Owner Greg Meyer of Treehouse foods with the microgreen crops of his Urban Garden Showroom.Photo / Supplied
Owner Greg Meyer of Treehouse foods with the microgreen crops of his Urban Garden Showroom.Photo / Supplied
SUP080222urbangarden5.JPG Owner Greg Meyer of Treehouse foods with the microgreen crops of his Urban Garden Showroom.Photo / Supplied
A multi-tiered garden of microgreens adorning the walls of what was an office in the Napier CBD will be open for salad makers to admire by the end of the month.
Greg Meyer of Treehouse Foods NZ is taking his business growing and selling microgreen from Tūtira to Emerson St to make an Urban Garden Showroom showcasing how to produce microgreens.
"It's the next phase, the step up phase of my business from the last couple of years, on a larger scale."
Rows of microgreens vertically grown at Treehouse Foods' indoor showroom in what was an office on Emerson St in Napier. Photo / Supplied
Microgreens are the stage of a plant in between a sprout and a full grown vegetable, typically 125 to 150 millimetres high with their first true leaves typically formed.
He has an 80sq m total area for an office and the growing, production, preparation and packing of his vertically farmed microgreen crops on shelves under low powered lights.
"The actual growing space itself is actually quite small, but since it is a vertical setup where things are grown on a tray in shelves, you can essentially pack a very large amount into a very tiny footprint."
He said some of the main varieties he grows includes pea tendrils, radish, broccoli, sunflower, kohlrabi, beetroot, coriander and basil.
"This way you can actually grow a wide variety of vegetables that all have their unique taste and visually are quite appealing to look at and grow quite fast.
He expects to open for the public in a couple of weeks time.
Even colourful flowers are able to flourish under the indoor lighting. The space is expected to open to the public in a couple of weeks' time. Photo / Supplied
He said it was exciting to soon be growing on one of Napier's main streets, where the space will serve as a showroom for customers.
"It's a garden that can operate 24/7, 365 a year, and it's there to service restaurants, cafes, consumers, all sorts."
He said he wanted to start a business in food, had caught wind of what people had done with microgreens around the world and realised the opportunities that were available after trying his hand at growing them.
"They're really rewarding things to grow, the turn around is very quick so you can produce edible crops in about 10 days in a complete cycle, there is a tonne of different varieties to work with, so it's quite an exciting and rewarding thing."
He said indoor farming is gaining traction as a global trend.
"In many parts of the world they've built massive autonomous factories just around growing leafy greens and things like that, so its a very, very exciting thing to be a part of and it's right on the edge of the next evolution in food production from where I see it."
