Dutch restaurant has rooftop greenhouse with LED-lighting

CONTENT SOURCED FROM HORTIDAILY

In the center of Utrecht, within a stone's throw from the Central Station - a new restaurant has opened. 'The Green House' proclaimed in large letters above the entrance. The restaurant, opening to the public on April 9, did not get that name for nothing. A greenhouse of 85 m2 has been built on top of the restaurant, in which various vegetables and herbs are grown to be processed in a number of delicious dishes.

Always fresh

The vegetables and herbs are delivered in half cultivated state and grow further in the greenhouse. After harvest, new trays of herbs are delivered by the Amsterdam company Hrbs, which invented the concept. 

The used trays are returned to the open garden of nursery Lindenhoff where they are turned into compost, to be used for growing crops. Tessa Duste from Hrbs: "The carts with the plants have been specially converted for this project. The boxes are placed in trays full of water. The part in between is filled with capillary fibers which suck up the water in the substrate."

LED lighting

Parus Europe supplied the carts and lighting for the greenhouse. Sandro van Kouteren: "We supplied two different types of lighting. The carts are lighted by light which is to the eye white, sufficient for growing crops but not powerful enough for proper cultivation. And we are not lighting up the entire center of Utrecht."

"In the top layers we have installed color adjustable, dimmable lighting, so that they have a bit of control over the length and blossoming of the crop."

Circular

Tessa: "We always clean the trays when the plants are harvested. The trays are made of recycled plastic, which we can use at least a 100 times and probably more. When they break eventually, we use them in the production of new trays."

In this way Hrbs has done its utmost to make The Green House circular. "There are always ways to improve. For other customers we are currently engaged in processing herbs which have not been used to make new products, such as syrup."
 
For more information:
Hrbs
Tessa Duste
tessa@hrbs.com
www.hrbs.com