Qatar 365 invites you to taste initiatives with a farm to table flavour, pushing individuals towards more sustainable practices
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00:00It's not common to see in a city hotel where heads of state, presidents, prime ministers,
00:08royalties, they come and stay in the hotel, to see in their garden where you have kids
00:12playing with the goat.
00:13Hadika means garden in Arabic.
00:15And our goal is to add gardening and promote sustainable living to everyone in the Gulf.
00:23Hello and welcome to Qatar 365 with me, Adel Halim.
00:27On this episode, we go digging for some initiatives hoping to plant the seed of nurture and nature
00:31in children and we meet the man who built Qatar's leading food delivery app.
00:36But first, we're at the award-winning Ritz Carlton Doha where Laila Humaira looks at
00:41how the hotel built a city garden while also satisfying a growing appetite for farm-to-table
00:46dining experiences.
00:48Goats, ducks, geese and turkey.
00:54It's not what you usually find in the middle of a city, let alone a five-star luxury hotel.
01:01But here at the award-winning Ritz Carlton Doha, a team led by general manager Carlo
01:06Giavacchia is redefining luxurious city escapes and the concept of farm stay by combining
01:13the best of both worlds.
01:16It's not common to see in a city hotel where heads of state, presidents, prime ministers,
01:21royalties, they come and stay in the hotel to see in their garden where you have kids
01:26playing with the goats.
01:27Today, the farm is doing so well that some of the animals, like the goats and turkey,
01:33have given birth to offspring and laid eggs.
01:37They live here all year round and for all 365 days are taken care of by a professional
01:43team of horticulturalists and veterinarians.
01:48Another part of the hotel's farming initiative is the Herbs and Vegetables Garden, which
01:53aims to plant a seed of interest in gardening in the young.
01:57First of all, welcome to the Ritz Kids Garden.
02:00Here you can see we have beautiful papaya trees.
02:04Actually, let me cut one for you.
02:08From papaya to mint to asparagus and even local herbs like za'atar, the garden was built
02:15from scratch using repurposed materials.
02:19We have beautiful herbs.
02:20We're growing them by ourselves.
02:21The material we have chosen and selected, we used old furniture, tabletops.
02:28So tabletops, we make those beautiful herb bins.
02:31The garden offers a variety of fruits, herbs and vegetables that not only stimulate the
02:37senses and spark curiosity in the minds of visitors, but also provides the freshest ingredients
02:43for the culinary team.
02:45It's another step in the hotel's commitment to serve more homegrown produce to the plates
02:50of its guests and hopefully leave them wanting more.
02:56Farmer's Brunch definitely is not something new as a concept, but how it is executed here
03:00and how it is kept authentic.
03:03Many kids, they don't know how the fresh basil looks like or how the oregano looks like,
03:08how many other ingredients look like.
03:10So they can pick the cherry tomatoes, they can pick the fresh herbs.
03:14The hot summer months of Qatar haven't stopped the healthy yields from the garden.
03:19And Carlos says it's all in the farming technique.
03:23Everyone's perception is that because of the weather in the summer in Qatar that you can't
03:27have any vegetables or herbs in the garden, but that's not the case.
03:31You just need to know how to cultivate the soil, what kind of plants to use, how to preserve
03:37that, what kind of environment to create for that.
03:40And from the reception the hotel has gotten so far, it's made everyone hungry for more,
03:46which is a request Carlos and his team are happy to satisfy.
03:50I already see that there is a demand from our clientele to enlarge our farm and we will
03:56be doubling its size and we will be doubling the species.
03:59The good thing with our resort is we have a massive land and the sky's the limit.
04:06As far as we have an appetite to create things and experiences for our guests, we can do a lot.
04:15That idea of farm to table places a high value on putting local first.
04:19The same can be said for Sununu, one of Qatar's leading food delivery services.
04:24I recently got a chance to sit down with founder and CEO Hamid Alhajri to find out how Sununu
04:28has emerged as Qatar's fastest growing tech startup.
04:32Hamid, you stated your goal is to become Qatar's first unicorn, which is a startup with a valuation
04:37of a billion dollars.
04:38How close are you?
04:39When it comes to distance, we are like 70% far, so we are about $300 billion at this
04:46stage.
04:47But the aim is not the money.
04:48Unicorn is just one of the aspirations.
04:50It's about how we can change people's life in the Middle East to be faster and better
04:56by using the technology we have.
04:58Speaking of changing people's lives, in 2017, you were living a life many people dream of.
05:03You had a comfortable life, you had a stable job at Qatar Energy, but then you walked away
05:07from it all to start your own startup.
05:09What gave you the confidence to do so?
05:11Yes, so basically you as a human, you have two direction in your life, or two paths.
05:17And to define these two paths, you need to think, what if I became 70 years old and look
05:23backward?
05:25How do I look like to that life I spent?
05:27Is it something I will be proud of, something that will be historical, or just an ordinary
05:34personal life?
05:35So basically, yes, I was comfortable life, but it was ordinary life like everyone here
05:41in Qatar.
05:42It's not the path of the champion.
05:44It's the path to be ordinary and live your life, enjoy your life, and that's it.
