Last week I visited Tugushan Alp, founder of Bygartner1.
The first of his kind in Norway, Bygartner1 grows salads and micro greens in a bunker without soil and sunlight.
Sounds impossible? That’s what I thought!
I’m interested in healthy, nutritious and tasty food so I wanted to find out more.
Tugushan study hotel and restaurant, former super viser and cook and a real food enthusiast was great to talk to and I learned a lot. For him the kitchen is his laboratory and food his chemicals.
Frustrated with what he could find in the super markets he started experimenting in his own garden and then basement to cultivate plants. Trying to find alternative, environmental friendly methods in producing nutrients and flavorful food he started growing salads and micro greens in an ideal growth environment without relying on sun nor soil.
What started as a hobby is now a business and the delicious salads and micro greens available to us all in the Romsdal region.
On a small space with ideal growing conditions he grows large amounts of salad and micro greens without depending on outside factors like wind, sunlight and pesticides. Another advantage is that salads can grow year round without pesticides or chemical fertilizer.
The room lightened by many LED lights in blue and red color gives a very surreal feeling to the whole experience of entering the basement full of plants. It’s unusual to see salad growing stacked up in shelves.
Tugushan Alp explained what happens here and what motivates him to continue his journey. He states that it’s not always easy with the bureaucracy since there is no one else in Norway doing something similar. He is leading the way in Norway to urban agriculture.
It’s astonishing to see and taste some of the salads and micro greens. The smell, texture and flavor was remarkable. Very different from the average iceberg salad in the super market.
Tugushan Alp says:
“We are increasing on earth, the cities are getting bigger and rural areas are being built down. More and more people will have food. This increases soil contamination, from plant production, transport and waste from production.
Effects have been visible for decades, but our insight and understanding of the problem has come gradually and stronger after 2000. It was therefore important for us to find the most efficient production system and the growth light to pollute as little as possible. We will deliver nutritious, short-lived, harvested the same day or the day before, eco-friendly food (micro green, salads).”
His salads are short traveled, without pesticides, fresh and nutritious. If you live in Romsdal go and get your salad. Which are available at Rema 1000, sale from nursery.
