5 - Outstanding
i
Vegetables, herbs, grain, potatoes and fruit come from a four hectare market garden on the estate, certified organic under Skal, and bread is baked from rye grown on its own fields; Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven brews beer from the same grain. Menus follow the harvest, with a card for each season and extra dishes drawn from the day's picking. Green Key gold covers energy, water, cleaning, mobility and recycling, garden waste is composted on site, and whole harvests are carried through the bakery, the roastery and the brewery. Fish is chosen with the Good Fish Foundation guide on method, area and season, and the EKO audit covers the dairy and meat categories alongside vegetables, bread and drinks.
Day placements and work experience run across the restaurant, kitchen, bakery, roastery and garden for adults with a learning disability, a psychiatric background or an acquired brain injury, and Wasven is a registered training company with charitable status. Most lunch dishes are vegetarian, with the garden setting what appears on them.
Green Key gold has been held since 2019, and the kitchen carries the silver EKO mark for organic restaurants, which requires at least 60 percent of ingredients to be demonstrably organic. In November 2019 Wasven was the first hospitality business to receive the combined EKO and Green Key label.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products✓
Direct sourcing is structural: a four hectare market garden on the estate supplies vegetables, herbs, grain, potatoes and fruit; bread comes from rye grown on its own fields; coffee is roasted on site; and Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven brews the Wasven beer from estate grain.
Direct sourcing is structural rather than declared. A four hectare market garden on the estate, worked without pesticides under Skal control, supplies the gasterij with vegetables, herbs, grain, potatoes and fruit, and the menu states that dishes come from the estate's own land or from the region. Bread is baked in the estate's own bakery from rye grown on its own field along the Hofstraat, coffee is roasted on site, and honey comes from its own beekeeping. Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven is named as the brewer of the Wasven beer from that same grain.
The EKO restaurant mark at silver level independently attests that at least 60 percent of ingredients are demonstrably organic across the dairy, meat, vegetable, bread and drinks categories, and a directory listing describes the cooking as organic and regional.
Seasonality is the guiding principle, with published seasonal menus and dishes built on products just lifted from the estate's market garden.
Seasonality is stated as the guiding principle of the kitchen, which describes bringing nature indoors with dishes of the season from the estate's own land or the region, and it is structurally enforced by the fact that the market garden supplying the kitchen carries a seasonal assortment that changes through the year.
The published cards are issued per season, a summer menu for 2026 and a spring drinks card, and alongside the fixed card the cooks run dishes under the name Van de schop built on pure products of the season. Dish composition matches the Dutch calendar: stewed pear with pumpkin, sweet potato with vegetables of the season, and teas made on site from herbs of the season.
Green Key gold certification covers energy, water, recycling and organic waste; rye is milled to flour and beer, buckwheat to roasted products, and vegetables are composted or carried through kitchen to brewery.
Practices are evidenced across two of the three sub areas with a named partner and independent corroboration. Energy, water, cleaning, mobility and recycling are covered by the Green Key criteria the estate is certified against, an on site audited scheme, and entity scope is satisfied: trade press reports that Gasterij Wasven itself was the recipient of the first combined EKO and Green Key label in November 2019.
On food waste, garden work runs from sowing and harvesting through weeding to composting on site, and whole harvests are carried through rather than sold off: rye from the estate's own field is milled into flour for the bakery while cleaned rye goes to the city brewer, and buckwheat harvested from the free field was roasted in the estate's own ovens before Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven brewed it into beer. Land is managed without pesticides with crop rotation, intercropping, minimal soil disturbance and no heavy machinery.
Good Fish Foundation principles guide fish selection; the EKO silver mark audits dairy and meat organically; smoked salmon appears on the lunch card.
The gasterij states that it follows the Good Fish Foundation fish guide, choosing fish caught with the right method, in the right area and in the right season. The EKO restaurant mark at silver level is audited across categories that explicitly include dairy and meat, so organic share is assessed against the animal products themselves rather than only the assortment as a whole. The kitchen also describes cooking with an eye to animal welfare.
Smoked salmon fillet appears on the lunch card. The stated Good Fish Foundation policy is the named qualification, and the specific certification of that salmon should be confirmed with the restaurant when ordering.
Inclusive employment is the operating model: day programmes and work placements run across all operations for adults with learning disabilities, psychiatric conditions or acquired brain injury; community partnerships and volunteering shape the kitchen.
Inclusive employment is the operating model rather than an addition to it, and practice is systematic across all three sub areas with third-party validation. An independent care farm register records that Wasvenboerderij, founded in 2007 and holding charitable ANBI status, runs day programmes for adults with a learning disability, a psychiatric condition, acquired brain injury and developmental conditions, with work taking place in the restaurant, the kitchen, the bakery, the coffee roastery and the market garden. The estate also offers placements and work experience for people at a distance from the labour market and is listed as a recognised training company.
The organisation runs a volunteer community alongside paid staff and participants, is affiliated to Samen voor Eindhoven, Trefpunt Groen Eindhoven and Kern met Pit, and offers guided walks and presentations on the food chain and responsible business. The farm shop stocks organic jam from the care garden Sprankenhof.
Seven of twelve lunch items are vegetarian; croquettes and burger come in plant versions; vegetables are the structural foundation of the menu.
Vegetables are the structural foundation of the card and the kitchen's stated identity is vegetables in the leading role, a positioning repeated in independent restaurant listings. On the published lunch card of 12 items, seven are vegetarian outright: warm brie with stewed pear and pumpkin, feta with sweet potato and vegetables of the season, the Tongelre lunch plate, a spelt panini with vegetables, a quiche, an egg dish and an organic pancake. Two more items, the croquettes and the burger, are offered in a vegetarian or plant version, leaving three animal-only items: chicken, pulled pork and smoked salmon.
The supply base reinforces this positioning: a four hectare market garden on the estate sets what reaches the plate, and the seasonal Van de schop dishes are built on what the garden has just produced. The kitchen describes dietary wishes as taken into account.
Sourcing signals
✓
Certified organic ingredients
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing
✓
Low-impact beverage program
EKO restaurant silver mark certifies at least 60 percent of ingredients organically across dairy, meat, vegetables, bread and drinks; the market garden is certified organic under Skal.
Around four hectares of fields, gardens and orchards produce grain, potatoes, vegetables, fruit and herbs, mostly for the gasterij and bakery; rye from the Hofstraat field is milled to flour on site.
The estate's own market garden is the primary named source for the kitchen, and Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven is named as the brewer of the Wasven beer served in the gasterij, made from grain off the estate's own fields.
Bread and pastry, coffee, honey, herb teas, jams and syrups are made or grown in house; beer is brewed by Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven from estate grain.
Four documented beverage commitments: organic wine on the list, Wasven beer brewed by Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven from estate grain, coffee roasted in the estate's own roastery, and tea from a named supplier or made on site from herbs of the season.
