Questions growers ask
Growing for restaurants, answered plainly.
The questions growers ask about selling to chefs, running a kitchen garden and keeping a standing weekly order — answered first in a sentence. Then what Ortalio is built to do, and what it never claims.
The trade’s questions
Growing for a kitchen
How do I sell produce or microgreens to restaurants?
Start with the chef, not the manager: take samples, send a short availability list of what you can grow reliably, agree a delivery day and keep to it. Consistency matters more to a kitchen than variety, so promise only what you can supply every week.
What is an availability list?
The short list a grower sends the chef, usually each week, of what is ready and roughly how much, so the chef can order from it. You write it from your crop plan and the week’s harvests — which Ortalio is built to keep side by side.
How does succession planting keep a kitchen supplied?
By sowing the same crop again at intervals, so the next planting is ready as the last one finishes and the kitchen never runs short. The interval is yours: it depends on the crop, the season and how much the chef takes each week. Ortalio is built to plan the next sowing before the last harvest.
How should I price microgreens for a restaurant?
From your own costs per tray — seed, growing medium, light, labor, packaging and delivery — and the pack size the chef wants, then check what nearby growers charge. Prices vary too much from city to city to quote one here.
What’s the difference between microgreens and sprouts?
Microgreens grow in light, in soil or on a mat, and are cut above the root once their first leaves open. Sprouts are germinated seeds eaten whole, root and all. Kitchens buy them as different products.
The trade’s questions
On the client’s site
What does an edible landscaping or kitchen-garden service cover?
Usually the design and planting, then regular visits to sow, feed, weed, protect and harvest, often with the kitchen picking between visits. What is in and out is agreed with the client, and it’s worth writing down in the proposal.
Who looks after a restaurant’s or hotel’s rooftop garden?
Often an outside garden company on a visit rhythm, with the kitchen harvesting day to day. That company needs a record of each visit the chef and the hotel can read without asking.
Can I plan the season’s crops with the chef?
Yes, and growers commonly do: sit down with the head or executive chef before the season, agree what goes in where and when, and keep the plan up to date as the menu changes.
How often should a kitchen garden be visited?
As often as the crops and the kitchen need — the rhythm is agreed with the client and changes with the season. Ortalio is built to repeat a program’s garden visits on the Growing Calendar on the rhythm you set.
The trade’s questions
Delivering
How does a standing weekly order with a restaurant work?
The chef agrees a regular order — what, how much and on which days — and you plan your sowings to fill it, adjusting week by week as the menu changes.
When should I deliver to a restaurant?
Outside service, on the day agreed with the chef. Ask each kitchen for its receiving window, and keep to it.
What if a crop is short on delivery day?
Tell the chef before you arrive, deliver what you have and note what was short, so the invoice and the record match. Ortalio is built to log a short on the delivery itself.
Should I invoice per delivery or once a month?
Either works — agree it with the kitchen. Many growers invoice a standing weekly order per delivery; others put a month’s deliveries on one invoice. Ortalio is built to do both.
About Ortalio
The record and reports
What does Ortalio record?
It is built to record each chef request, the crop plan and its successions, plantings, EC and pH readings on hydroponic stations against the range you set, each harvest, and each delivery against the order — on the client’s site or on your own farm.
Does it work for my own farm as well as a client’s garden?
Yes, that is how it is built: a site can be the client’s property or your own farm, each with its own beds, towers, racks and channels.
Does the report go to the chef on its own?
No. The Garden & Harvest Report leaves only when you send it: because the chef asked, because you chose to, or on the rhythm you set for that kitchen. Your company’s name is on it, and the chef opens it from an email, as a PDF or through a link.
Is Ortalio a food-safety or traceability system?
No. It keeps a working record the chef can read — what was planned, cut and delivered, and when. It doesn’t certify food safety, trace produce for a regulator, or certify anything as organic.
Does it forecast yields or connect to sensors?
No yield forecasts, no sensors and no live monitoring or alerts. Readings are the ones you log on the visit, shown against the range you set.
What does the AI do?
It drafts a short summary of a visit or a month from what you logged, and you edit it before anything is sent. It doesn’t recommend crops or predict harvests.
Who owns the record?
You do. Your clients see only what you choose to send them.
About Ortalio
Pricing and launch
When does Ortalio launch?
Soon. Claim early access on the homepage and you’ll hear first when it opens.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, from launch: The Operation, free for 14 days, with no card asked for. The trial carries 750 AI interactions, and once those are spent the rest of Ortalio carries on as normal.
How much does it cost?
Three plans, priced per month in your market’s own currency, with about 20% off when you pay yearly.
Can I add people to my team?
Yes. Every plan comes with its own number of users, and The Operation and The Portfolio let you add people beyond that.
Ortalio keeps the record of what you planned, read, cut and delivered. It does not certify food safety, trace produce for a regulator or forecast yields: the record is yours, and the kitchen reads what you choose to send.
Founding access
Ask your own question when we open.
Founding access is open to the growers who supply restaurants and hotels. Claim it and you’ll hear first when Ortalio opens.
Launching with a 14-day free trial. No card needed.