Two days at Eetbos Deinze, with Hilde and Piet
Two days with Hilde and Piet, who turned a Flemish farm into a fruit and nut food forest: a productive design, a real business, and hosts who share everything.
Here, the food forest isn’t a backdrop: it’s a farm. In Deinze, East Flanders, Hilde Eylenbosch and Piet Moerman turned farmland into a food forest of fruit, nuts and berries that has become a real business. For two days, they open the doors of their “experimental farm” and tell you about their choices, their successes and their doubts.
Why Eetbos
Hilde and Piet don’t come from farming: they had careers in medical technology before taking the leap. Maybe that’s why their place challenges so many habits. Here, there’s no digging, no fertilising and no pesticides. The soil builds itself, plants are chosen to fill several roles at once, and pest control is left to beneficial insects.
From the air, Eetbos is striking: curves of fruit and nut trees, grassy alleys for harvesting and maintenance, islands of berry bushes. A design built to produce a lot per square metre, without ever forgetting the wildlife that moves in.
The site is also a reference beyond its hedges: Flemish researchers used Eetbos Deinze to calibrate their cost-benefit analysis of a food forest.
A food forest that makes a living
What makes this immersion unique is the business model you’ll see working for real:
- A farm shop where fruit and nuts are sold in season
- Subscriptions: every week, subscribers come to collect their basket of seasonal fruit
- Juices and jams, sold all year round through partners
- An organic nut processing line (hulling, drying, cracking, sorting) that also serves other growers
- Visits, workshops and teaching, which are an integral part of the project
Two days to understand it all: what works, what’s tricky, how long it takes, and what they would do differently.
What you’ll experience
- Walk the food forest with its creators: the design logic, the choice of species, how trees and bushes are managed
- Get your hands in and taste what’s in season in early June
- Unpack the business model: direct sales, subscriptions, processing, services
- Exchange between practitioners: a small group of professionals and enthusiasts, with no limit on questions
- Share meals and the evening: the best way to carry on the conversations from the field
Who is it for?
This immersion is aimed first at farmers, market gardeners and garden professionals interested in productive designs, at ecosystem designers and at permaculture designers. Planning an orchard and market garden, a food forest on your farm, or designing for others? You’re in the right place.
Practical details
- Two full days on site, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 June 2027
- Taught in French
- The price includes both days, the lunches (organic and seasonal), accommodation in a shared room and Saturday breakfast
- Travel is not included: we help set up car-sharing and participants split the costs. Deinze is also reachable by train
- An email with all the practical information will be sent a few days before the immersion
Eetbos, from above and from the ground
Rows of fruit and nut trees that follow the land, soft-fruit hedges, alleys for harvesting and a pond full of life. Our drone and ground photos, taken during our last visit with the Semisto programme.
Our last visit to Eetbos
A question about this immersion?
Car-sharing, train, accommodation or what the days look like: write to us, we'll be happy to answer.