Annette Harberink (43) exchanges ‘the most beautiful view of the Netherlands’ for the Flevopolder. She worked for twelve years at Natuurderij Keizersrande, on the IJssel just outside Deventer. In those years she learned to deal with the capriciousness of the river and skepticism about nature-inclusive farming. “There is a persistent prejudice that this company is dependent on subsidies.”
It started a decade and a half ago with an idea, the farm of the IJssel landscape Foundation. Annette Harberink was there to build the farm in the floodplains of the IJssel near Diepenveen from scratch. “I started leasing in 2010. The first six years was building, then six years running”, she summarizes her time on the banks of the river.
It’s time for something different, she thinks. Last year, the farmer’s wife started as director of the Warmonderhof Foundation in Dronten. ,,The only practical school for organic farmers and horticulturists in Europe”, she says proudly.
She combined the work in Dronten with running the Keizersrande Nature Farm, in order to first decide for herself where her future lies. Now the knot has been made. She exchanges the unique Salland farm for the polder.
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