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Produce Goes From Rooftop Farm To Table At Uncommon Ground
JULY 22, 2018, BY ANDREA DARLAS
CHICAGO — Above Uncommon Ground, a 2,500-square-foot rooftop farm allows the restaurant to harvest hundreds of pounds of organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. There are also a pair of beehives that produce 40-50 pounds of honey, and other things used to make specialty craft beers.
The restaurant plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the rooftop farm with community events and harvesting classes all summer long.
WGN's Andrea Darlas has more.
These Joburg Offices Now Have Farms Inside Them — And Workers Get To Harvest Lunch
Timothy Rangongo, Business Insider SA
Jul 27, 2018
Office farms are gaining traction in SA, with more businesses signing up for veggie gardens.
- One service provider of commercial gardens has installed over 250 business gardens.
- These edible gardens are not only aesthetically pleasing but are saving some establishments money, and reducing employees' stress by exposing them to nature.
Some South African office workers are picking their own herbs and vegetables for lunch, without ever leaving the office.
An organic salad can be quickly put together from lettuce, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and bell peppers for instance, and topped with lemon juice — all picked from 'office farms' as the installations are colloquially known.
Vertical gardens in SA offices with hardware and irrigation supplied by Vicinity. (Photos: Vicinity)
Edible business gardens are also taking over office rooftops, balconies and walls.
Urban Harvest, a company that sets up and maintains edible gardens, says it has already created 250 such gardens, and has many more potential customers thinking about urban farms.
Edible business gardens set up by Urban Harvest. (Photo: Urban Harvest)
Vicinity, a company that manufactures the structures for such gardens, confirms the trend.
Most of their installations are corporate-oriented. Vicinity just signed on one of the Radisson's Cape Town hotels to install a rooftop garden with edible plants.
Google South Africa's office has one such small vegetable garden on its rooftop, offering a quiet, environmentally-friendly retreat with various edible plants.
Google South Africa's rooftop garden provides on-site access to fresh herbs and vegetables. (Photos: Timothy Rangongo, Business Insider SA & @MzansiGirl, Twitter)
"A business is seen as more cutting edge and credible if it includes green practices or characteristics, such as offsetting its carbon footprint, in its work," says MD of Urban Harvest, Ben Getz.
Obtaining a favourable green-star rating is also an incentive to install an edible garden, Urban manager Timothy Kachiri tells Business Insider South Africa.
Payroll company Sage's building in the new Menlyn Maine development – which promises "to become Africa's first green city" – sports a 4-star green-star rating and features a functioning vegetable garden on the roof that provides the canteen with fresh herbs and veggies.
Sage VIP's new building in Pretoria sports a large rooftop vegetable garden. (Photos: Menlyn Maine)
Google South Africa also directs its fresh produce in-house restaurant Gogo's Shebeen.
Google SA's cool canteen, Gogo's shebeen, makes use of veggies harvested from their rooftop garden. (Photos: @Karabo_Mokgoko, Twitter)
According to a 2015 Human Spaces report, people who work in environments with natural elements report a 15% higher level of well-being, a 6% higher level of productivity, and a 15% higher level of creativity than those who work in environments devoid of nature.
Hotels and restaurants are also increasingly producing right on site.
The Westin hotel's rooftop garden in Cape Town, installed by Vertical Veg. (Photos: Vertical Veg)
A vegetable garden allows The Westin's chefs in Cape Town access to fresh, organically-grown herbs and vegetables for use in dishes promoted as having a minimal carbon footprint.
Dishes prepared by the Westin's chefs, using edible plants from the hotel's garden. (Photos: Vertical Veg)
Manager of The Culinary Table restaurant in Johannesburg, Warren Tshuma, says its garden is tied to a philosophy of "honest garden-to-table cuisine, made from scratch."
The Culinary Table's large kitchen garden and meals prepared from edible plants harvested from the garden. (Photos: Culinary Table)
The Culinary Table also saves money by sourcing ingredients from its own garden, according to Tshuma.
It takes about three days on average to install a big business garden or one for a small office space. Vertical gardens take about a day and half to erect, says Kachiri.
From Fish To Farm To Table: Busy Chef Has A Bold New Project
From Fish To Farm To Table: Busy Chef Has A Bold New Project
Chef Cara Stadler's new aquaponic greenhouse is shooting up fast and may be growing vegetables for her three restaurants by this fall.
BY MEREDITH GOAD STAFF WRITER
Chef and restaurant owner Cara Stadler is hoping to open an aquaponic greenhouse in a 55-by-60-foot, two-story building that will also house a new café and a commercial kitchen in the fall. Photo by Meredith Goad
It’s not as if Cara Stadler has nothing to do. The 30-year-old chef already has three restaurants, the newest of which – Lio – opened in Portland just last month.
Now, drivers passing by Tao Yuan in Brunswick are watching the busy chef’s next project come to life before their eyes. Five years in the making, it’s an aquaponic greenhouse in a 55-by-60-foot, two-story building that will also house a new café and a commercial kitchen to supply Stadler’s restaurants. Both Stadler and Kate Holcomb, the 31-year-old project director, say they hope the facility will open this fall.
Chef Cara Stadler left, and Project Director Kate Holcomb pose inside the aquaponic greenhouse being built in Brunswick. Staff photo by Joel Page
When it does, it will be just one of a handful of restaurants around the country that have such a facility. Stadler believes her restaurant-based project will be the first of its kind in Maine.
Aquaponics is a marriage of aquaculture and hydroponics, which is the cultivation of plants in water. Aquaponic greenhouses raise fish – in this case rainbow trout – that produce waste that fertilizes plants growing in water. The plants, in turn, filter the water for the fish. It’s a closed-loop system that sustainable agriculture groups are eager to develop.
Most aquaponics projects are either school-based, such as in Maine those at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham and the University of New England in Biddeford, or independent businesses that sell to restaurants and retailers, such as Springworks Farm in Lisbon.
Brian Filipowich, chair of the Aquaponics Association in Annandale, Virginia, said he knows only of a “small handful” of restaurants that are trying aquaponics; he thinks that more restaurants are experimenting with hydroponics. It’s hard to be sure because no good statistics exist on the number of large-scale, commercial aquaponics systems in the United States, say for wholesale or run by restaurants, he said, adding that the Farm Bill just passed by the Senate directs the USDA to start collecting more data on the subject.
Stadler believes her aquaponics facility will bring her food and transportation costs down and will shrink her carbon footprint. She intends to grow, in part, hard-to-source Asian greens and herbs. Eventually she’d like to share what she learns with other restaurateurs.
“This is all very new territory to most of the world,” Stadler said, “and people are still figuring out the systems and what works best, what gives the highest productivity.”
Stadler and Holcomb see the aquaponics greenhouse, which will be called Canopy Farms, as a community project that could become a model for others. It’s a big experiment to discover which equipment will work best and which plants will thrive in Maine, especially over the winter. They want to create something new, helpful, affordable and scalable that would work not just in a rural setting but urban areas too. Something people will actually invest in. Something other restaurants could use to feed their customers.
“This is one of the ways we can help and contribute back to what I find sometimes can be a depressing world,” Stadler said. “Ideally, we can create a system that is positive for us, positive for the future. You realize that, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much you care. If you can’t make systems financially viable, the world won’t care. So we wanted to create a green system that is financially viable.”
Filipowich says if someone like Stadler can overcome the hurdles inherent in such a project – startup and training costs, sourcing fish and maintaining fish health, and energy costs – Canopy Farms could end up making a real contribution.
“If they could get to a point where it could be replicated on a larger scale, it could be extremely useful,” he said.
What about winter?
The cost of heating a greenhouse in winter is a huge obstacle to aquaponics in colder parts of the country, like Maine, Holcomb said.
Kate Holcomb, project director, and Cara Stadler plan to use solar panels, radiant floor heating and an “energy curtain” to offset some of the effects of the long, cold Maine winter on a year-round greenhouse operation. If they can raise the money, they also hope to recapture heat from the commercial kitchen and use it to heat the greenhouse. Staff photo by Joel Page
“Sustainable agriculture doesn’t, I think, have to look one specific way,” Holcomb said. “As more and more people live in cities, as the population continues to grow, there have to be ways for people to grow food in a sustainable manner where the people are. People love local produce, and Maine has an incredible sustainable agriculture scene, but we have a long dark winter.”
The Brunswick project will fight the cold with strategies such as solar panels, radiant heat flooring and an “energy curtain” that can be used as a shade in summer or an energy-efficient curtain in winter. The biggest weapon, if they can raise enough money for it through an upcoming $25,000 Kickstarter campaign, may be the plan to recapture the heat from the commercial kitchen and café and use it to heat the greenhouse.
Stadler says the kitchen at Tao Yuan often gets so hot, the staff props open the outside door even in the middle of winter. Why waste all that energy? It’s like tossing money into the snow.
The entire building, Stadler says, is built to be “smart” about the way it uses energy. If it works, the payoffs will be big.
“Your food costs go down, and you’re getting a product that will last you twice as long because it’s picked and in your fridge,” Stadler said. “There’s no transportation. There’s no sitting in a farmers market stand for three hours before you pick it up. There’s no driving it down for two hours just to get it to the farmers market.”
Stadler and Holcomb hope to hire student interns to help run the place. They’re working on an arrangement with Harpswell Coastal Academy, and may also invite students involved with aquaponics at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.
“Once you get (the system) cycling, then the idea is that it is an ecosystem,” said Holcomb, who also works as a server at Tao Yuan, and is getting a master’s in business administration from the University of Southern Maine. “It needs to be maintained, and it needs to be closely watched because if something goes wrong, it can go wrong quickly and on a really big scale. If something is off, you could kill all your fish in a day.”
