Developing a green thumb can be a daunting task at first. As who wants to put their hands in the mud? But, this is a medium to get food on our plate and maintain ecological diversity. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learnt the hard lesson of growing our own food and being sustainable. And like many other things in life, gardening also involves various skills and guidance of experts.

V. M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE), situated at Raia, in south Goa has taken the right steps in this direction. The backyard of this campus spread over an area of 1050 square meters is dedicated to a kitchen garden that is brimming with life. This beautiful backyard space is now part of the Institute’s Kitchen Garden where students are encouraged to hone their gardening skills and grow food.

Here, under the guidance of Associate Professor of Food Production, Sujatha Madhavan, an attempt is made to grow local vegetables, fruits and herbs which can supplement the Institute’s pantry and at the same time teach a skill to the students which they can use throughout their life.

“The idea of this kitchen garden was initiated by Prof. Irfan Mirza in the year 2014. In these seven years, the garden has grown leaps and bounds as one can find a variety of fruiting trees like papaya, soursop, litchi, custard apple, ramphal, pomegranate, chickoo, banana, mango, pineapple, passion fruit, rambutan, mulberry, snake fruit, fig plant, guava, pomelo, black guava, orange, miracle fruit, red guava, Thailand mango and jamuns,” explains Chef Madhavan.

The team is also focussed on growing local vegetables like bitter gourd, types of beans, leafy vegetables, and even a herbal garden that consists of herbs like mint, celery, curry leaves, bay leaves, coriander, Thai basil, lemon basil, peppermint, sage, allspice, rosemary, bishops weed (ajwain leaves), and lemongrass.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text]Madhavan explains that the garden also has a dedicated space for beekeeping. “It is an ideal way to harvest honey and also at the same time this practice invites bees in the garden that helps in pollination”, she explains. VMSIIHE believes in practical methods of learning and nurturing a kitchen garden.
The team invites experts to conduct workshops on a regular basis. Mr. Miguel Braganza, an expert on agriculture in Goa who is also a member of the Botanical Society of Goa and of Agriculture Officers Association, Goa has hosted sessions in the past. “He explained some basic and excellent methods of gardening on how to plant herbs in a bottle, germinate seeds, preparing the soil, mulching method, etc.” explained Chef Madhavan.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6997″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text]Along with these initiatives, the team is also utilizing the food waste generated from the Institute’s kitchen, explains Chef Madhavan, “The campus has a bio-digester plant that converts the wet kitchen waste into organic waste using a shredder and OWC (Organic waste converter) machine. This is then converted into manure which is used in the kitchen garden. The capacity of this plant is 10 kilogram per cycle.”

This exercise not only provides fresh manure to the garden but also plays an important role in stopping the waste from being dumped into the landfill. The institute also has a water filtering plant at the campus where after the process of aeration, filtration, and chemical treatment, the water is used for gardening. The institute is conscious of food consumption and works on reducing food waste. This has earned VMSIIHE to be the first Hospitality Institute to achieve the honor of being certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as an Eat Right Campus with a five-star rating.

Such interesting and innovative ways by VMSIIHE regarding food, right from the way it is grown to the way it is cooked, eaten, and re-purposed as manure, speak volumes about its dedication towards food.