Welcome to our 1st Greenhouse

This beautiful greenhouse has herbs and much more.  We’ve invited BrightFarms Systems, leading innovator of urban greenhouses, to build us a space for growing our own herbs, holding classes, and celebrating the varied facets of sustainable agricultural practices.

Enjoy classes like cooking with arctic char. 

Jeff Kudile, Seafood Team Leader and Laura Hall, Demo Specialist are leading the arctic char cooking class.

Look at that char!!  This fish was raised in cold-water, land-based tanks without antibiotics or added hormones, among volcanic boulders in pristine Iceland. 

Jeff and Laura harvesting herbs for cooking. 

A link to History

A greenhouse like this was something first envisioned (and engineered) by ancient Romans, who needed to keep Emperor Tiberius satisfied with a specific cucumber-like vegetable he craved and demanded every day, year-round. Wheeled into the sun on carts during the day, these cucumbers spent cooler nights in houses glazed with oiled cloth or with sheets of mica.

Credit 13th-century Italians with creating the first modern greenhouses, built to house exotic plants brought  back by explorers from the tropics – an idea that spread to the Netherlands, England and eventually throughout Europe.  The French called their first greenhouses orangeries, as they protected orange trees from freezing, and by the 17th century, the French displayed their ambition (and sense of style) with the greenhouse at Versailles – 500 feet long, 42 feet wide and 45 feet high.  The Victorians of England, not to be outdone, gave the world the largest greenhouses yet, including the spectacular Kew Gardens.  These domed, glassed, graceful buildings continue to delight the eye, and remind us of how long we’ve been sheltering out most fragile plants, bringing them light while keeping them warm.