From the outside, the greenhouse – the structure, along with the energy curtain and grow lights, came from a Portland company called ArchSolar – looks almost complete. But the inside is still pretty much a shell, awaiting the arrival of the solar panels and greenhouse glass from China, while the scream of buzz saws and other equipment from construction workers on the job dampens the noise of traffic streaming by.
The next big steps will be making the fish tanks water-tight, building the grow beds, and adding plumbing, Holcomb said. The greenhouse is expected to cost about $200,000, and the café and commercial kitchen about $1 million, according to Stadler. April Robinson, the pastry chef at Tao Yuan, will own and operate the café, which will serve breakfast and lunch, a menu of pastries and modern American food.
The greenhouse will house two 4-foot-deep fish tanks, each 5-by-15 feet, plus a dozen or more 4-by-16-foot grow beds of different types. The system will use 5,000 gallons of water.
As for the fish, the plan is to use rainbow trout from a private fish hatchery. Tilapia works better, Stadler says, “but no one wants to eat tilapia. It makes me sad, but it’s a reality of our society that everyone associates tilapia with childhood fish sticks.”
“The fish is really a secondary,” she continued. “It’s a byproduct of the system. It will be a rare moment when you see trout on the menu, but you’ll see produce all the time.”
The plan is to start with plants that grow easily in an aquaponic greenhouse, and are in high demand at her restaurants – leafy greens, pea shoots and microgreens. Next, they’ll experiment with Asian herbs and vegetables. Stadler and Holcomb call this “the fun stuff.”
“I really want to try growing rice paddy herb because it grows in rice paddies, and being an aquaponic system it makes sense that that would thrive in the water,” Stadler said. “And I love rice paddy herb.”
The chef is excited to try growing wasabi and would love to have a reliable source of winged beans. “We’ve ordered them, but half of them are moldy before we even get to touch them,” she said.
Then there’s celtuce, which has a thick, asparagus-like stem topped with light green leaves.
“It’s very edible, but the outside is super, super bitter, so you need to peel off the exterior,” Stadler said. “If you don’t peel it, if you leave any of the skin on it, it will blow your palate with bitterness.”
Peel it down to the core, though, and “it’s sweet and delicious.”
ONE OF JUST A FEW
Stadler and her mother, Cecile, who is also her business partner, started talking about having their own farm to supply their restaurants years ago. It’s a model used by several other restaurants in Maine, including Miyake and Vignola Cinque Terre in Portland and Primo in Rockland. They wondered what they could do that would also be “helpful for Maine.”
Stadler mentioned the idea to Holcomb, who is her oldest friend; they went to preschool together. Holcomb had gone into agriculture and was bouncing around from farm to farm on the East Coast when Stadler was opening Tao Yuan and Bao Bao.
When the Stadlers began to focus on aquaponics, Holcomb recalled, “Cara called me and said ‘Hey, do you want to move to Maine and help me make this happen?’
It was 2013, and Holcomb was working in New York. She quickly packed up her things and moved to Maine.
“I had been organic farming in soil on a traditional farm, so for me, aquaponics was a totally new way of growing things,” Holcomb said. To get herself up to speed, Holcomb visited the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, which had an aquaponics demonstration project (it closed in 2015, unable to keep a greenhouse warm enough for winter production, according to its website), and she attended a workshop at the University of New England, where another aquaponics project is about to expand, according to Jeri Fox, an associate professor of aquaculture. Holcomb also reached out to Carey Phillips, a Bowdoin College emeritus professor of biology with an aquaponics project in South Carolina. Holcomb and Phillips collaborated on the Canopy Farms system, “but it’s much more his design,” she said.
Around the country, a few other restaurateurs have embraced the idea and are tailoring their systems to their own restaurants. In Minneapolis, Gandhi Mahal has a system that produces, according to the restaurant’s website, Malabar spinach, cilantro, hot peppers, salad greens, ginger, turmeric and curry leaf. Minneapolis winters are as tough as Maine’s, but the restaurant got around that by putting its aquaponics system in its basement. They call their cuisine “basement to table.” Page Restaurant in Sag Harbor, New York, grows produce in four aquaponic systems, including in the basement and on the walls.
BAO BAO, BUGS AND BUZZ
Stadler has always been the ambitious sort, according to her mother, the kind of person who had a 10-year plan by the time she was 16. She’s also an experimenter, most recently hosting a pop-up edible insect dinner at Bao Bao Dumpling House. Stadler said she wanted to do it because “Bugs are the future, and very much our past and present, depending on the culture.”
Food & Wine magazine named Stadler one of the country’s 10 Best New Chefs in 2015, an honor that goes to chefs age 30 or younger who are “likely to make a significant impact on the industry for years to come.” In 2016, Condé Nast Traveler listed Stadler as one of its 10 Young Chefs to Watch, a group of chefs age 30 and under who are “making outsized impressions around the world.” She’s been a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award four times, and a finalist once
Stadler says she and her mother “did really well” in the first few years of Tao Yuan, and they could have just sat back and enjoyed the ride. But they wanted to find ways to build the company, provide good jobs for employees who want to grow with the company, and give something back to the community that contributed to their success. The aquaponic greenhouse is part of that plan.
Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
Startup Farmshelf Aims To Let Restaurants, Homeowners Grow Their Own Veggies
Nicole Zelniker, Special to USA TODAY
Published: July 3, 2018
In Singapore, several groups hope to transform the urban jungle into productive farmland by growing crops on rooftops. USA Today's Elizabeth Weise visited one.
(Photo: The Associated Press)
NEW YORK – When Andrew Shearer started Farmshelf in a San Francisco garage about two years ago, he created a business that set him on the path to the forefront of urban farming.
Farmshelf sells hydroponic growing systems, bookshelf-like units that come complete with everything needed to grow herbs and vegetables indoors, from seeds and nutrients to the LED lights that provide artificial sunlight.
Because Farmshelf's concept is hydroponic – employing science to grow food indoors – it says its veggies grow much faster than they would in fields.
Shearer founded Farmshelf on the belief that everyone should be able to grow their own food. For now, the systems are being pitched to restaurants and hotels, but individual consumers and home chefs may be next.
"At the end of the day, it all comes down to empowering people to grow the best-tasting food and the most nutritious food possible," said Shearer, also the CEO.
Current customers include Beefsteak, a restaurant with three locations in Washington, D.C., that specializes in vegetable-based dishes; and the Great Northern Food Hall, a Nordic-inspired restaurant in New York's Grand Central Station.
Shearer's background isn't in farming. Most recently, it's in technology.
Shearer worked at ideas-sharing site Pinterest in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was a partner manager. At Pinterest, he said he began looking at ways to make his own food by searching for tips on Pinterest's message boards. He left to found Farmshelf in October 2015.
Now, Shearer has an office at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he can grow food and experiment with new technology.
"We drove across the country and relocated the company to New York," Shearer said. "The restaurant scene and the community are just amazing."
The effects of food insecurity on children. (Photo: Jerry Mosemak)
At Great Northern, Farmshelf's growing units are on display. Customers can see the origin of at least some of the ingredients in their meals. Chefs snip herbs and other greens from the shelves to prepare the day's meals.
"The Farmshelf team monitors our plants for us," said Jenny Pura, senior communications manager at Meyers USA, which oversees the Great Northern Food Hall. "They're great to work with because they see this as a science."
A favorite for Meyers' customers is micro-basil, which the chefs use in flatbread and some of the drinks at the Great Northern Food Hall. Pura said she often sees customers taking pictures of the Farmshelf units.
For Pura, Farmshelf matched the company's priorities when it came to sourcing food.
"We care immensely about where we get our food from," she said. "Not just sustainable, but as local as possible."
The idea of urban farming is not new. In the 1800s, Germans used urban gardens to fight food insecurity. During World War II, Americans were urged to plant Victory Gardens to supplement short supplies at home as farm production was diverted to feed soldiers, sailors and Marines.
As a startup, Farmshelf made a lot of sense, according to Barry Moltz, author and speaker on entrepreneurship. Small businesses such as Farmshelf have the advantage of low production costs and the ability to know what is happening in the community.
“People start businesses because they see a problem” they can fix, Moltz said. “They see a hole they can fill.”
The United Nations estimates that food production will need to at least double by 2050, according to a 2015 report. Plus, many households today need new sources of fresh food.
In New York City, about 15 percent of the population is what is termed as "food insecure," living in fear of running out of food or lacking access to nutritional food, according to a 2017 report. Many people who are food insecure have limited options, such as fast food, since it is cheap relative to other options, such as most organic produce.
Armed with the knowledge of how to lessen hunger with high-quality food, Farmshelf allows food to travel mere feet instead of miles on the path to consumption.
"Getting food into a city and providing high-quality food is difficult now," Shearer said.
Helping to solve an urban problem attracted investment from Urban-X, a collaboration between an automaker, BMW's Mini, and a venture capital firm interested in improving city life, Urban Us.
Farmshelf is one of seven small businesses that received support from Urban-X in 2016.
"Startups have an inherent advantage around speed and being really close to their customers," said Micah Kotch, managing director for Mini. "They're able to bring new thinking to the table."
