InstaGreen, a sustainable urban farm located in the heart of Barcelona has been limiting its services to local restaurants due to the COVID-19 but is finding other ways to supply fresh and nutritional food to everyone, while doing good to the planet and people. For now, Spain is on lock-down and only crucial professions can continue their works. Inhabitants are allowed to run some errands, but also that is a limited case. “As food cultivators, we are a part of the crucial professions and get to go to the urban farm and do the necessary maintenance on the plants, but our professional clients such as restaurants and bars all had to close and it's unclear when they can open their doors again. We have now to adjust to the current reality.”, Anneke Stolk, co-founder of InstaGreen says.
The vertically stacked microgreens
Product range
“Our microgreens are grown in our cultivation systems of 6 to 8 layers.” As microgreens are quite low, the layers they can easily be stacked on top of each other. The company also produces these in house developed cultivation system for entrepreneurs who want to start an urban farm in their city of choice. Alongside, a professional training is offered that covers everything on professional urban microgreen farming.
On a local level, the company not only provides fresh microgreens for its professional customers, but also offers home grow kits for consumers that want to grow microgreens at home. InstaGreen is now also working on an online course on growing microgreens at home. Next to that they provide displays to bars and restaurants that enables them to keep the microgreens alive on site and cut the greens by themselves right before consumption. Take Paradiso for example, one of Barcelona’s most famous bars that uses the InstaGreen displays for their highly wanted cocktails.
The InstaGreen display at the Paradiso bar in Barcelona
Sustainable and local
When designing products such as their cultivation systems, displays and grow kits, Stolk and Dirkmaat always go for sustainability and local materials as much as possible. Also the substrate and microgreen cups are of materials that are 100% made of plants and are not only biodegradable but also compostable.
The sustainable microgreen cups
Anti-app
“As controversial as it might sound coming from an engineer, we are quite anti–app and rather pragmatically innovative when it comes down to our farm. Often on small to medium-sized farms, much of the high-tech systems make no sense at all. We, on the other hand, believe in low-tech as it offers low costs and low maintenance”, Stolk mentions. InstaGreen has been more practical when it came to building their farm. The farm uses a basic hydroponic growing system. “We keep on sharing this practical mindset with people, because it makes a farm more robust, e.g. for power failures and the investment is far more reachable for local entrepreneurs all over the world.
Changes due to Covid-19
Besides restaurants, bars and hotels, InstaGreen works with community cooperations based in Barcelona. These cooperation, supply ‘cestas’, which is Spanish for baskets. They exist of groups of consumers who jointly purchase ecological products directly from local providers. Now that all restaurants and bars are closed, the company gave away its stock of microgreens to these cooperations not to waste any food and hoping they can help people stay healthy with their nutrient rich produce. Stolk says: “Some of our professional clients are now also launching fresh boxes for consumers, with a large variety of recipes to choose from, which include our plants or kits to grow microgreens at home. We are working with them to make fruit and vegetable packages with recipes for their clients. The fresh box provides everything people need to make a dish complete and will be delivered to their homes.”
Anneke Stolk and Remko Dirkmaat, founders of InstaGreen
Online courses
“Our mission is to supply fresh and nutritional food to everyone, while doing good to the planet and people. Normally we’re open for trainings, workshops and tastings in order for people to explore our indoor farm. Due to the current situation with Covid-19, the farm is currently closed for this kind of activities. As InstaGreen continues to receive a lot of questions on growing microgreens, both professionally and now even more at home, the company is working on providing the answers needed. We will now give online professional trainings for entrepreneurs who want to start their own local farm and supply nutrient rich food to their local communities. Also, we are working on an online-course which we have designed for people who want to grow microgreens at home. It's an extra priority now with the measurements against the pandemic to have something out there as soon as possible. This course provides information on how to grow microgreens at home, their nutrients, health benefits, recipes etc.
For more information:
InstaGreen
Anneke Stolk, Co-founder
hello@instagreen.eu
www.instagreen.eu