Dutch shoppers pick own herbs in supermarket garden

Leading Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn has created the Help Yourself herb garden for the ultimate in freshness, allowing customers to take just what they need.

The Netherlands’ award-winning Albert Heijn supermarket chain recently introduced a new service for its customers – pick-your-own herb gardens. Developed with design agency studiomfd, the Help Yourself Herb Garden lets customers pick exactly what they need, from a full plant to a few sprigs. Herbs are brought in-store as soon as they are fully-grown and ready to be harvested.

The store also provides a sink for shoppers to wash their hands in after gathering the herbs. Urban farming and gardening projects are finding increasingly clever ways to use formerly disused spaces. Recent Springspottings include a Canadian foodbank that set up an aquaponics farm to help fulfill the local need for fresh produce, and a floating farm in Rotterdam’s harbor that is powered by the manure of the animals being raised there.

How else could food deserts be improved through local urban garden or farm projects?