Forget Farm To Table — This Salad Bar Harvests Your Lunch Before Your Eyes
'THIS IS THE FUTURE OF FAST CASUAL FOOD'
Forget Farm To Table — This Salad Bar Harvests Your Lunch Before Your Eyes
Israeli-Americans Liz Vaknin and Shelley Golan are revolutionizing the food industry with tasty, nutrition-dense microgreens grown right behind the counter
By DANIELLE ZIRIT - July 1, 2018
NEW YORK — When Le Cordon Bleu-educated cook Liz Vaknin worked in some of Manhattan’s most prestigious restaurant kitchens several years ago, she often had to fish inside a container of small green leaves and stems to garnish elaborate dishes.
Little did she know that the tiny shoots, also known as microgreens, would one day change her life.
“I was a steak and potatoes girl four days a week. I eat mostly microgreens now and I feel satisfied,” Vaknin tells The Times of Israel. “I think that says a lot.”
In early June, Vaknin and her business partner Shelley Golan, both Israeli-American New Yorkers who crossed paths studying at the IDC Herzliya some 10 years ago, opened the first-ever microgreen salad bar in the United States. It takes the trendy “farm to table” concept to a whole new level.
Vaknin and Golan’s revolutionary business is called Harvest2Order. Today it is a small booth located inside Brooklyn’s newest food hall, the North 3rd Street Market in Williamsburg.
Walking around the location, it is very clear that the area is a food lover's heaven: the Mast Brothers chocolate factory on one side; all-day breakfast spot Egg on the other; the popular Blue Bottle coffee shop around the corner; and many more small casual cafes on the way.
The stand itself is simple: a shiny white-tiled booth with a white counter and an iPad checkout. But the eye-catching attraction is on the back wall: seven shelves of potted plants with microgreens of different shapes and colors perfectly aligned and “tanning” under bands of pink and blue LED lights.
Vertically grown microgreens harvested from directly behind the counter at Harvest2Order salad bar in New York City. (Courtesy)
This intriguing vertical lab is not just a display: At Harvest2Order, the microgreens used in each salad are harvested on the spot, right in front of the customer’s eyes.
“It’s an experience, it’s not just getting the salad,” Vaknin says. “We brought the farm to the table. There is no bridging the gap anymore — this is the future of fast casual food. It’s the future of dining.”
Small but mighty
Although the mini plants are admittedly adorable-looking, it isn’t just a gimmick. Microgreens, Vaknin and Golan explained, carry a long list of benefits that other greens and vegetables can’t compete with.
Microgreens are in fact the shoots of salad vegetables such as arugula, Swiss chard, mustard, beetroot, carrots and others picked just after the first leaves have developed and long before they become fully grown vegetables.
The main advantage of consuming microgreens is the nutritional value they provide: These small leaves can be 40 times more nutritious than their fully matured counterparts, the women claim.
“Every little green is going to be a full stem of kale, or a full carrot,” Golan says, picking up a small pot from the shelf behind her.
“These are all going to be carrots,” she continues, gathering a few stems between her thumb and index finger. “So this a bushel of carrots worth of nutrition.”
And here lies the secret of microgreens: If one tiny stem is a whole vegetable worth of nutrition, then eating only a small handful can boost one’s energy dramatically without a too-full feeling, say the women.
Shelley Golan, left, and Liz Vaknin, owners of Harvest2Order microgreen salad bar in New York City. (Courtesy)
“I always say that microgreens are the Clark Kent of superfoods,” Golan tells the Times of Israel. “Because they are standing in plain sight. They are just vegetables — it’s a carrot, it’s a radish, it’s a broccoli, it’s all of those things. If you just harvest them earlier, they become a superfood. But they are nothing new.”
Along with the nutritional advantages, growing microgreens as opposed to full vegetables can make for a reduction of up to 98% less water and waste.
Microgreens are the Clark Kent of superfoods, because they are standing in plain sight. If you just harvest them earlier, they become a superfood
The microgreens that Vaknin and Golan are using at Harvest2Order are grown hydroponically. Without soil, they are planted in a sterile white substrate made of wood pulp that is pumped in liquid form into the small trays and then drenched in nutrient-dense water.
“So that creates a base for the roots of the plant to anchor into the substrate and then the nutrient-dense water feeds the roots,” Golan explains, holding a pot in her hand. “These are grown in the most efficient way which is using a combination of natural sunlight and also LEDs. It is the most energy-efficient way to grow things.”
“If you go to a farm in Long Island or out somewhere rural, there are a lot of fields. So they are growing bigger vegetables and fruits and things like that,” Vaknin says. “A lot of the work with microgreens is being done with urban farmers. It’s a small crop. They grow quickly, are suitable for indoor vertical farming, and probably do better in indoor vertical than traditional agricultural practices.”
Liz Vaknin in front of the microgreens growing at her new salad bar, Harvest2Order in New York City. (Courtesy)
Surprisingly, not only are these greens packed with nutrients, they are also packed with flavor.
“Here, try the tangerine microgreen,” Vaknin says, as Golan picks a single stem and hands it over.
The thin light green leaf does not go unnoticed by one’s palate. It provides an instant burst of citrus flavor, much like biting into an orange.
“If I harvested you a bowl of arugula microgreens and you tried to eat it, your mouth would be on fire in three seconds,” Vaknin says. “Because arugula tastes like pepper, it’s very strong.”
There are currently two toasted sandwiches and four salads on the Harvest2Order menu. Each contain a generous amount of decadent seasonal toppings, ranging from crunchy colorful watermelon radishes to fried cauliflower florets seasoned with a homemade “everything bagel” mix. There are also proteins, such as herb roasted chicken, and dressings change seasonally. Salads range from $10 to $14, including protein, and the sandwiches are $14.
Many of the toppings are clearly inspired by tastes found in Israel.
“You can take the women out of the Middle East, but you can’t take the Middle East out of the women,” they say, laughing almost in unison.
Microgreens are an unsung superfood, but are now the star at Harvest2Order. (Courtesy)
The pair have other innovations in store for salad eaters. “We don’t toss our salads here,” Vaknin says. “It’s not like every other salad — you don’t need to chop it, you don’t need to toss it, because the surface area ratio for these microgreens is a lot smaller, so if you drizzle the dressing, it gets in everything.”
A well kept secret
If microgreens are such a revolutionary food, the question remains: Why don’t we hear about them more often, and why can’t we order them at any other salad joint?
According to the Harvest2Order duo, chefs have been aware of microgreens at least since the 1990s and have been using them in restaurants. But still, the mainstream consumer has been kept in the dark.
Golan and Vaknin came across the superfood about two years ago, while running their five-year-old sustainable food branding company, Our Name is Farm. They started working with a New York City-based agriculture collective and started getting more exposure to urban-grown products.
“That’s kind of where we found out about microgreens, not just as this frivolous garnish that I would use when I was working at Bouley, but as a source of real sustenance, the main player in a meal,” Vaknin says.
Quickly enough, the two developed what they describe as an addiction to microgreens and became frustrated when they couldn’t find them at any place that serves salad.
Salads need not be tossed, and consumers need not worry about finding a pile of boring, soggy leaves at the bottom of their salads at Harvest2Order microgreen salad bar in New York City. (Courtesy)
“Basically I think that the reason why it hasn’t been done on a mass scale so far is because it’s very inaccessible price-wise,” Vaknin says. “The reason for that is because supply needs to meet demand. There is no demand, so there is no supply.”
The little supply that exists, she adds, is highly sought after because “the few people that know about it are addicted. They want a lot and they are willing to pay.”
“If you go to Whole Foods right now, two blocks away, you can get them. They are grown in Bushwick, they are great, they are delicious, but they are also $6 for a portion,” Vaknin goes on. “So it’s kind of hard to justify that when you are shopping for home and you can get a big thing of local greens that will feed you for a few meals and that’s $4.”
A wave of interest?
In the 16 months since Vaknin and Golan have begun working on their innovative concept, more companies have begun using microgreens and are giving them a place in the spotlight.
“We think there is a wave of interest in the environment, in our food security, in where our food is coming from, in how we are farming, how we are eating our food,” Golan says. “So this wave of interest and alternative agriculture is bringing renewed enthusiasm for vertical agriculture, urban agriculture, and this is the easiest thing to grow in that kind of environment.”
In a city where the wellness trend has boomed over the past few years, it seems only logical that microgreens are the next step.
Shelley Golan, left, and Liz Vaknin, serve a customer at Harvest2Order microgreen salad bar in New York City. (Courtesy)
“For me, microgreens are following the same trajectory that truffles are following,” Vakin adds. “There was a time when truffles were considered this elite product that you couldn’t touch, that weren’t in home kitchens, that nobody knew how to use, and today, everybody and their sister is using truffle oil, truffle salt, you name it.”
Still one main difference remains, Golan points out: Truffles are still a luxury product and microgreens are not.
“They are just vegetables,” she said. “They have been marketed as a luxury product and our angle is that it should be a product for the mainstream consumer and demand should be built so that it could be readily available.”
A well-rooted partnership
When asked about their partnership, Golan and Vaknin do not hesitate to call it a “marriage.”
“We have a written contract that is recognized by the government, and as anyone who is married will tell you — marriages are a lot of work,” Golan says.
Shelley Golan, left, and Liz Vaknin, owners of Harvest2Order microgreen salad bar in New York City. (Courtesy)
“Till death do us part. Literally, in this industry,” Vaknin adds. With their new endeavor, it is safe to say that the two diminutive women in their late 20s are becoming a true power couple.
“A lot of times people can underestimate us because we are these small women, we look young,” Golan tells The Times of Israel. “But one of the reasons we have been successful is because we keep on overturning people’s expectations and exceeding them.”
“The fact that our parents are both Israeli-Moroccan helps a lot,” Vaknin also points out. “I don’t really need to explain to Shelley why I have to go to Shabbat dinner every Friday. She knows. She comes from that environment, she understands.”
