As a follow up to my blog earlier this year, I am happy to announce that the Monte Azul organic greenhouse has been completed. The new structure´s construction was finished in mid January. Since that time we have been busy preparing the planting beds, starting seedlings and watching the plants grow.
The planting beds are now on the ground instead or raised beds. We have even found a use for the empty wine bottles from Café Blue. We invert these bottles and bury the neck in the ground. In a row, these bottles become a permanent, weather resistant border that we fill with soil. Our hotel guests really seem to like this wine bottle idea.
The plants are all doing extremely well. Our cooks at Café Blue are very pleased with the produce that is again available to them from the Monte Azul greenhouses. Thes guests seem to love the fresh organic produce as well. Some organic produce in the greenhouse includes 4 types of lettuce, 2 types of argula, sweet peppers, hot peppers, basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, celery, tomatoes, and various types of onions. We are also experimenting with Belgium endive, shallots, soybeans and bok choi.
The green house also includes our coffee bean drying area and earthworm composting area. We had our neighbor, Wilberth, the local earthworm expert and Swiss cheese maker, come over and give us all a workshop on how to use the earthworms for composting. He was kind enough to bring us a big bucket of worms to get us started. These worms seem to really love the organic waste from Café Blue.
The only problem we have experienced so far with the new greenhouse is that is is already too small. We have it filled and want to plant more things. We have already started looking at plans to build a second greenhouse. I will keep you posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment