“I had always wanted to farm but I thought that I would have to marry a farmer to do it,” says Ann Doherty, the founder of Amsterdam’s food-growers’ collective Cityplot. It turns out that the city has plenty of agricultural potential – if you know where to look.

Doherty is among the Amsterdam residents developing the idea of edible cities, a concept that fosters urban food production by nurturing neglected plots. “I went back to school to learn how to grow food,” she says from a Cityplot garden in Amsterdam Osdorp. As industrial-scale farming was pushed to the city’s outskirts, the 17th-century tradition of volkstuinen (allotments) endured so that the working classes could feed themselves and sell the surplus. Today, as a national drive to build a million homes by 2030 puts pressure on space, these gardens are tempting a new generation to enjoy growing their own food.

A 10-minute cycle from Osdorp, Doherty’s first initiative, Pluk!, is flourishing. A yearly, means-based subscription allows you to harvest your own vegetables, herbs and flowers; it helps the farmers to earn a minimum wage of at least €18 per hour. We join dancer-turned-gardener Genevieve Osborne as she prunes cucumbers. Momentum is gathering. “People come here for a lifestyle change,” she says. “We meet those suffering from burnout, activists and young families wanting to feed their kids something homegrown and show them how it happens.”

In dry periods, these revitalised green spaces also help to cool the city. On the town’s outskirts, campaigners including Iris Poels want to create a “food park” on reclaimed land in the Lutkemeerpolder. “This is the last bit of fertile sea-clay soil in Amsterdam,” says Poels. “Amsterdam is 750 years old. This work we are doing is for the city’s future.”
voedselparkamsterdam.nl

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