Liz Vaknin cuts microgreen with a pair of scissors at her restaurant Harvest2Order in New York City. (Courtesy)
Together, they hope to engage an audience and raise awareness of the benefits of microgreens in order to build demand from the ground up. The dream, they said, is to someday have their own urban farm.
When lunchtime rings in at the North 3rd Street Market, the first customers of the day walk up to the booth, appearing intrigued.
“Would you like to know what’s going on?” Golan asks.
As one woman orders her salad, Vaknin turns to the illuminated shelf and grabs a pot of reddish microgreens, which she cuts with scissors above a cardboard box. Slowly, she drops in the various colorful toppings, scooping them out of metal containers in front of her.
“Here you go,” she smiles, sliding the box with its clear plastic lid across the counter. “Enjoy.”
Dutch Restaurant Has Rooftop Greenhouse With LED-Lighting
Dutch Restaurant Has Rooftop Greenhouse With LED-Lighting
APR 23, 2018
CONTENT SOURCED FROM HORTIDAILY
In the center of Utrecht, within a stone's throw from the Central Station - a new restaurant has opened. 'The Green House' proclaimed in large letters above the entrance. The restaurant, opening to the public on April 9, did not get that name for nothing. A greenhouse of 85 m2 has been built on top of the restaurant, in which various vegetables and herbs are grown to be processed in a number of delicious dishes.
Always fresh
The vegetables and herbs are delivered in half cultivated state and grow further in the greenhouse. After harvest, new trays of herbs are delivered by the Amsterdam company Hrbs, which invented the concept.
The used trays are returned to the open garden of nursery Lindenhoff where they are turned into compost, to be used for growing crops. Tessa Duste from Hrbs: "The carts with the plants have been specially converted for this project. The boxes are placed in trays full of water. The part in between is filled with capillary fibers which suck up the water in the substrate."
LED lighting
Parus Europe supplied the carts and lighting for the greenhouse. Sandro van Kouteren: "We supplied two different types of lighting. The carts are lighted by light which is to the eye white, sufficient for growing crops but not powerful enough for proper cultivation. And we are not lighting up the entire center of Utrecht."
"In the top layers, we have installed color adjustable, dimmable lighting, so that they have a bit of control over the length and blossoming of the crop."
Circular
Tessa: "We always clean the trays when the plants are harvested. The trays are made of recycled plastic, which we can use at least a 100 times and probably more. When they break eventually, we use them in the production of new trays."
In this way, Hrbs has done its utmost to make The Green House circular. "There are always ways to improve. For other customers, we are currently engaged in processing herbs which have not been used to make new products, such as syrup."
For more information:
Hrbs
Tessa Duste
tessa@hrbs.com
www.hrbs.com
Urban Food From Vertical Farming
Urban Food From Vertical Farming
May 23, 2018, CORDIS
Credit: diephotodesigner.de
Your local supermarket and favourite restaurant could soon be growing their own food, thanks to an EU-funded project that has completely redesigned the food supply chain to develop the concept of in-store farming.
Our busy, modern lives demand that fresh produce be available 365 days a year, even though some varieties may only be seasonal and/or produced on the other side of the world. The result is a food system centred on quantity, low prices and efficiency rather than on quality, sustainability and traceability.
The EU-funded INFARM (The vertical farming revolution, urban Farming as a Service) project reflects a growing desire for highly nutritious locally grown food, which is free of herbicides and pesticides and addresses the lack of accountability in the current food system. "By growing produce directly where people eat and live, we can cut out the lengthy supply chain, significantly reduce food waste, offer nutrient-dense food without any chemical pesticides and improve the environmental 'foodprint' of our plants," says the INFARM's Chief Technical Officer and co-founder, Guy Galonska.
The answer lies in vertical farming, which grows food in vertically stacked layers under carefully controlled conditions, using hydroponics and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that mimic sunlight. INFARM takes the concept a step further by employing its smart modular farming units throughout the city "Rather than asking ourselves how to fix the deficiencies in the current supply chain, we wanted to redesign the entire chain from start to finish; Instead of building large-scale farms outside of the city, optimising on a specific yield, and then distributing the produce, we decided it would be more effective to distribute the farms themselves and farm directly where people live and eat," Galonska explains.
Use of technology
Each farming unit is its own individual ecosystem, creating the exact environment for plants to flourish. By developing the optimal light spectrum, temperature, pH, and nutrients researchers can ensure the best possible flavour, colour and nutritional quality for each plant, whether it be rocket from Provence, Mexican tarragon or Moroccan mint.
The distributed farms are connected by INFARM's central farming platform, creating a first of its kind farming network: "Each farm acts as a data pipeline, sending information on plant growth to our platform 24/7 allowing it to learn, adjust and optimise." A matrix of sensors collects and record data, enabling researchers to remotely optimise the growth of the plants in real-time. This information is also fed into the central farming platform, ensuring its continual development and improvement.
The design of the growing trays mimics the petal pattern of the sunflower, which represents the most efficient arrangement of space in nature. The tray moves plants from the centre to the outer perimeter according to their size and growth. Young seedlings are placed in the centre of the spiral and are harvested from the outside when matured. This design allows fresh produce to be harvested each day at a significantly higher output than comparable technologies.
Supply chain reduced
INFARM is now operating more than 50 farms across Berlin in supermarket aisles, restaurant kitchens and distribution warehouses. In addition to the in-store farms, INFARM has successfully installed and activated a large-scale seedling plant and logistical support system that allows the continued, successful operation of all farming units.
These results are the first step towards creating an urban farming network in Berlin that will ultimately make the city more self-sufficient in its food production. According to Galonska: "With our system, we have completely reduced the food supply chain, as our produce is grown in the heart of the city, often directly at points-of-sale. Thus, customers can purchase fresh produce, minutes after being picked, thereby retaining all its original nutritional qualities, which are lost when the produce is transported and refrigerated."
Those benefiting from the work of INFARM range from small grocers to global retail conglomerates and governments interested in water conservation, food security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Galonska concludes, "INFARM's innovative business model has attracted major interest and I believe that our success will serve as proof, to both aspiring entrepreneurs and established companies, that going 'green' can be profitable and sustainable."
Explore further: Computer-controlled 'greenhouses' in kitchens grow fresher, healthier produce
Provided by: CORDIS
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-05-urban-food-vertical-farming.html#jCp
Why You Should Eat Dockery's Shipping Container-Grown Greens
Why You Should Eat Dockery's Shipping Container-Grown Greens
From Container to Table
Posted by Mary Scott Hardaway May 10, 2018
Tiger Corner Farms' aeroponic farming systems prove that eating farm to table is not some halcyon, hippie dream. In fact, TCF, local farmers Vertical Roots, and Dockery's on Daniel Island take the dream to an even sweeter reality. They provide diners with container-to-table leafy greens, grown a stone's throw from the restaurant's dining room.
Last night at Lowcountry Local First's May mixer, LLF members and first-timers were treated to the coolest science fair this side of sixth grade. With Dockery's in-house brews flowing, mixers mingled with Tiger Corner Farms, Vertical Roots, and Boxcar Central — the software development company that provides the integrated platform sensors, controllers, and business software to the indoor farming market — employees. The lettuce that Dockery's uses in their salads, from arugula to butter lettuce, is grown by Vertical Roots in TCF containers run by Boxcar Central software. Pretty neat, huh?
We first learned about (and geeked out over) TCF last spring when we wrote an article on the aeroponic container farms for our Dirt issue. TCF general manager Stefanie Swackhamer, a former Latin teacher lacking a traditional ag background but possessing some serious business savvy, told us then that the end goal of creating and selling these containers is that a customer — be it a restaurant, a University, a hospital, or maybe even just a family — would ask "how do we grow blank?"
And Swackhamer could answer with "here's the framework, if you want bok choy you need to use this light integral, for arugula set these CO2 levels.' We're taking the automation of an algorithm and breaking it down."
With three local companies working so symbiotically, producing fresh produce for a new, local restaurant, you've got a new incentive to visit Daniel Island. Years from now, you'll be able to say you witnessed the future of farming at its nascence. And you'll get to sip on some pretty solid brews, too.
In Orlando Florida, A Step Beyond Farm-to-Table
In Orlando, A Step Beyond Farm-to-Table
Orlando World Center Marriott's new hydroponic garden doubles as an event centerpiece
by Leo Jakobson | May 03, 2018
Having an herb and produce garden on site is not exactly new in the hotel world, but the Orlando World Center Marriott is doing it on a grander scale than most.
The world's largest Marriott has installed a state of the art hydroponic vegetable garden near the hotel's main kitchen, growing produce for the tables of its nine restaurants and 450,000 square feet of meeting space.
The 2,000-square-foot, multi-tiered, and illuminated HyCube modular garden, which grows plants in a liquid nutrient solution rather than dirt, does double duty as the centerpiece of a new event space, the Harvest Terrace, which can host groups of up to 250, or 750 by utilizing the new adjacent restaurant, Latitude & Longitude.
Able to produce 100,000 heads of lettuce and 13,000 pounds of herbs and greens every year, the first hotel-installed HyCube will produce greens ranging from baby spinach and herbs to arugula and edible flowers that are non-GMO, pesticide free, and available year-round. The HyCube is more than a growing rack -- it's essentially a micro-environment controlled for air and water quality, as well as ideal temperature, humidity, and light conditions. It uses 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods.
