetables in your box, especially for the lesser-known varieties. Many box subscribers let us know that this has changed the way they cook.
Eating with the rhythm of nature
A regenerative vegetable box from Flevoland changes more than just your weekly menu. It brings the season back to your plate and lets you taste what regeneratively grown vegetables really are. Sometimes confronting, more often surprising, and always closer to where you live than you thought.
Want to taste it for yourself? Check out the vegetable boxes and sign-up options, or plan a visit to the market garden on one of the open days. Then you’ll see where your vegetables come from and who you’re eating with.