What’s Growing On (Part Two): A Look at Three Corporate Kitchen Gardens
This is the second installment of our series on corporate kitchen gardens. Read part one.
The garden at Pacific Café
At Bon Appétit, we love local food — just ask the thousand-plus small farmers, fishers, and artisans who supply us through our Farm to Fork program. Inspired by them, teams at many of our corporate accounts have started growing some of their own food.
At the Pacific Café in Irvine, CA, sunny weather lends itself well to an abundant garden. The garden was included in the original design of the buildings, and now sits just outside the café. The Bon Appétit team has been able to grow and harvest all the herbs for the café, including rosemary, thyme, and sage, and they also grow squash, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, and other vegetables. The garden has helped the account save $4,000 to $5,000 per year on food costs.
The garden at Hill Country Café in San Antonio, TX, just celebrated its first birthday. Because they can plant and grow throughout the year, they have been able to harvest 250 pounds of tomatoes, 150 pounds of broccoli and cauliflower, and have completely stopped buying herbs with the exception of basil and cilantro in the winter.
At Best Buy World Headquarters in Richfield, MN, the Bon Appétit grows heirloom tomatoes and a variety of herbs General Manager Paul Adams says, “Even though we currently purchase some ingredients through the local farmers’ markets, we thought it would be a cool idea if people knew that some of what we use is grown onsite.”
Stay tuned for more gardens!