"With high consumer demand for clean foods and farm-to-table local sourcing, the HyCube takes it to the highest possible freshness and purity by growing greens hydroponically right on-site," says Dr. Cristian Toma, CEO of HyCube developer Eco Convergence Group. "With high consumer demand for clean foods and farm-to-table local sourcing, the HyCube takes it to the highest possible freshness and purity by growing greens hydroponically right on-site. Chefs can then pick their produce within steps from the kitchen where the food is being prepared and plated."
Along with supplying the hotel's chefs and bartenders, the HyCube will produce fresh green drinks and probiotic drinks, as well as purified water that will be bottled and offered in the property's Central Pantry store.
In addition to the HyCube's "pick-to-plate" greens, Eco Convergence Group's local farms will provide a more traditional source of farm-to-table produce for the World Center Marriott's dining outlets and event kitchens.
HyCube Hydroponic System Unveiled At Orlando World Center Marriott
HyCube Hydroponic System Unveiled At Orlando World Center Marriott
The world's first HyCube, a structure that grows produce hydroponically in a controlled environment, was unveiled at the Orlando World Center Marriott. (Lauren Delgado / Orlando Sentinel)
Lauren Delgado Contact Reporter
Orlando Sentinel Food Reporter
Chef Eric Martinez’s excitement was palpable as he gazed at the 1,500-square-foot glass and metal structure called a HyCube in front of him.
Inside were shelves of vegetables and herbs. Below the plants is a hydroponic system devoid of soil. Above, pink LED grow lights. Scientists gowned in lab coats and shoe coverings chatted in a group nearby.
Martinez, the executive chef for the Orlando World Center Marriott, can be cooking with ramps 40 days after he requests them from those scientists.
“It’s not like I have to worry about the time frame,” Martinez said of the trendy seasonal leek-like vegetable.
The HyCube was unveiled on the Harvest Terrace at the hotel on Thursday by the Eco Convergence Group, which is working to build the system at other hotels and restaurants.
Shelves of produce are grown under pink LED lights that mimic the red and blue spectrums plants need to grow. (Lauren Delgado / Orlando Sentinel)
The Marriott’s HyCube can hold between 15,000 and 25,000 plants on its vertical shelving towers. The plants are grown in a soil-free, contaminate-free and pest-free environment that also offers filtered air and water.
Thanks to a recirculating water system, the HyCube uses 90 percent less water than traditional farming.
Diners are becoming more conscientious of where there food comes from and how it’s grown, Martinez said, citing inquiries over organic, pesticide-free, non-GMO food in particular.
“We’re now able to give it to all of our guests,” he said.
The produce will be used at the hotel’s nine restaurants including its newest eatery, Latitude & Longitude, which has a view of the HyCube.
“It’ll be one of the attractions of this attraction-filled city,” said Cristian Toma, the CEO of Eco Convergence Group.
The HyCube Vertical Farm Grows More Produce With Less Space And Energy, And Also looks Super Cool
Cristian Toma, co-founder of Orlando-based Eco Convergence Group, hands me a pair of shoe coverings, a hair net, and a white lab coat prior to entering the HyCube – a 2,000-square-foot self-contained hydroponics box situated on the sprawling grounds of the Orlando World Center Marriott.
The HyCube Vertical Farm Grows More Produce With Less Space And Energy, And Also looks Super Cool
Posted By Faiyaz Kara, Orlando Weekly’s food writer on Thu, Apr 19, 2018
The HyCube™ Faiyaz Kara
Cristian Toma, co-founder of Orlando-based Eco Convergence Group, hands me a pair of shoe coverings, a hair net, and a white lab coat prior to entering the HyCube – a 2,000-square-foot self-contained hydroponics box situated on the sprawling grounds of the Orlando World Center Marriott.
We stand like irradiated victims of fallout under the vents of a mounted air conditioning unit for an "air wash," then step through the invisible wall and into a gleaming white room in full view of 21 LED-illuminated towers stacked with leafy greens.
It's all an effort to keep contaminants out of the ultra-hygienic environment, where everything from temperature and humidity to light intensity and nutrient recipes is strictly controlled to create ideal plant-growing conditions.
A row of Newham lettuce Faiyaz Kara
This is vertical farming, the hottest trend in hyperlocal horticulture and one that's seen traction in larger urban centers because of its sunless, soilless, indoor-friendly, year-round approach.
In a world where the need to grow upward rather than outward becomes increasingly crucial, vertical farms level up by maximizing growth space and plant output, allowing for produce to be grown anywhere where demand lies. Plus, they do so in sustainable fashion and without the added costs and inefficiencies of food transportation.
With the door to the hotel's main restaurant – Latitude & Longitude – situated just outside the entrance to HyCube, the carbon footprint is practically negligible.
"We call it pick to plate," says Toma, "and this HyCube installation will cover most, if not all, of the hotel's needs for lettuce. We're talking well over 100,000 heads of lettuce being produced here per year, and 13,000 pounds of herbs, greens, and edible flowers."
At any time, the vertical stacks host between 15,000 and 25,000 plants depending on the variety, not counting microgreens and baby leaf greens, all the while consuming less water and using less space than conventional outdoor and greenhouse farming.
Produce cultivated through vertical farming methods not only has shorter crop cycles, but year-round crop cycles. Because temperature, humidity, light and nutrient requirements are consistently met, crops normally limited to specific growing seasons or regions can be grown throughout the year.
Seasonality is a non-factor for Latitude & Longitude. Rather, crop selection is based entirely on restaurant needs and chefs' menu plans.
Linear GreenPower LED light modules Eco Convergence Group
ECG claims the locally grown produce is non-GMO, fresher, and has higher nutritional value than conventionally grown vegetables as their methods don't require pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, hormones, or antibiotics.
An automated nutrient leaching system pumps a proprietary solution of more than 10 nutrients to feed the plants, and does so without discharging any waste. The HyCube's recirculating hydroponic systems use less than two gallons of water to produce one fully grown head of lettuce. By comparison, conventional lettuce farming uses an average of 12 gallons.
Cristian Toma (R) leads a group through the HyCube™ facility Faiyaz Kara
Toma, a scientist and engineer in the biomedical industry, and his late business partner, Cristian Ivanescu – an engineer in the semiconductor field who passed away in December of last year – used their experiential knowledge when founding ECG and developing HyCube. "We combined semiconductor cleanroom environment technology related to climate and temperature control with plant science," says Toma. "Plus we have some proprietary nutrient solutions and a cultivation management aspect designed to maximize nutrient uptake by the plants."
All the parameters that are ideal for plant cultivation are set and monitored in a data-driven production system which, Toma says, makes for happy plants. "Our plants are happy and when they're happy, they eat a lot and when they eat a lot, they grow."
All aspects of HyCube's™ environment are closely monitored Faiyaz Kara
The more than 500 linear GreenPower LED light modules, for example, only emit blue and red light as plants absorb and use only those colors of the spectrum to grow.
"It's one way we maximize the energy consumption — by optimizing the light spectrum," says Toma. "We know how to handle control environments and clean rooms and we applied that knowledge to our installation. Now we have a patent pending design of both the rack system and the waterflow system."
So, why vertical farming? For one thing, people need to be fed. With the world's population expected to near 10 billion people by 2050, more than 6.5 billion of whom will live in urban areas, vertical farming's flexible, modular, space-saving set-up isn't just attractive, it's necessary.
The world's first commercial vertical farm – Sky Greens – opened in land-scarce, densely populated Singapore in 2012, and they've sprouted up all over the world since then, from food deserts to Arabian deserts.
But beyond the need to feed, the consumer trend toward clean eating has played a factor in the rise of vertical farms.
"More and more we find guests asking us 'How green is your hotel?' 'How safe is your food?' 'Where is your food coming from?'" says Toma. "Many hotels are moving towards local for various reasons, but this is the most local you can get. From picking a head of lettuce to plating it, it can be just a couple of hours or less, so this is the freshest, cleanest, and safest option you can have."
The time from pick to plate can be two hours or less. Faiyaz Kara
The 2,000-square-foot Center-to-Table Gardens inside the Orange County Convention Center utilizes vertical farming with 81 towers resembling poles, each with 44 planting spots. The yield is more than 80,000 plants annually, which James Katurakes, executive chef of Centerplate, utilizes as part of the convention center's food program.
Epcot's Living With the Land attraction has been showcasing the benefits of hydroponics (of which vertical growing systems play a part) at its four greenhouses for more than a decade. The convergence of entertainment, technology, education, horticulture and gastronomy is intentional, as much of the produce grown in the pavilion winds up on the plates at the Garden Grill and Sunshine Seasons restaurants inside the park.
Of course, biowalls, vertical gardens, garden walls and herb walls have been fixtures at many higher-end restaurants (Prato and Boca employ them locally), but the HyCube's patent pending technology, architectural punch and visual signature sets it apart.
"The HyCube offers five to six times the plant production volume than the towers at the convention center in roughly the same square footage," Toma says. "It also provides a more equal ecosystem for the plants, each level receiving uniform light and nutrients which are constantly monitored. At the convention center, the plants at the bottom receive less light versus those at the top. Also, each of the 80 towers at the convention center must be constantly checked, which is very laborious. We offer more grow space with just one-tenth of the labor required to operate the system.
"Furthermore, the HyCube uses only a handful of pumps to irrigate all the plants, versus 80 pumps for the tower gardens at the convention center.
"Harvesting plants in the HyCube is much cleaner, as plant roots are immediately pulled out of the growing system upon harvesting with virtually no debris left behind. In the Tower Garden, root balls are left behind inside the system, leading to further cleaning down the line. This difference leads to a much cleaner system, and consequently a much cleaner product, with less chance for plant-borne disease."
