Sint Nicolaashoeve is a small scale farm in Nieuwveen built in 1858. They have twenty or so cows that are milked daily. The farm also grows wheat, sugar beats, corn and potatoes. Farmer Gerard and his wife Eveline greeted us upon our arrival. After a brief tour and a quick trip to the market we discovered that a new baby calf had just been born only a few hours earlier. It was so amazing, wobbly legs and all.
That night we watched Gerard milk all the cows and let us have some fresh, warm milk to drink. It was so delicious and creamy. Of course, Mike made yogurt and butter with it that night (you can take the guy away from the fermentation but you can’t take the fermentation out of the guy – or something like that). Anyway, we enjoyed our homemade yogurt and raw, grass-fed milk all week long with coffee, on cereal, fruit, you name it. It was pretty special.
Several years ago they completely renovated the barn and house to contain 6 small apartments. Ours had 3 rooms, a kitchen, living room bath and shower. And although we had a flat screen, dishwasher and wifi, we felt like we had gone back in time as well. The outside of the buildings are still the same from 160 years ago. And Gerard pitches hay for the cows, and milks them twice a day. He does use a milking machine but has to attach it by hand to each cow. The entire process takes him a couple hours each time.
One thing we haven’t mentioned much in our posts is that we’ve had rain more often than not. Literally, in every city we’ve been dumped on. And Nieuwveen didn’t want to break the streak. So we hung around our place a bit – playing a Dutch shuffelboard game called ‘sjoelbak’ and yes, doing homework. On our first dry day we biked for about an hour, exploring the local country and neighborhoods – they had some bikes for us to borrow on the farm including one perfect for Jett – still no helmets. 🙂
They next day Gerard took the kids on a tractor ride in the fields. Then later all of us got to milk the cows by hand. That was really fun – another experience that Mike had as a kid and still remembers to this day. Later in the week we had a nice hot sunny day and decided to do a long bike ride to another town. It’s amazing how the bike paths pass through farms, neighborhoods and villages… on and on to the next city often. This country is so bike friendly, it’s amazing. You can literally get anywhere by bike. So we road stopped for ice cream and relaxed a bit before coming home. Kudos to the kids for really pushing it on a long, hot day.
For the most part it was another kick back destination for us. We cooked all our meals, which is nice when you’re on a budget. Although shopping in Nieuwveen was a little more of a challenge. This market was the first where nobody spoke any English. It’s not that big a deal except when dealing with meat. 🙂 But we managed and ate well. When it rained, we journaled, Mike worked and when the sun came out, we rode bikes around the farm and threw the ball for Jackie the farm dog. Easy livin.
After our mellow stay in Muiderberg and a chill week on the farm, it’s time to hit the city again. We leave here with some amazing memories and look forward to Brussels, Belgium.
Stivers Tribe 