While eating local is a fuzzy idea, the Urban Cultivator takes the cake in any definition of eating local because you grow your own food right in a cabinet in your kitchen.
You hear the doctor or your mom tell you to eat more greens because it’s supposed to be healthy for you. But then, you have no idea were the lettuce in the supermarket came from, nor how many chemicals it has. And here’s the kicker, it’s already lost at least half of its nutrients, you know the good stuff, by the time you pick it up at the grocery. To add insult to injury, it’s also lost a lot of its flavor. So if you feel like a cow for eating greens, I’m sorry to say that the cow has things so much better.
Well, that is unless you have the Urban Cultivator. It provides a system for you to grow your own greens and herbs, not in your backyard mind you, but in the comfort of your very own kitchen all year round. What’s more, “you open the door and smell the freshness,” says Eric Sloan, President of Urban Cultivator.
You can grow a variety of the good stuff, argula, lettuces, peppermint, thyme and wheatgrass for starters. These, and other greens usually travel thousands of miles before reaching your local supermarket, emitting a lot of carbon along the way. So it goes without saying that you can eliminate a lot of these greenhouse gases by growing your own stuff right inside your home or even restaurant.
At US$8,800 for a commercial unit and US$ 2,499 for the residential unit, these may not be for everyone. But then the cost of producing the greens in the unit can cost just a measly 5% to 10% of that from that bought from a supplier. Hence, a restaurant can get payback in as little as a year and a half, not counting the fact that it gets more patrons on account of better taste.
That’s probably the biggest selling point of the system. Chefs go out to buy their own produce and some know the fishermen who catch their fish, and the ranchers who provide their beef. Now they will know the guys who give them their herbs and greens as well as they know themselves. Also, because you get the greens very fresh, you get all the flavors that restaurants buying commercial produce don’t get.
The taste was so different that Martha Stewart picked up a system each for her show and for her home to make sure that she gets only the finest herbs and greens. So the Urban Cultivator has the blessings of The domestic goddess herself.
While the system is made in north America, it is also hitting the shelves, so to speak, in Europe, the Middle East, Australia and may soon even reach China.
Hopefully that happens sooner than later so that the billions of people there will finally have a way to eat non toxic food. If you’re in a place where this is available, then it might sound like a good idea to get one and start detoxifying.
