Sanele Madlala, head chef at the St James on Venice Boutique Hotel in Morningside has created a notable eco-friendly hydroponic garden at the hotel.
Update: Nomhlophe Gogo has recently been appointed as new head chef but the hydroponic garden lives on as designed by Sanele.
Hydroponic gardens are essentially gardens that don’t make use of soil to nourish the contents of the garden. This method of gardening uses water to dissolve nutrients that are usually derived from soil, the plants’ roots are suspended in the water allowing it to absorb the essential nutrients needed to grow. The newly installed garden at The St James on Venice Boutique Hotel is used to grow delicious fresh vegetables such as lettuce, pea shoots, peppers and spinach to name just a few.
These delicious vegetables are picked as often as possible. Although the hotel has one of the very first hydroponic gardens in Durban it also boasts a regular vegetable and herb garden which also produces thyme, rosemary and coriander that gets used daily in the preparation of meals for guests.
It’s great to see such a prominent hotel in Durban taking such initiative to become more eco- friendly and utilising fresh ingredients in their dishes.
Directions to The Saint James on Venice
100 Venice Road
Morningside
Durban
031 101 3060