In a highly competitive hotel market, HyCube, which came at a cost of well over $1 million, poses as a differentiator for Marriott. There's even a dining space built specifically for special chef's table-style dinners where hotel guests can enjoy the "garden" view.
HyCube's™ dining event space Faiyaz Kara
"We're on a very high-end property," says Toma, "and for hotels, [aesthetics] matter a lot. HyCube's architectural value and the statement it makes, especially with the lighting at night, underscores the effect it has on the hotel's guests."
Which means other high-end hotel properties will likely look at the benefits of vertical farming and follow suit.
"We have an aggressive rollout plan in the hospitality industry, and we're going to make some announcements very soon, " says Toma. "We have quite a few projects in the works, so the idea is definitely taking off."
No doubt. For HyCube, and urban farming in general, the future's certainly looking up.
For more information, visit ecghydro.com.
Growth Industry
Growth Industry
Photo: Buck Ennis
Mission Chinese grows its own mushrooms in its Lower East Side restaurant—without doing any work. The eatery’s staff does not have to add water or worry about sunlight. Those tasks are done remotely by Smallhold, a company in Brooklyn that provides farming modules and manages growing conditions with custom tech.
“It’s a passive unit as far as restaurants are concerned,” said Adam DeMartino, co-founder, and COO of Smallhold. “We control the humidity, carbon dioxide, temperature and other parameters in the mini-farms through our web interface. So a week after a bag of mushrooms at the fruiting stage is put into the modules, restaurants get fresh produce ready to be harvested and eaten.”
Smallhold’s customizable mini farms start at $3,000 for a 6-foot-tall unit that’s 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. The mini-farm produce 20 to 30 pounds of mushrooms per week.
“Not every restaurant in New York City has the space to do something like this, but there’s value in having customers see their food being grown fresh,” said DeMartino, who also is setting up mini-farms at Whole Foods stores in Gowanus and Bridgewater, N.J. “Local produce is more desired now, and mushrooms are in demand as more people are health-conscious and turning vegan. That demand is more than we can handle right now.”
A version of this article appears in the March 26, 2018, print issue of Crain's New York Business.
Dubai Chef Offers Tours of His Greenhouse
Buenaventura grows several different kinds of lettuce, a range of herbs, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and edible flowers in a space that can’t be much bigger than 40 square metres.
Dubai Chef Offers Tours of His Greenhouse
UAE restaurant Cuisinero Uno has begun to grow its own organic vegetables. Gather around and join the fun at this urban farm
March 1, 2018
Keith J Fernandez, Group Editor - GulfNews.Com
John Martho Buenaventura shows off his baby eggplant with all the pride of a father. “I’m so happy,” he trills, talking to Gulf News tabloid!on the deck outside his second-floor restaurant at Dubai’s Business Bay. “Come back in two weeks and we’ll have a lovely crop!”
Rather improbably, we’re standing in a greenhouse bang in the middle of a dense cluster of high rises, in a very Dubai take on the heightened trend for organic produce and locavore eating. “A lot of people have been growing their own food, but we’re the first restaurant to actually do so on our terrace,” he says.
Buenaventura grows several different kinds of lettuce, a range of herbs, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and edible flowers in a space that can’t be much bigger than 40 square metres. The results are served in his modern tapas restaurant Cuisinero Uno at the Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay.
Diners can tour the greenhouse anytime. Until March 9, as part of Dubai Food Festival, the restaurant is hosting a tour and tasting session each Friday. Interested visitors can take part in an experiential planting session and learn how to make healthy smoothies and mocktails — and taste some of this food. We loved the fantastic burratini salad with homegrown cherry tomatoes — the tomatoes juicy, fresh and sharp, the basil nice and peppery.
“My food costs have gone down between 3 and 5 percent, and the food tastes better because it’s locally sourced and organic,” Buenaventura tells me. The volumes from his terrace farm are nowhere near enough to sustain the restaurant, but as he says, at least he’s doing something to create a greener world and be sustainable. “In our own small way, we want to do a farm-to-table experience and we want to showcase that you don’t have to spend a lot of money for good food.”
And although he faced high installation and set-up costs for this urban farm, these will be amortised over time. He is now also experimenting with making his own compost.
The greenhouse uses a combination of hydroponics and aquaponics. The former is simply growing plants in water and is largely responsible for the spurt in locally grown produce now available in UAE supermarkets. Aquaponics is a system of aquaculture, where plants live off used water from aquariums. The plant beds subsequently purify the water, which loops back into the fish tanks. Nutrients are automatically added as required.
In March last year, Gulf News reported how the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment has prioritised the use of hydroponic technology on farms as part of its food security strategy. The number of greenhouses in the country has grown from 50 in 2009 to over 1,000 in 2016, official figures show.
Buenaventura wants to take that one step further. He hopes to inspire similar projects and seed a discussion about sustainable habits. “The UAE is a hot country and not a lot of crops grow here. But if it was mandated by the government that all buildings in Dubai had to dedicate one floor to vertical farming, nobody would go hungry,” he says. “What do we eat in Dubai? Tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, lemon, aubergine — we spend a lot of money on those, but we can grow these ourselves.”
He acknowledges that apartment residents won’t achieve the volumes needed to feed their families with a small balcony garden, but he says it’s a viable business model for those looking at alternative sources of income. “In a bigger set-up, like a grow truck — about the size of a trailer truck — you can grow 3,000 heads of organic lettuce in a month with hydroponics, which shortens the grow time by up to 30 per cent. So that’s a good business.”
For the moment, Buenaventura is happy to be making a difference in his own small way.
Microfarm Startup Wins Pitch Competition
Microfarm Startup Wins Pitch Competition
Mike Platania February 22, 2018
Two food-based startups won a total of $11,000 Tuesday night at Randolph-Macon College. (Mike Platania)
A UVA-born startup focused on water-based gardening is set to sow more seeds after taking home $10,000 in a pitch competition this week.
Charlottesville-based Babylon Micro-Farms, which makes a Keurig-like appliance for growing produce, won Dominion Energy Innovation Center’s 2018 Pitch Competition, held Tuesday at Randolph Macon College.
Startups pitched to a panel of judges that included Virginia BioTechnology Research Park president and CEO Carrie Roth and Startup Virginia executive director Bryan Bostic. The $10,000 prize was provided by the center, an Ashland-based office and coworking space for startups.
Founded in 2017, Babylon makes a “micro-farm,” which grows produce through hydroponics, a gardening method using nutrient-rich water instead of soil as a base to grow plants. Babylon has set up micro-farms in some Charlottesville eateries and UVA dining halls.
Other finalists were TMI Consulting, a Richmond-based firm focused on diversity in workplaces, and AnswersNow, an online service connecting parents of autistic children with therapists. AnswersNow was part of Richmond-based accelerator Lighthouse Labs’ 2017 class.
In addition to the startup competition, three R-MC students also pitched for a $1,000 prize, provided by the college’s The Edge Career Center.
Veg Head Foods, a vegan food truck concept by R-MC senior Sheridan Skurupey, won the student competition, beating out tutoring service Meta Language and Northern Virginia United FC, a semi-professional soccer team.
The competition was the second startup pitch contest in the region in recent months.
In November, Capital One held a competition for Lighthouse Labs’ latest class at its West Creek campus. RoundTrip, a non-emergency medical transportation company, won the $5,000 prize. A few weeks later, RoundTrip went live in the Richmond market.
Restaurants Are Installing Their Own Mini Indoor Farms To Grow Mushrooms
Restaurants Are Installing Their Own Mini Indoor Farms To Grow Mushrooms
BY AIMEE LUTKIN
January 29, 2018
A company called Smallhold is changing how restaurants procure produce. They've developed a hydroponic system that can be installed to suit most kitchen spaces, or even as an aesthetic addition to the dining room. Inside these glowing blue shelves are mushrooms, whose health and growth is monitored by technology at Smallhold's headquarters. Vogue interviewed the company's founders, Andrew Carter and Adam DeMartino.
Carter and DeMartino are based in Brooklyn, in a deliberately urban environment. They're interested in changing the supply chain for cities and believe they can start a movement towards sustainable food production that eliminates some of the issues associated with transport. After meeting as roommates in college, they went their separate ways. Carter started experimenting with growing mushrooms in basements and other spaces he could find in the city. He started building out a shipping container as a larger mushroom farm; after showing his work to DeMartino, they decided to go into business together.
The "hardware" of the mushroom grow boxes, or "fruit chambers," are just one part of the equation. Temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels, airflow, and light exposure are all monitored with sensors and tiny cameras inside. Smallhold can check in to see how their shrooms are doing from their laptop anywhere, which makes it easier on the restaurants where they're installed. No one has to become a champion mushroom farmer overnight.
Even the material the mushrooms grow in is sustainable. It's a substrate made from recycled materials, like sawdust, coffee grounds, or wheat berries. The mushrooms mature in a Smallhold facility before being brought to their new home in a restaurant's fruit chamber. A few days later, the guys come by and help with the harvest. Mushrooms have a relatively short shelf life after they're harvested, so making their transport part of their growth cycle means having the freshest product possible at hand.
Danny Bowien is the chef and owner of Mission Chinese Food, which proudly features a fruit chamber. Having so many fresh mushrooms to hand has even changed his menu. He now has a mushroom jerky option to top fried rice—before it was beef. That probably makes local vegans happy, and the fruit chamber itself has become part of the restaurant's look.
“A lot of people think it is art,” said Bowien. “It doesn’t look like anything you’d see in any other Chinese restaurant.”
