Quinta do Lago launches ‘Farm to Fork’ initiative

Quinta do Lago, situated in the Algarve in Portugal, has launched a new ‘Farm to Fork’ initiative, designed to nurture residents and protect their health during lockdown. 

As part of the programme, the resort delivers homegrown immunity-boosting juices direct to residents’ front doors. The juices are a firm favourite at Quinta’s Pure Café, where the team press organic ingredients into nutritious drinks – all made from the resort’s sustainable Quinta Farm.

Drinks include B Banana Juice, which is packed full of vitamins A, C, B6 and K, and The Detox Juice, made up of cucumber, pineapple, mint, and lime – ensuring fresh and flavoursome stimulation.

The delivery service ensures that residents are looked after whilst areas of the resort are closed and forms part of its ongoing sustainability strategy, which has been designed to protect and nurture the surrounding 2,000 acres of Ria Formosa Natural Park.

The establishment of Quinta Farm, which provides the ingredients for the juices, has widened the culinary team’s creative boundaries, enabling them to introduce more local ingredients; providing inspiration for new recipes and fresh produce for existing ones.

The farm has also improved the resort’s impact on the environment. The farm is dedicated to reducing the resort’s overall carbon footprint by limiting packaging, sourcing seeds from local nurseries, propagating in-house, and replanting more heirloom varieties of produce grown from existing plants.

To do this and maintain variety, the farm grows seasonal vegetables, without the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilisers, while also harvesting more specialised ingredients that can be hard to come by.

“Quinta Farm is an incredible resource. Restaurants in Quinta have long been known for quality and creativity, but the addition of our Farm has elevated this,” commented Gareth Billington, Quinta do Lago’s Executive Chef.

“It’s a big operation, but it gives us the ability to use a vast range of fresh produce that is cut and delivered to the Pure Cafe in the morning and made into a delicious juice in no time. It’s a great way to ensure we are taking good care of our residents too – particularly at such a challenging time.”