De Plaatsen

About De Plaatsen

Plaats De Kleine Aarde is a non-profit place and landgoed in Boxtel focused on regenerative agriculture, food systems, and lifestyle. It presents itself as a place where nature, food, learning, hospitality, and community come together, with a mission to help build a food system that can be passed on with pride to future generations.

The organization welcomes visitors to its park, eetcafé, herberg, and event spaces, and it also develops programs, workshops, courses, and year-round learning journeys around regeneration. Its positioning is both practical and inspirational: it combines hospitality and place-based experiences with education, collaboration, and experimentation around food, land, and community.

Core Values

• Regeneration: The organization frames its work around regenerative agriculture and lifestyle, with the idea of restoring and improving land, food systems, and human connection over time.
• Community and collaboration: It emphasizes working with citizens, volunteers, farmers, makers, educators, and other partners to create change together rather than in isolation.
• Education: Learning is central to the site’s identity, from its historical roots as an educational sustainability center to its current workshops, tours, and programs.
• Connection with nature: The landgoed is presented as a place to slow down, experience biodiversity, and reconnect with natural rhythms, food, and the landscape.
• Accessibility and inclusion: The site repeatedly stresses public access, volunteer participation, and food-system initiatives that aim to be both sustainable and available to a broad audience.

Unique Aspects

• A landgoed with a long educational legacy: The site traces its roots to a 1901 bequest and later to De Kleine Aarde (1973–2010), which transformed former fields into a park and became a well-known sustainability education center.
• The Poort van Potentie collaboration model: Plaats De Kleine Aarde positions itself as a meeting point where initiatives and organizations come together to form new partnerships and turn ideas into action.
• Fieldlab Zuidelijke Zandgronden: The organization is developing a regional field lab in which it works with partners on a healthier, more inclusive food system, starting in Tilburg and the surrounding region.
• Partnerships with established food-system actors: Its collaboration network includes initiatives such as Robin, Aardpeer, Herenboeren, and educational and research partners mentioned on the site, showing a strong ecosystem approach.
• A living, publicly accessible landscape: The landgoed is open daily for visits, with biodiversity, edible greenery, water features, and renovated historic buildings forming part of the visitor experience.