Smallhold is a great example of how hydroponic growing can be incorporated into every meal; according to their website, they've also started to offer fresh greens and herbs as part of their mini-farms. Soon, indoor farms could be adding flavor to every dish.
Where Mushrooms Grow Just a Few Feet From The Table
Where Mushrooms Grow Just a Few Feet From The Table
A Brooklyn food-tech startup, Smallhold, puts its "mini-farms" right in the restaurant where they'll be served
By DAN CALLAHAN - January 12, 2018
The company's blue-oyster mushrooms, small but flavorful (All photos courtesy of Smallhold)
In the drive for the absolutely freshest possible ingredients, the farm-to-table movement has reached this point: a Bushwick company is growing crops inside the restaurants they supply.
The company is Smallhold, a distributed farm startup, Its first product is the mushroom, which is being grown in two city restaurants–Bunker in Bushwick and Mission Chinese Food in Manhattan–that lease small, refrigerator-sized units controlled by Smallhold from its headquarters. “There is demand for extreme freshness, the freshest possible,” said Andrew Carter, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “The result is the mushrooms look better and are better nutritionally.”
Call it the vegan version of the lobster tank.
Carter is part of the vertical-farming movement, away from large industrial farms to smaller operations that don’t require a lot of land. After graduating from the University of Vermont, he consulted on hydroponic farming around the city and was involved with the notable Brooklyn agricultural-tech project WindowFarm, which in 2012 raised more than $250,000 on Kickstarter for a kit that grows vegetables from hanging containers.
The founders: Andrew Carter, left, the CEO, and Adam DeMartino, the COO
The availability of Wi-Fi connections is one of the keys to making the Smallhold system work. The company grows the mushrooms to three-quarter ripeness in Bushwick and other farms around New York. Then they’re sent to the climate-controlled units linked by Wi-Fi and hooked up to a water supply. Smallhold employees monitor the units for the right mix of CO2, humidity, temperature and other conditions.
Mushrooms require a controlled environment and, as a fungus, their life process is not plantlike. They process oxygen as animals do: they take in oxygen and emit CO2.And there’s a special trick to mushroom farming. The mushroom must be fooled into thinking it has to reproduce before winter comes. Farmers manipulate temperature, water and CO2 levels to do this, which results in a crop that can double in size in 24 hours.
Smallhold’s “minifarms” carefully control growing conditions including air, water and light
The restaurants rent the units and also pay a per-pound price that can range from $5 to $12. When the crop is ready, the chefs harvest them for the dishes they are preparing. The company also operates a North Brooklyn Produce Hub, a repurposed shipping contained outfitted with the company’s minifarms to supply nearby restaurants with fresh mushrooms.
Mushrooms are not the only crop that can be grown this way. Carter says the company is working on extending its products to lettuce, herbs and other vegetables. “We are focusing on mushrooms right now due to the demand by the market. Leafy greens will be further down the road.”
Lion’s Mane mushrooms, reminiscent of sea coral, are said to have many health benefits
Mushroom farming has a peculiar history in the U.S. The vast majority of mushrooms supplied to the East Coast are grown in a small area in southeastern Pennsylvania that was first developed by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. Because mushrooms don’t require a lot of land to grow, they were an ideal crop for immigrants who lacked capital. And they were close to big restaurant markets along the East Coast that were happy to include mushrooms to enrich and extend dishes from all manner of ethnic cooking.
Smallhold is following the high-tech, small-scale version of that strategy with a market plan to increase the number of restaurants it serves this year. Carter says the company is working on providing a variety of mushrooms that will include oysters (blue, yellow and pink), king and pioppino types.
Kevin Doyle, who runs Forest Mushrooms in St. Joseph, Minn., and has been growing the crop for more than 30 years, called the Smallhold system an intriguing innovation. “It’s in the perfect location to serve the biggest restaurant market in the U.S.,” he said. “Anything that shows people how mushrooms are grown is good for the rest of the market.”
For more on food and tech, read our stories about 12 cool startups, a food-tech pitch contest, and our podcast with the founder of a digital dashboard for indoor farmers.
To grow other crops like lettuce and herbs, the ventilation system must be changed to accommodate how plants process air: CO2 in, oxygen out. The company is careful to filter air from the units to avoid any allergens getting out into the restaurants.
Carter feels at home growing mushrooms in Brooklyn, he says, because he has so many colleagues at the intersection of farming and technology. “There is so much support here. The ag and food scene is very large. It’s great to be a part of it.”
Former Carroll Gardens resident Dan Callahan is a frequent visitor to Brooklyn, keeping up with his millennial son who in five years has had four different Brooklyn addresses.
NATUFIA Indoor Kitchen Garden For The First Time Unveiled at KBIS, Orlando
The Natufia Kitchen Garden is Natufia Labs’ technological response to today's’ overwhelming issues of food traceability, pesticide, GMOs, poor taste and unnecessary waste that have plagued the food industry and our plates all the way to the greatest chefs.
NATUFIA Indoor Kitchen Garden For The First Time Unveiled at KBIS, Orlando
The fully automated Natufia Kitchen Garden, the one that CNN, ABC, Der Spiegel, Vogue Paris, USA Today, Fox News, WIRED, PC World spoke so much about after its stint at Las Vegas CES last year and the one that has been adopted by some of the best chefs in Europe and now selling by Bulthaup Paris will be presented for the first time to the US professional Kitchen and Bath Industry at KBIS in Orlando Jan 9-11.
- Booth: S5456 at South Hall's ASID Design Pavilion
- Co-founder and team available for meetings at KBIS
The NATUFIA® Kitchen Garden, the leader in high end automated hydroponic solutions, on exceptional display at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Orlando, Jan 9-11 2018.
ORLANDO, USA, 4 JANUARY 2018 – After its widely acclaimed first introduction in the US last year during Las Vegas CES 2017 show, and after one year of successful introduction in the European market, Natufia Labs will be presenting its latest Natufia Kitchen Garden model at the Orlando 2018 Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) at ASID Design Pavilion, South Hall, Booth S5456. The latest model of the Natufia Kitchen Garden will be on display and presented by Natufia Labs CEO Gregory Lu and his team.
The Natufia Kitchen Garden is Natufia Labs’ technological response to today's’ overwhelming issues of food traceability, pesticide, GMOs, poor taste and unnecessary waste that have plagued the food industry and our plates all the way to the greatest chefs.
The Kitchen Garden is the product of four years of intensive engineering, software, hydroponic and botanic research to provide leading chefs across the world with a solution to organically grow plants right in their kitchen, all year round, and to finally recover the true taste of things.
Recent independent lab tests revealed vitamins level over 400 % higher when grown inside the Natufia KG. "Consumers are progressively seeking out organic and healthy food options. We provide a sustainable technical solution that connects people back with nature, without efforts and without compromising on quality and nutritional values" says Gregory Lu.
“This is the future: This is for all Chefs to support technological progress and the preservation of nature,” says Emmanuel Renaut, three Michelin starred Chef in Megève, an early adopter of the Natufia Kitchen Garden, who was recently ranked 6th top chef worldwide. Among other early adopters, we count ***** Four Season George V Hotel Chef Simone Zanoni, or ***** London Sofitel St James Chef Hameed Farook.
After having the Natufia Kitchen Garden being tested in the hands of the greatest, Natufia Labs decided to start making the Natufia Kitchen Gardens available to private users; the one that also wants health, taste and convenience to reach their plate. Bulthaup Paris (3 stores), Modulonova, Varenna and others have started to sell Natufia KG to Paris and London private customers.
Now that the Natufia Kitchen Garden is developing at great speed its presence on the UK, French and Italian professional and private markets, and a very conclusive first introductory at Las Vegas CES last January, the presence at KBIS Orlando 2018 shows a more determined move by Natufia Labs to start to commercialize in the US and in Canada.
Natufia® Labs, established in 2014 is the manufacturer of Natufia Kitchen Garden. Natufia Labs has become one of the leading research labs and a specialized manufacturer of high technology content hydroponic equipment designed for people who admire original taste, traceability of food and GMO-free nutrition. Less waste, more taste, better health.
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Greenhouse To Provide Fresh Vegetables At Bangor Restaurant, Regardless of the Weather
Greenhouse To Provide Fresh Vegetables At Bangor Restaurant, Regardless of the Weather
By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff • December 19, 2017
Gabor Degre | BDN
Bob Cutler, the owner of Novios Bistro in Bangor stands at the restaurant’s new greenhouse in Hermon Monday. Cutler and head chef Dustin Cyr said they will run the greenhouse and will be able to plant and harvest vegetables based on the daily needs at the restaurant. The greenhouse will be operational in early January.
Gabor Degre | BDN
Dustin Cyr, the head chef at Novios Bistro in Bangor, stands in the laundry room of his home, where he has been testing various seeds and plants he intends to grow in the restaurant’s new greenhouse in Hermon. Cyr and owner said they will be able to plant and harvest vegetables based on the daily needs at the restaurant.
Everybody knows that Maine has a lot going for it, especially when it comes to what’s for dinner.
There’s the agricultural renaissance, the burgeoning farm-to-table movement and the willingness of farmers to grow all kinds of interesting produce.
One thing that Maine can’t boast about, though, is the length of its growing season.
With frosts possible even in the months of May and September, and basically guaranteed during our long, frigid winters, restaurateurs who want to serve locally-sourced produce all year long have a big challenge ahead of them.
But it’s a challenge that the team at the helm of Novio’s Bistro in Bangor believes they can handle, with a unique plan to make an end-run around the cold, hard reality of Maine weather.
