DELICIOUS, FRESH PRODUCE
AEROPONICALLY GROWN, HARVESTED TO ORDER
By 2050 the UN has stated that we won't be able to feed the world population using existing methods
Climate change and global warming are already significantly affecting the duration and quality of the growing season, negatively impacting efficiencies in food production as well as its quality worldwide.
Covid 19 has proven that the UK supply chains are dangerously dependent on foreign imports. Brexit is likely to increase the cost of the produce we buy in. Rainforests are being ripped down and burnt so that we can grow more soya, palm oil and beef, speeding up the damage and making conditions worse.
This needs to end...
We need a new sustainable way of working when it comes to food production... We need a food revolution, where foods are grown as close to where they are consumed as possible. Just like the good old days.
There is a growing movement producing foods in urban environments, right next to the people that need it. This is what we're doing but bringing a bit of technology in to help.
Business Snapshot
What is it:
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6,100 sq ft Greenhouse
What will it produce:
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80+ different crop types on a scale that will supply all areas of the business including the Food Hall & Restaurant
Employment:
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4 full-time, 3 part-time
Education & Agri-Tourism:
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Lessons in aeroponic growing, micro herb production, other types of hydroponic & hyperlocal horticulture
Truegardens' 6,000 sq ft Greenhouse in Arizona is the pinnacle of agricultural innovation. The gentle trickle of water feeding the lush plant-life that tumbles from the towers & the cool fresh air that this environment naturally creates. It's the future of sustainable farming and an oasis of calm.
As partners of Truegarden, Applegarth will not only replicate this framework by creating their very own Aeroponic Greenhouse but will also scale the project throughout the UK and beyond – launching their own international expansion.
Visitors to Applegarth last summer may well have noticed the ten aeroponic towers residing at the bottom of the garden and even have tasted the incredible produce that were harvested. The new purpose built Greenhouse will allow Applegarth to accommodate 30+ towers and increase yield exponentially.
The heart of the vision is to deeply integrate this symbiotic production within the Restaurant, Food Hall and throughout all areas of the business. It is all one building and the model starts with a seed being planted instead of purchasing the end product. The seed will inform everything Applegarth do.
Think, picking your own live roots on lettuce directly from a tower in the fruit & veg section and taking it home to make into an immensely fresh salad, Or watching a chef pluck strawberries directly from a tower, in the open plan kitchen right in front of you.
6,000 sq ft Aeroponic Greenhouse
Fresh Produce, Picked by Your Chef
Aeroponic production has the ability to feed the urban masses but there is nothing standardised about the end product. It is about being nimble with production, being able to adapt quickly to seasonal changes and other external influences. Forget planning the growing calendar a year in advance - produce grows so efficiently that adding new items in the space of a month is a breeze.
The following are the different types that work well.
Herbs & Micro Herbs: Chef's love them young for their colour & vibrant flavours. They are immensely healthy packed with more than 40 times more vitamins and antioxidants than their mature counterparts.
Lettuce: Salad leaves in general are particularly well suited to aeroponic growing. In fact, it is possible to grow pretty much every salad type from a punchy Watercress to a Lolo Rosso. From a crunchy coss or little gem, to a butterhead lettuce & cut and come again types like rocket.
Cruciferous: vegetables are rich in nutrients, including several carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin); vitamins C, E, and K; folate; and minerals. They also work well in a Tower Garden. Cauliflower, Pak Choi, Broccoli, Collard, Watercress are just some of them that grow well.
Fruit: such as Strawberries, melons and quick growing fruits thrive in the towers.
A broad range of delicious Fruit, Veg, salads and microherbs to buy or eat
AgriTourism & Education
In America, over 150,000 towers have been sold to domestic homes, creating a seed of change in the way people consume food. Restaurants in most major cities use Towers to produce their own food.
Furthermore, 10,000 of these Tower Gardens have already been integrated into schools across the US . Children love the modern approach to growing and the fact that it grows in their learning environment encourages them to understand where food comes from.
Applegarth intend to lead the charge in bringing this to the UK – providing a range of domestic & commercial courses – the latter for both micro hyperlocal setups and larger farms. Local schools will also be able to bring their children to the Greenhouse for educational day trips & tailored tours.
Domestic Courses
Hydroponic Propagation: How to succeed every time in creating a resilient seedling.
Advanced Domestic Course: You've been growing with a Tower Garden for some time. Learn how to expand your setup to grow on multiple towers, use the produce in our cookery school to learn how to produce a range of dishes.
Commercial courses
Commercial Overview: hyper local production- how do you set up a micro-farm supplying a localised market. - 1 day course.
Farm to Market Beginner: Understand how to setup a small commercial operation to include Site identification, infrastructure, packaging, marketing & sales- 3 day course.
