Alegria Fresh, Laguna Beach has joined leading local restaurateur Carlos Olamendi in a groundbreaking new partnership to feature Alegria Farm's same-day harvested salad greens at Olamendi's Express in Mission Viejo, it was announced by Erik Cutter, Managing Director of Alegria Farm.
Located in Laguna Beach, Calif., Alegria Farm is a new commercial hydroponic vertical farm employing more than 170 hydroponic towers growing 10,000 nutritious plants in less than a 1/4 acre with no pesticides and delivering them fresh daily to local consumers and restaurants.
Olamendi's Express in Mission Viejo is the first restaurant to showcase locally grown produce from Alegria Farm. For more than 40 years, the Olamendi family has served fresh and natural authentic Mexican cuisine at their Capistrano Beach, Laguna Beach and Mission Viejo restaurants. Alegria Farm greens will be offered exclusively at Olamendi's Express located at 27775 Santa Margarita Parkway, Mission Viejo.
Built in 1911, historic Hacienda and 135-hectare Alegria Farm are in the verdant heart of the Avenida de los Volcanoes. These beautiful pasturelands are home to more than 200 cows and calves, 48 horses and foals, dozens of llamas and alpacas, and more. It's the perfect place to learn about hacienda life, which includes milking cows, riding horses, animal care, and taking carriage and hay rides. Visit us for a few hours or a day.
"Alegria Farm fits perfectly with our philosophy to heighten our customer's 'Pakini,' the Nahuatl (Aztec) word for personal happiness," says Carlos Olamendi. "This partnership will fulfill our mission to serve the finest produce available and increase awareness of healthy eating, plus protect the planet through sustainable farming practices."
Alegría Farm is California's first urban hydroponic vertical farm on a ¼ acre property. A subsidiary of EnviroIngenuity, a Laguna Beach-based environmental company, its mission is to reduce waste and promote sustainable energy solutions, such as solar PV, hi-efficiency LED lighting, green building and vertical food production technologies
Olamendi's will offer an exclusive selection of delicious "Alegria Salads" with all ingredients grown locally in Laguna Beach featuring cilantro, tomatoes, chiles, sweet basil, epazote, peppermint, arugula and summer crisp, romaine and butter head lettuce. With its close proximity to Olamendi's Express Mission Viejo, Alegria Farm will deliver hours-young truly fresh produce on a daily basis.
Alegria Farm employs the Verti-Gro system, featured for the past 16 years at the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The Verti-Gro hydroponic system uses no soil, 90% less water, 70% less land, 50% less fertilizer than traditional organic farming and zero toxic pesticides.
"Consuming salad greens within a few hours of their harvest provides powerful enzymes, nutrients and phytochemicals that protect the body from chronic disease," said Cutter. "Food that sits on the shelf or is transported by truck loses its nutritional benefits within days."
Alegria Farm is the first West Coast demonstration center to showcase the high-resource efficiency and superior produce quality that is achieved using the Verti-Gro(R) system, which uses no soil, 90 percent less water, 70 percent less land, 50 percent less fertilizer than traditional organic farming and zero toxic pesticides. Verti-Gro(R) hydroponic commercial and home garden systems produce clean, natural food much faster than traditional farming and allow plants to grow bigger and stronger, making plants naturally pest resistant.