This winter, Novio’s owner Bob Cutler, and Chef Dustin Cyr are busy constructing a 1,500-square-foot greenhouse near Cyr’s home in Hermon. In the greenhouse, which will be heated with an oil-burning furnace, they hope to grow 80 percent of the produce they serve at the restaurant within eight months. It’s an ambitious plan, but both achievable and worthwhile, they said.
“If you believe like I do, and like Dustin does, in cooking with the best possible ingredients, it’s a no-brainer,” Cutler said. “And if you believe the extreme weather patterns will continue, as Dustin and I both do, you want to have more control [over the produce supply.]”
Both Cutler and Cyr have a lot of experience in the restaurant industry. Prior to opening Novio’s in the fall of 2016, Cutler owned The Family Dog in Orono and two food trucks in the Bangor area (he has since sold those in order to concentrate on the Bangor bistro). And Cyr has plied his craft at many Bangor restaurants for more than a decade, including a long stint behind the stove at the acclaimed Fiddlehead Restaurant. Farming, though, is fairly new to both of them.
“I started last year,” Cyr said.
After a friend of his got him interested in growing super hot chili peppers, Cyr converted his laundry room into a grow room, and found success with his 100 or so plants.
“That was my crash course,” he said. “I don’t do anything small … and it got me thinking.”
He thought about ways to make sure that he could get the freshest, most delicious produce possible. And he thought about growing exactly what he wanted for his menus, researching how to use the greenhouse to make that happen. Although Novio’s has been transitioning to sourcing more produce locally, that has not always been easy, Cyr said. Growing his own just made sense to him, and he had an idea of how to scale up to grow enough to supply the small restaurant, which serves an average of 230 diners a week. To grow his super hot peppers, he dabbled in hydroponics, the technique of growing plants without soil. Instead of planting them in dirt, they grew in water with the help of mineral nutrient solutions. In the greenhouse, he plans to use a hydroponic system to grow vegetables including tomatoes and lettuces.
“Hydroponics is really interesting to me,” Cyr said. “Plants will be pest-free, disease-free. They’re clean [because they’re not grown in dirt] and you get more plants per square foot.”
He also is working on a design for a raised-bed system for plants such as beets and radishes that will be grown in soil.
Once the greenhouse is up, Cyr will get the chance to try out a much larger hydroponic system than the one in his laundry room and with special supplemental lighting that will let the plants thrive even in the short, dark days of December and January. He’s already started a batch of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and bell peppers in his house that he would like to move into more spacious quarters as soon as possible. He knows he is not as experienced as a farmer would be, but believes he can figure out the learning curve to make the project an eventual success.
“It’ll be a little experimental,” at first, he said.
That’s OK with Cutler, who is 100 percent in support of the venture.
“In my mind, I think we’re going to have some mistakes,” the Novios owner said. “We’ll probably grow too much of something and too little of something else. But if you don’t take risks, you’re never going to get better.”
Cutler said it’s likely the greenhouse will never be able to grow sufficient quantities of some vegetables such as garlic, potatoes, onions, and mushrooms. But it is exciting to him to think about having spinach, microgreens, unusual varieties of kale, eggplant and more, freshly picked at the height of ripeness, even in the wintertime.
“We want to be different, and we want to challenge ourselves,” he said.
Cyr is looking forward to having all that bounty close at hand, and turning it into delicious dishes to serve his customers.
“To me, it’s my ultimate opportunity as a chef,” he said.
IKEA Wants ‘Radical Change’ For its Food Business to Promote Sustainability
Another area of change could be in growing its own produce through vertical farming. The company recently invested inAeroFarms, the New Jersey-based indoor farming group.
IKEA Wants ‘Radical Change’ For its Food Business to Promote Sustainability
NOVEMBER 8, 2017 | LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR
“The horsemeat scandal made us take inventory of our food business,” Michael la Cour, managing director of IKEA Food Services, told an audience at the Sustainology Summit in New York on Tuesday.
While IKEA is best known for its furniture, which apparently uses 1% of the world’s timber, the retailer also has a well-known food retail business, including in-store restaurants selling its famous meatballs and marketplaces selling over 180 Swedish food products. This sideline food business sells a cool €2 billion ($2.3 billion) of food per year and serves 650 million customers, making it Sweden’s biggest restaurant by default, said la Cour.
Turning its attention to the provenance of its meat amid the horsemeat scandal — which started in the UK in 2013 but spread to other parts of Europe, including Sweden, and even the US when retailers such as Tesco realised there was horsemeat in their beef products — brought other challenges within the food system into the spotlight for IKEA, according to la Cour, such as food waste.
“It was a great opportunity for us to take responsibility for what we serve, where we source it, and who we partner with,” said la Cour.
Some key changes at IKEA in the wake of this deep dive into their supply chain included introducing the veggie meatball in April 2015 as well as taking Coca-Cola and Pepsi products off the menu in favor of Swedish fruit waters.
“Our veggie meatballs have a significantly lower carbon footprint than the meat alternatives, and are actually priced lower too; we need to move to a more plant-based diet,” said la Cour. “Everything we do is driven by sustainability design. It’s at the core of what we do and not a bi-thought.”
Referencing a conversation about the sustainability of insect-based protein compared to meat, la Cour added “I don’t know if the future is a crispy bug ball, but I know we are going to work with lots of different partners to bring changes to our food business.”
The company’s interest in edible insects is more than just lip service too, since Israeli fruit fly farm and insect protein startup Flying SpArk joined IKEA’s first boot camp and startup accelerator in September.
Another area of change could be in growing its own produce through vertical farming. The company recently invested inAeroFarms, the New Jersey-based indoor farming group.
Speaking to AgFunderNews on the sidelines of the conference, la Cour said it might be possible for stores to grow food on-site using this technology. He was set to visit AeroFarms later this week to explore opportunities.
However the company incites change at its stores and within its supply chain, la Cour said it is not wasting any time.
“We don’t need gradual change but radical change and we are willing to challenge our business model to get there,” he said. But he admitted that it still may take time to get consumers to catch up when it comes to some shifts, such as going totally vegetarian at some point.
“There Are a Lot of Palm Pilots Out There But No iPhones Yet In Consumer Indoor Farms” – Verdical CEO
Verdical produces an indoor, hydroponic growing tower intended for restaurants. Prototype growing systems are in use in three Bay Area restaurants and Deitz sees the system as a no-brainer for any restaurant, space or institution that wants to communicate local food values.
“There Are a Lot of Palm Pilots Out There But No iPhones Yet In Consumer Indoor Farms” – Verdical CEO
Andrew Deitz has been in Silicon Valley since the late 1990s. He spent nearly a decade at Climate Earth, a consultancy that helps big companies understand their carbon footprint and how decreasing it might help their bottom line. In September, he took the helm at consumer-focused indoor farming group Verdical.
Verdical produces an indoor, hydroponic growing tower intended for restaurants. Prototype growing systems are in use in three Bay Area restaurants and Deitz sees the system as a no-brainer for any restaurant, space or institution that wants to communicate local food values.
But the category of on-site growing — systems deployed to serve the needs of consumers at home or in restaurants — has been slow to get funding. According to AgFunder data, only four consumer grow systems companies raised funding in the first half of 2017. We caught up with Deitz to find out how he plans to grow Verdical in this nascent category.
Can you describe the Verdical growing system?
It’s a vertical tower that has openings for seed pods – we call them growing zones. You insert your seed pod into a growing zone. You wait, depending on what you’re growing: microgreens take 3 weeks, herbs take 8-12 weeks and you enjoy the pleasure of harvesting and eating.
Will there eventually have to be partnerships with major appliance manufacturers for these on-site farms? What does Verdical look like five years from now?
I think that consumers are changing and a living food appliance can be an important contribution to the kitchen. For Verdical, I think there are a bunch of paths to market.
Andrew Deitz
I see the B2B market as most interesting. The B2B market is about an experience. If you think about cafeterias and restaurants, there is ample space in those places to create a different experience for their customers. I think that their ability to articulate their values is a challenge. What is sustainability? What is fresh? What is local? These are all kind of nebulous words these days. One of our customers talks about what we’re doing for him as a statement of his values. His patrons can see their food, in this case just basil, going from three steps away to someone cutting it and putting it on their pizza.
He happens to do everything else right too – he treats his employees right, he sources well, he takes good care of his supply chain and his partners – but he had no way of communicating that and he didn’t want to bang customers over the head.
What do you think is going to be the deciding factor on which small-scale growing unit gains market share?
I think that it is about [user] experience. If you do it in a warehouse 50 miles away, people are not directly connected to their food. It’s also important to understand that there are very different price points in food. Lettuces and leafy greens are a tougher commodity business, and then there are higher end micro greens and herbs that might be a better starting spot because they’re more expensive and delicate.
So it will come down to the efficacy of the system? It has to be so easy to use, the user can’t mess up?
Yes, that’s the experience side. I think we’ve nailed the experience. I think there are a lot of palm pilots out there, but no one has made the iPhone yet.
People are getting ahead of their ski tips on ‘we grow plants faster. We grow them bigger – bigger yields.’ There is a danger that the consumer gets confused and they get so wrapped up in the yield, they lose sight that this is experiential.
And on the other side, it has to be cost-competitive because you’re still going to compete with the field and whatever basil costs. Organic basil sits at around $18-20 per pound. So you have to still get near that price point. But I think people will buy it because it’s pretty and for the experience, and I think companies can make money because it is a consumable and there is an opportunity for people who use it on a high scale. I think a lot of the home products are novelty and hobbyist.