The St. John Restaurant’s harvesting season has just started… Bringing produce they grow in their greenhouse such as tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce to the restaurant.
The St. John Restaurant farm-to-table director Luke Dugas said this is the only restaurant in the area using a greenhouse farm-to-table program.
Dugas, a St. Martinville native, graduated from LSU with a degree in environmental engineering. After graduating in 2021 he spent time traveling around the country designing and installing indoor farming facilities until he was called home to plan and design the hydroponic greenhouse at The St. John Restaurant.
Dugas said the greenhouse opened a year ago and this year they are set to provide 2/3 of produce at their restaurant. They use a “Dutch bucket” hydroponic system where a nutrient reservoir is filled with water. The technique eliminates soil by using nutrients in place- lessening their footprint.
Every hour a pump runs irrigating all the plants at once and water will drain through the bucket through the reservoir which is then recycled.
“It is all about food with a story,” said Dugas. “So, we have some really loyal guests who come to our restaurant. And this is a way to give them a more premium product and it also aligns with the story about our food, where it’s coming from the traceability of our food and just the localness of it too.”
Dugas said the benefits of growing produce in a hydroponic greenhouse are having control over outside factors such as pests and predators, as we as the nutrients in the produce. He said they are also able to test pH levels of the water and nutrients – and only use organic-based pesticides and fertilizers.
“Growing in a greenhouse it falls under controlled environment agriculture,” Dugas said. “So, we’re growing with some controls compared to growing outside where you’re subject to the elements, the rain the weather. So, by controlling the environment it allows us to really focus on growing and not on the different variables and conditions that can affect the plants.”
Dugas said he faced challenges growing produce in Louisiana's humidity during summer and it has so far been a learning process. This year they are set to grow 200 tomato and cucumber plants and estimate that one tomato plant can produce 40 pounds of tomatoes.
