Rooftop Gardens Provide Food While Decreasing Energy Costs

---

If it's flat, chances are an architect or environmentalist somewhere will want to plant vegetation on it. Green roofs? Been there. Vertical gardens? Done that. According to Treehugger, the most recent improvement to roofs being installed around the world is rooftop gardens. Specifically, a trend of planting above restaurants, growing food to be used in culinary dishes in the kitchen below, seems to be on the rise:

Now, rooftops around the world are being put to productive use as sources of food. Often they are tied to restaurants; Uncommon Ground in Chicago has a 2500 square foot rooftop garden. The executive chef tell the Chicago Sun-Times: "We just used the peppers from the garden and stuffed them with chorizo. When things from the farm are ready, we'll incorporate it however we can. I come up once a day to see what's ripe and ready.

Head over to Treehugger to see a wide-range of examples of rooftop gardens from New York City to Tokyo. Energy saving benefits aside, from a chef's perspective, I would imagine that the opportunity to experiment with foods and creatively change up the daily menu based on available vegetables would make this idea all the more appealing. And what restaurant patron wouldn't want his food to have fresh, (super) locally grown veggies? It all sounds delicious to me.Photo courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times