Where It All Began

In the Limburg hills, 20 km east of Maastricht in the Netherlands, sits Lubosch Land, a food forest carefully curated by a family’s vision to contribute to the country’s agricultural transition. This concept is not a farm in the conventional sense. It is a multi-layered growing system where trees, shrubs, and herbs are all designed to work with the logic of nature rather than against it.

It was precisely this idea that brought Laura Nieboer to the hillside. At 29, she had a successful career as a petrochemical sustainability expert, sitting on the inside of the system she most wanted to change. However, Laura wanted to make a more tangible difference. Her role in the industry didn’t feel like enough of a needle mover. Through a series of talks with her father, Laura realized that she wanted to get into farming. Her father came up with the idea of creating a food forest, planting the first seed of Lubosch Land. “We wanted to contribute to the agricultural transition in our country,” says Laura. “So, we decided to bring this idea to life. In 2021, we bought 6 hectares of former dairy grassland near Ransdaal and got to work.”

The Land’s Transformation

Lubosch Land sits in one of the most traditional agricultural regions in the Netherlands, which is focused on conventional farming. While Laura started with no agricultural background, she’s built a team that is passionate and knowledgeable about regenerative farming.

Laura’s analytical mindset enabled her to ask different questions of the land and bring fresh eyes to depleted soil. Her father, with a career in multinational finance, brought the financial structure required to make the dream work. Together, they transformed the land.

The soil at Lubosch Land was close to lifeless, compacted from decades of dairy grazing. They conducted tests to assess its condition and found exactly what they feared: almost no organic layer and nothing living below the surface. Years of conventional farming had taken their toll, and it would take patience and a different approach to restore the soil.

Optimistic about the food forest approach, Laura and her father began carefully planting trees and adding compost, being careful to disturb the soil as little as possible. No tilling, no pesticides, no livestock. They let nature do the work of bringing the land back. And then they waited and watched. The patience paid off, and the results came in. “If you plant a tree now, you’ll find worms. You’ll find the eggs of other insects. You’ll find, if you’re lucky, the first mold spores,” Laura says. “If you give nature space, it takes it back.”

Lubosch Land now shows measurably improved soil structure, higher biodiversity above and below ground, more pollinators, and reduced erosion. One of the things Laura is most proud of is that mice returned. Most people wouldn’t count that as good news, but Laura does. Mice dig corridors through the soil, aerating it and allowing water to penetrate as they go. With mice came predators, and with predators came a food chain. With a food chain came the slow, unmistakable beginning of balance.

These days, Laura is focused on water retention across the land. The same year they bought the land, the Limburg hills were struck by catastrophic flooding. The "water bomb," as the region came to call it, overwhelmed the landscape and exposed just how much degraded soil can no longer hold. Laura is determined to change this. As she explains, “We can work with nature to improve water retention.”

Feeding the Community

The purpose of Lubosch Land is not only to transform the land but also to impact the community around it, creating opportunities for others to learn and causing a positive ripple effect. They do so by hosting fifteen volunteers, welcoming school visits, and building partnerships with universities to show others what a food forest is and how it works.

The farm shop serves thirty customers a day, and Laura sells directly to local restaurants. They also own their own restaurant in the largest nearby city. “We’re very proud of starting our own restaurant in the largest nearby city,” she says.

In this way, Lubosch Land operates a closed-loop model. The food forest feeds the farm shop. The farm shop feeds the restaurant, and the restaurant feeds a conversation about where food comes from and what the land that grows it can look like.

Looking to the Future

The vision for the next ten to twenty years of Lubosch Land is both ambitious and specific: “In 10–20 years, we will have a food forest that will feed around 100 people, a productive market garden supplying our own restaurant and farm shop. It will be a financially successful company, and the balance in biodiversity will be restored,” says Laura.

Laura came to Top 50 Farmers with a purpose: “I want to learn how others productively grow their farms, how they deal with specific challenges, and how we can co-develop smart harvesting equipment,” she says. She wants to share what she has found with others: that you can start a regenerative farm without agricultural experience, showing that skills from another world can carry over in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Written by Top 50 Farmers and Juliana Bonatto