\u201cIt all started with wanting to find a viable solution to my wife\u2019s food allergies,\u201d says Tarren Wolfe<\/strong>, CEO and founder of Urban Cultivator<\/strong>, a line of hydroponic cabinets used to grow herbs and small vegetables. The obvious solution? \u00a0Grow your own but how do you do that in winter when the ground\u2019s frozen? The answer, of course, is to bring the outside, inside and grow the foodstuffs hydroponically.<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago when he picked up his B.F.A, Wolfe had no idea he\u2019d be an international purveyor of garden cabinetry. \u00a0Back then he was a student at the San Francisco Academy of Art University thinking about a career in advertising. The transplanted Canadian (he had an uncle in California) signed up for color, perspective and life drawing before moving into the world of digital graphics and the earlier versions of Photoshop and Illustrator. \u201cI got a feel for a lot of different things,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

Tarren Wolfe ( on the left) with Culinary Arts program Instructor Hong Chew\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

He moved back to Canada. A brief stint in his chosen field didn\u2019t stick. But Wolfe and his buddies came up with another idea. They would make automated growing boxes for the restaurant trade. \u201cThe entrepreneurial side took over as well as a love for growing,\u201d Wolfe remembers.<\/p>\n

The result, and six prototypes later, was the first of its kind, a simple and direct interpretation of the mantra \u2018form follows function\u2019 which Wolfe and his partners dubbed the Urban Cultivator<\/strong>. Standing six and a half feet tall, the units automatically control light, humidity, temperature and watering cycles. The customer plants the seeds, adds fertilizer and voila, the greens are ready to be picked and eaten faster than if they were planted outside.<\/p>\n

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Urban Cultivator for commercial situations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Urban Cultivator in a Restaurant Kitchen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sprouts grown inside the Urban Cultivator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serving fresh food is paramount in the restaurant trade. Even better if you can grow it yourself. That does away with storage, spoilage and carbon emissions because of transportation.\u00a0 And as Wolfe points out, \u201ceating live food has at least double the nutritional value of eating pre-cut food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pea Shoots<\/strong><\/p>\n

Onion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next up, the residential-sized Kitchen Cultivator<\/strong> which Wolfe introduced a year later. \u201cWe attract a clientele that is health conscious and tend to be foodies,\u201d he says. Foodies like to source food locally and what could be more local than having it in your kitchen? \u201cIt seemed like an obvious fit,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

Kitchen Cultivator with a Butcher-block top<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three foot high Kitchen Cultivator functions as a built-in or a stand alone. The size of a dishwasher, it hooks into the home\u2019s existing power and water supply.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wolfe used to sell his Kitchen Cultivators as one-offs. Now, he\u2019s designer savvy, supplying his dealers with special software that allows the in-store designer to create a picture of what their customer\u2019s unit will look like when integrated into their planned or existing kitchen. The model comes with a butcher block top in either maple, ash, oak or walnut. Doors are available in clear glass, crystal glass or, if you prefer, a dark tint. Although seeing your dinner grow in front of your eyes is pretty cool too.\u00a0Bon app\u00e9tit!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

+\u00a0Urban Cultivator<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt all started with wanting to find a viable solution to my wife\u2019s food allergies,\u201d says Tarren Wolfe, CEO and founder of Urban Cultivator, a line of hydroponic cabinets used to grow herbs and small vegetables. The obvious solution? \u00a0Grow your own but how do you do that in winter when the ground\u2019s frozen? The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":45744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4706,357,36],"tags":[539,6954,7184,7761,7762,7760],"yoast_head":"\n