Travel, Food and Musings: Dutch Farmstay @ Monnickendam, Holland

As dear E has not stayed in a farm before, we thought it will be good to stay in a farm during our trip to the Netherlands. On researching, we found lots of farm stay in Holland.

We chose Overleekerhoeve located in Monnickendam (Waterland) as we wanted a working farm.

It was a great choice! Overleekerhoeve is a charming a working farm only 10 km from Amsterdam. It is a dairy farm with ponies, ducks, chickens and barn owls (sadly we did not see the owls).

It has 6 bedrooms and has a skybox in the living room and you can see the cows and calves from the living room, separated by a huge glass panel (very cool).

We settled in one of the rooms with a jacuzzi, kitchenette and 4 single beds. It has a pretty window overlooking the vast grassland with lots of birds. We were able to cook our breakfast and dinner in the kitchen. As it was the low season, I think only 2 rooms were occupied.

We were welcomed by Jenny our host who graciously showed us how they mechanically milked like 30 cows in a short time. The farmer (her husband) first ushered the cows to the parlour and clean the cows’ teats before attaching the milking equipment to the teats. Milk is automatically sent to a cooling tank for refrigeration. The cows are milked twice a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year! Jenny gave us a pitcher of the milk and fresh milk never tasted so heavenly.

The kids had fun feeding the cows and calves the next day.

The farm has a beautiful terrace where dear T did his quiet time by the canal.

There was a motorized boat that one can use during summer. However, in winter, we did not explore the water vehicles. The kids were contented playing with the manual cars?