Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Farm to table not I-15 to table
Think of this as a status report on the state of growing our own vegetables right here just off the Strip.
Urban Seed’s amazing technology, which has been a decade in the making, will drastically change the way food gets from growth to preparation to consumption
Think of this as a status report on the state of growing our own vegetables right here just off the Strip. On Aug. 7, I reported on the food revolution underway for chefs and restaurateurs in Las Vegas. Until now we’ve relied on food trucked across the desert on I-15 or flown in from around the world to meet the ever-increasing demand from ever-increasing tourist counts.
It’s all about to change. The groundbreaking of the first farming facility was July 29, and now with the site cleared and the office building open, Urban Seed is ready to get its first two super greenhouses built by year end and follow with another 10 in 2017. That’s 100 greenhouses in the next five years. Clark County approvals on variances for parking, loading docks and signage are underway, and the first two greenhouses are on order for installation.
It’s a reinvention and revolutionary way to grow and provide food from produce to packaging. Our chefs, hotel food and beverage directors and restaurateurs cannot wait. Urban Seed’s amazing technology, which has been a decade in the making, will drastically change the way food gets to our tables.
Until now the United States has imported billions of dollars of fruits and vegetables, and produce can travel more than 1,400 miles before it reaches consumers. Urban Seed on Wynn Road in the shadow of the Strip and The Orleans will have delivery in a 10-mile zone within 5 hours of harvesting. We’re talking farm to table and not I-15 to table.
The variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and microgreens is impressive, including year-round cabbage, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, melons and strawberries. The chefs, among them Michael Mina, Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken and Geno Bernardo, can’t wait. They’ll be able to make their own sauces for sale “Made in Las Vegas.” This winter will see Urban Seed harvesting 20plus varieties of produce.
Urban Seed CEO Thomas Winn told me: “We start with two of the greenhouses. Each of them have about a 6,500-square-foot footprint, and they’ll be connected with a vent area where all the air flow comes through the center. Visually, it will look like one big building, but it will really be two buildings connected.
“Delivery is set for December, and it will take roughly 30 days to be physically erected. We’ll actually start planting before that in the seeding area because we want to be able to transfer the seedlings of small plants into A frames the first moment possible. We’ll have 23 varieties right from the get go.
“That’s really unique in the industry. If you look at even the top, top urban farms, aero farms, anything like that, it’s all greens. It’s very rare that you see strawberries, beets, lettuce. We’ll be the first commercial system to do root vegetables in this way in the entire market.” Lettuce and tomatoes
If seedling plantings start in midDecember, it means that microgreens will be grown within two weeks. Vice President Rachel Wenman added: “The lettuce is really a 60-day cycle, but we get part of that out of the way before it goes into the greenhouse. Tomatoes are in the 60-day time frame, too. We’ll be picking first harvest about 28 days from the time the greenhouses go up. The chefs will be here by the end of December to pick, try and taste our very first crop.”
Jolene Mannina, vice president of culinary partnerships, explained: “We have a culinary advisory board, so they have the first rights to the produce. We’re already going through their estimated produce usage right now, so we have a good understanding of exactly what they’ll take up. There’s a line of restaurants and chefs that is going to be ready, as well, to get in on those first few greenhouses ...