Some hotels boast of rooftop gardens where chefs make use of a single ingredient in a dish, but other hotels are taking gardening seriously, planting plots that are one acre or larger.
Being in remote areas helps. Six Senses Zighy Bay Oman has a 6-acre farm and is a two-hour drive from Dubai, while Angama Mara, which has a 1-acre garden, is nestled just above the Maasai Mara in Kenya. For both hotels, the farms serve a dual purpose of providing produce and guest experiences.
Contributed by Debbie Carlson
Tyler Davis, regional director at Angama Mara, says the shamba, as it is called, specializes in growing the tender salad greens that would wilt during the weekly supply truck’s seven-hour, one-way commute from Nairobi. Guests can harvest their own greens in the shamba and lunch there under shade trees overlooking the Maasai.
Six Senses’ farm raises livestock and produce, and one of the guest experiences is to learn how to make cheese from the milk produced by the farm’s cows and goats, says Aaron McGrath, general manager. Farming comes with its own challenges, they say, particularly from Mother Nature.
Guy Rigby, president of Octopus, a Toronto-based food and beverage consultancy, says the gardens offer great public relations for hotels, but because they require intensive, specialized labor to produce good quality crops they don’t necessarily offer a significant return.
Collins Randiga, Angama Mara’s executive chef, concurs. “More than anything, it is an added value,” he says, allowing the hotel to add nice touches like nasturtiums to salads.
