Luxury Hotel Chain Property Grows Their Own Produce
Many hotel restaurants are working hard to bring organic or locally grown quality ingredients to their dishes, and the term “Thoughtfully Sourced, Carefully Served” is even Hyatt’s catchphrase for their philosophy of food options especially good for their guests.
Some hotel restaurants are taking things a step further, responsibly providing “farm to fork” produce that is grown right there, onsite.
The Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida is one such property.
The Ritz-Carlton Naples offers 9 different dining options, so the ability for them to grow some of their own produce is great. As far as I know they’re also the only chain hotel property that is currently offering this.
Right on the hotel grounds is a repurposed shipping container which can grow one full acre of produce. That’s a lot of lettuce!
Called a Grow House, the vertical hydroponic system uses 90% less water than typical farms of the same size. The growing process is carefully controlled so that it can produce 100% pesticide-free produce.
Here’s a peek inside the Grow House at the Ritz Carlton Naples via a photo from their press release –
From specialized lighting to the careful monitoring of water alkalinity and temperature, everything comes together to provide an ideal growing environment especially beneficial for sensitive crops such as mushrooms or lettuce. The Grow House is currently growing cabbage, micro-greens, spinach, arugula, cilantro, Bibb and Romaine lettuce.
I’d be willing to bet that as time goes on, we’ll see this trend grow. I’m all for it, as it keeps packaging and transportation costs (and pollution) down and offers guests enhanced nutrition as well as traceability. Some boutique hotels have been growing their own vegetables and such onsite, but I think the Ritz in Naples is the first chain hotel property to do so.
Can you think of any others?
I stayed at Hyatt Thessalonki last year and was so amazed by the quality of the breakfast I had to compliment the chefs. He told me they grow their tomatoes and stuff right in the hotel garden. I actually got a chance to see the garden. It’s amazing the difference in the taste of the food.
I love homegrown tomatoes Marjorie, and those must have been a treat! The ones in the big grocery stores tend to taste much more bland.
Hey Melinda
The Fairmont Mara Safari Club in Kenya has a very large kitchen garden where they grow almost all of their fresh vegetables, salad green and herbs.
When the Chef showed me through it 2 years ago it was already quite large, and last month I saw they had doubled the size!
Enough for most of the needs of 150 guests and their 200 or so live in Staff.
How wonderful Yvonne, thanks for sharing! It must be a good feeling for them to be so self-sustaining with such a large number of staff/guests. My only disappointment is having learned this after being there but hopefully other readers might be able to take a quick look. 🙂
Four Seasons Chiang Mai grows their own rice
Joe, I bet that rice is very tasty. What a perfect location for it since it is an area where they try to make a light footprint.
The JW Marriott Grand Lakes, in Orlando, grows some of its own organic produce & herbs in on-site gardens.
That’s good to know Tom! Not sure if you’ve eaten there, but looking at their website it seems that the produce is used at their Italian Restaurant Primo and the menu changes with the seasonal produce available. The dinner menu looks mouthwateringly delicious -http://www.marriott.com/hotel-restaurants/mcojw-jw-marriott-orlando-grande-lakes/primo/123963/online-menu.mi