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Buitengoed de Herfte · Zwolle · Netherlands

De Kas van Kaat

An organic lunch café inside a working greenhouse on the edge of Zwolle, run as a social enterprise where the people who grow the produce also bake, cook and serve it.

The essentials, at a glance

◐
Impact score
4 - Recognised
→
Documented practices
Local sourcing
Seasonal cooking
Low waste
Sustainable meat/fish plant-based kitchen
Social impact
Plant-forward menu

Style
Café
Casual
Cosy
Cuisine
Dutch
Good to know
Garden
Child-friendly

The delicious details

De Kas van Kaat is an organic lunch café inside a working greenhouse just outside Zwolle, built around two ideas: caring for what the land provides, and making room for everyone. It is a day activity location of the Omega Groep care organisation, where around forty people who find it hard to enter regular work grow, bake, cook and serve alongside professional staff.

Much of what reaches the plate is grown on site, across a heated greenhouse, two polytunnels and more than a hectare of garden that supplies vegetables, fruit and herbs. Bread, cakes and biscuits come from the café's own bakery, and the kitchen is fully vegetarian with a wide choice of vegan dishes.

The setting is a light, green space for an unhurried lunch, high tea or a walk through the garden, with a workshop next door selling pieces made by the same makers.

Menu
What's on the table, and what's left off

The kitchen is fully vegetarian, with sandwiches, salads, soups and high tea, plus vegan options including a vegan high tea. Vegetables from the garden feature in dishes like shakshuka and mushroom balls; bread and cakes are baked in house.

Cuisine
Dutch
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Vegan-friendly
Dairy-free options
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
4 - Recognised

De Kas van Kaat has confirmed responsible practice across several areas of how it grows, cooks and runs the café.

Most of the produce is grown in its own garden and greenhouses just outside the kitchen, which keeps supply lines very short, and the harvest shapes what appears on the menu through the seasons. The café works along circular, nature inclusive lines and reuses materials where it can, keeping waste down. The whole operation is a social enterprise: around forty people who find regular work difficult grow, bake, cook and serve here alongside professional staff, as a day activity location of the Omega Groep care organisation. The kitchen is fully vegetarian, with vegetables at the centre and a wide choice of vegan dishes.

It takes part as a member of the Caring Farmers network, which brings together growers committed to nature inclusive, circular farming.

The impact dimensions
Local & direct sourcing✓
Seasonal cooking✓
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products✓
n/a
Social impact✓
Plant-forward menu✓

Local and direct sourcing is a defining feature; the restaurant grows much of its produce on site across greenhouses and 1.4 hectares of farmland.

The restaurant grows a large share of its own vegetables, fruit and herbs on site across a heated greenhouse, two tunnel greenhouses and about 1.4 hectares of farmland, and works in principle with produce from its own garden, buying organic or local products elsewhere only when necessary.

The own growing operation is a specific, traceable grower documented in third-party coverage by the Caring Farmers network, which corroborates the garden-to-plate model.

Strongest sourcecaringfarmers.nl ↗

The kitchen's menu follows seasonal availability through the year, shaped by its own garden and greenhouses.

Growing the majority of its own produce ties the kitchen to the harvest, so the menu naturally follows what is ready in the garden and greenhouses through the year.

Strongest sourcedekasvankaat.nl ↗

The operation works along circular, nature-inclusive lines and is a member of the Caring Farmers network, reusing sustainable materials where possible.

The operation describes itself as working along nature-inclusive, circular agriculture lines and is a member of the Caring Farmers network, growing its own food in a closed loop and reusing sustainable and recycled materials where possible. These practices are corroborated by the Caring Farmers network.

Strongest sourcecaringfarmers.nl ↗

The menu is fully vegetarian with an extensive vegan range; no meat, poultry, fish or seafood is served.

The dimension does not apply to this restaurant: the menu is fully vegetarian with an extensive vegan range, and no meat, poultry, fish or seafood is served on any offering, including the high tea.

Strongest sourcerestauplant.com ↗

De Kas van Kaat is a day activity location of Omega Groep, where around forty client-workers who find regular work difficult grow, cook and serve alongside professional staff.

Social impact is the core of the operation. De Kas van Kaat is a day activity location of the Omega Groep care organisation, on the Buitengoed de Herfte estate, which hosts only social enterprises.

Around forty client-workers who find it hard to enter regular work or education work here alongside professional staff and volunteers across six departments, learning and working together. This is a formal, recurring, structural employment model founded on inclusion, running since 2018 and corroborated by independent third-party coverage. Fair employment and community inclusion are addressed systematically as the enterprise's founding purpose.

Strongest sourcecaringfarmers.nl ↗

The kitchen is fully vegetarian and plant-forward, with vegetables from the garden at the centre of dishes and an extensive vegan range including vegan high tea.

The kitchen is fully vegetarian and structurally plant-forward, with vegetables from its own garden at the centre of the dishes and an extensive vegan range including a vegan high tea.

It is positioned publicly as vegetable-led eco dining, placing plants as the dominant element across the casual lunch-café menu.

Strongest sourcehappycow.net ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
Own-grown produce
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing
✓
In-house preparation

The operation grows a meaningful share of its own vegetables, fruit and herbs across a heated greenhouse, two tunnel greenhouses and about 1.4 hectares of farmland, documented by the Caring Farmers network.

The primary named, traceable grower is the restaurant's own on-site garden and greenhouses. When own produce is unavailable, organic or local products are bought elsewhere.

The café runs its own bakery producing bread, cakes and biscuits, and prepares items from scratch in-house using its own produce.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Kuyerhuislaan 8D, 8025 AS Zwolle, Zwolle, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€
Format
Lunch café and high tea, book ahead
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday09:30–17:00
Wednesday09:30–17:00
Thursday09:30–17:00
Friday09:30–17:00
Saturday09:30–17:00
SundayClosed
Style
Café
Casual
Cosy
Good to know
Garden
Child-friendly
Web
dekasvankaat.nl
Reserve a table
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 13 Jul 2026
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How we score
The My Treats impact scale

Every restaurant is assessed against SEERO, our six-dimension sustainability framework — covering sourcing, seasonality, waste, animal products, social impact, and plant-forward cooking. Each finding is weighted by how strongly it is corroborated. The combined result is translated into a planet rating from 1 to 5.

The five levels

SEERO is an acronym for Starting, Engaged, Endorsed, Recognised, Outstanding:

Starting First verified signals of sustainable practice.
Engaged Credible practice across two dimensions.
Endorsed Meaningful practice across three or more dimensions.
Recognised Strong practice across four or more dimensions, with independent corroboration.
This place
Outstanding Top-tier practice, confirmed by recognised third-party audit.

How a level is reached. Each level needs two things together: a minimum number of dimensions covered, and a minimum overall strength of evidence across them. A dimension only counts once its evidence is specific and substantiated — a passing mention doesn't qualify. Meeting only one of the two keeps a restaurant a level lower.

Ratings of four or five planets require human validation and, at the top tier, an external audit. Scores are based on publicly available evidence and restaurant submissions at the time of assessment.

Full methodology→
Impact dimension
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How this dimension works
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How evidence is weighted
Self-declared Stated by the restaurant on its website, menu or in a submission. Plausible, but not yet independently corroborated.
Researched Found through independent research; one credible third-party source backs the claim.
Vouched Corroborated across more than one independent source. Some gaps may remain.
Audited Fully corroborated across independent sources or by a recognised third-party certification.
What the sourcing checkmarks mean
✓ Full check — independently verified: corroborated across more than one source, or audited / third-party certified (vouched or audited).
✓ Light check — self-declared or from a single source. Not yet independently verified.
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