Commercial Production: How to time your crop rotation, identify and counter pathogens and predators, balance and regulate your liquid nutrient, harvest for 'just in time' sales.
Seedleaves Symbiotic
Food Production & Sales
Aeroponic Greenhouse
Retail
Restaurant
Bar
Kitchen Production
Wholesale
Eco-Cabins
Applegarth's plan is revolutionary & rare, on a global level.
There are plenty of stories from vertical farms around food production but most of them are doing this solely for commercial resale. This is great but it's a limited and clinical approach to aeroponics. Few businesses have managed to successfully fully integrate their aeroponic growing mechanisms with their retail and restaurant spaces.
Applegarth intend to lead this change by embedding its central green roots in every area of the business – a very natural tool that will weave the story of true sustainability. From seed to caesar salad, the team of chefs & shop managers will be the expert eyes & hands working hard behind the scenes to accommodate for the restaurant & retail spaces they manage. Forget buying in mass produce that's travelled thousands of miles... Applegarth will grow it.
Aeroponic horticulture is amazing in terms of many things but its ability to grow 950% more produce in an area, use 5% of the water of traditional agriculture and the fact the produce grows considerably faster than traditional techniques makes this possible.
So if chef want's yellow mustard leaf for a dish he's putting on in 6 weeks, he shall have it. You can't buy it anywhere but in this case, it's what every saag aloo is made of outside of the UK, not spinach! Let's bring interesting, different, heritage foods back to the plate and not be dictated to by what the supermarkets want you to eat.
Seedleaves Production & Sales: At A Glance
Food Hall:
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PYO from Tower, roots on Salad, veg & fruit
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PYO Micro Herbs
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Juice Bar-freshly picked from Tower
Restaurant:
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Private dining room with concertina doors opening onto grow space
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Fresh produce decided by & harvested by chefs
Kitchen:
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Bank of Towers in the kitchen, freshly picked by chefs daily
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Chefs determine what is grown based upon seasonal menus
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Herbs
Bar:
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Herbs, Fruit Garnishes/Juices etc. picked & produced by Barman
Own Brand Produce:
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Pesto’s & marinades
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Vinaigrettes
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Deli Counter produce
Eco-Cabins:
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Tower produce sent to individual towers outside the cabins
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Accommodation for aeroponic growing lessons
Growing School:
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Multiple lesson types on aeroponic & hydroponic growing
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Adult & school tours of the greenhouse
If you would like more info on growing this way click the Seedleaves logo below.
Mark Horler, Chairman of UK Urban Agritech.
"This is a bit brilliant! I think you're right that the number and variety of integrations here is unique in my experience. The importance of this combination of education, social experience, different types of food growing and the ability to buy local, can hardly be overstated. It's very clear that in the UK generally, there is a troubling disconnect between consumers, where their food comes from and how. I'm therefore particularly excited to see the combination of growing school cookery school, which allows people to make the complete seed-to-fork journey themselves, and take away those learnings. I'm also very pleased to see the combination of conventional growing (for example the orchards) and the Seedleaves aeroponic approach. I and UKUAT have been in favour and endorsing this approach for some years now, in that it offers the best of both worlds. The ability of a soil free system like aeroponics to provide production volume, coupled with the crop variety possible in soil growing, makes for an ideal pairing."
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Sustainability Commitment
Did you know? The average salad travels 1050 carbon miles to your plate, by which point it is 8-10 days old and has lost 55% of its nutritional value and subsequent taste.
Applegarth, in partnership with Tower Garden, uses the powerful growing technology of aeroponics to offer a more sustainable way to grow fresh, healthy food. By tapping into the same technology NASA uses, Applegarth are able to grow robust, nutrient-rich plants the cleaner, simpler, more efficient way; with just water and minerals, no dirt.
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Applegarth will be able to grow 950% more fresh produce in the same space as a conventional farm. The produce grows 30% larger & 3 times faster than conventional farming and travels 0 Carbon miles
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Recycled waste heat from the Food Hall will be used for sustaining the correct temperature
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The towers use only 5% of the water that large scale agriculture would use plus Applegarth's will be filtered rainwater. The liquid nutrient constantly circulates, rather than dissipating into the soil
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No pesticides, herbicides or other nasties will be used in production. The liquid nutrient used is simply diluted rock salts, as you would find in any garden nutrient product. It runs over the roots of the plants for 15 minutes every hour- therefore getting the optimum feed every time
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Solar PV and a micro wind turbine will power 42% of production. The businesses remaining power requirements will be provided by companies generating from sustainable sources
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Produce will be harvested and sold with roots on, keeping them alive until eaten. By comparison, most supermarket produce will have lost 50% of its nutritional value by the time you eat it