05:49This is not me.
05:50I want to build something.
05:51But with great challenge, you're going to gain more muscle and growth, and you'll be
05:56stronger through the time.
05:58But at the end of the tunnel, there is light.
06:00When you reach that light, your character will be changed from a normal person to be
06:05a champion.
06:06So what were some of the challenges you faced on the road to becoming Qatar's first one-stop
06:11e-commerce mobile app?
06:13So I started with a mobile app.
06:15I was very excited about it.
06:17Yeah, I think the biggest challenge was the fundraising, because here in Qatar, people
06:22believe in real estate, manufacturing, hotels.
06:27Technology is not something from our area.
06:31My last question is my toughest question.
06:33With the world's cuisine at your fingertips, what's your go-to food order on Sununu?
06:38Yeah, that is actually, you'll laugh if I tell you.
06:44My best order, always, from one small restaurant, cooking Qatari dishes, but fishes.
06:51So here in Qatar, we love fish, especially on Friday.
06:54I recommend you to try it.
06:56It's called...
07:00...Al-Burnoush.
07:01So that's the restaurant name.
07:03And basically, it has very nice safi fish with the muhammar.
07:09Muhammar is basically mixed between rice and sugar, because before, you know, when people
07:16go for the pear, they need to mix the sugar with the rice to survive, you know, this hunger
07:22in the middle of the sea.
07:24So that is actually my favorite food.
07:26I like to order...
07:27My last order was two days ago.
07:29So yeah, no one knows this order, but I know it's very good.
07:35Now it's time to get our hands a little dirty.
07:37I've come to the Education City Micro Farm, where the folks here hope for a day where
07:41every home in the Middle East has its own sustainable garden.
07:45To help inspire, the Little Gardeners Academy uses interactive activities to help children
07:50grow a love for nature at an early age.
07:54Let's go pick some.
07:56What's that?
07:58That's the birdhouse.
08:00The birdhouse? You were just looking at it.
08:02Yeah.
08:03You want to smell it?
08:04Yes.
08:06Guess what?
08:07Jama regularly brings her kids to the Hadika Micro Farm in Education City.
08:12Here, they attend the Little Gardeners Academy.
08:15She says it's important to give her kids experiences she didn't have in London.
08:20Growing up a city kid myself, I sort of craved having the outdoor space for my kids.
08:27And my daughter's on the spectrum, so she had a real aversion, like, to anything, soil.
08:33I had the 101 Dalmatians.
08:36That's on Thursday.
08:38Yeah, she's been there.
08:39Miss Vera likes mine.
08:41We're talking about gardening now.
08:43So when we first started coming, she really had a problem with just being in the space entirely.
08:48So I, instead of giving up, I was like, no, I'm going to help get her through this,
08:55slowly, slowly, and now we're here all the time.
08:58I didn't want them to be in front of a screen.
09:00It's not conducive to my daughter's diagnosis as well.
09:04So just trying to find things that are outside of the home has been perfect.
09:09And getting them...
09:10And you'd be amazed at the amount of skills that they picked up.
09:14Like, my son regularly helps me with saving seeds,
09:17and it's like fine motor skills that you...
09:19There's things about it that you didn't even think about or imagine, and it's amazing.
09:24The seasonal Little Gardeners Academy is the brainchild of agricultural engineer Vicky Dalmaloo,
09:30who co-founded Hadika in 2020.
09:33Hadika means garden in Arabic, and our goal is to add gardening
09:37and promote sustainable living to everyone in the Gulf.
09:41Vicky and her co-founder wanted to make gardening fun for kids.
09:45They believe more hands-on exposure to nature will take away their fear of insects
09:50and getting their hands dirty.
09:53So, one thing I really enjoy is the beauty that I see around me, the transformation of a space.
09:58If we see photos from the space, when we first came here, it was like desert, basically.
10:03And then with the effort of the community, it has transformed a lot.
10:07Also, I enjoy the calmness it brings.
10:09We develop patience, of course, because we have to wait.
10:12It gives you a sense of relaxation in the rushed daily life.
10:17What began as a Facebook group in 2017 to help gardeners share best practices
10:21for the region's harsh climate has blossomed into this academic greenhouse.
10:25The Little Gardeners Academy gives budding green thumbs hands-on experience
10:29in hopes of nurturing a love for nature.
10:32Children as young as three years old can try their hand at gardening,
10:36while learning valuable life lessons along the way.
10:39Eight-year-old Lucia explains why she looks forward to dropping by the academy.
10:44I've learned that some insects that people don't like are very useful,
10:51like a moth, because a moth pollinates flowers, and that helps them grow.
11:01Organizers hope all gardeners, big and small,
11:04will put the lessons they learn at the Little Gardeners Academy into practice.
11:08So, we have a lot of people who are interested in gardening,
11:13so the most important thing is to educate people.
11:17If the adults learn, of course they can do it,
11:20but if we educate the younger generation, then we can keep it for a longer period,
11:25and then this will pass on to the later generations.
11:29They will all know how to actually care for their plants and live in a greener environment.
11:34From five-star hotels to Little Gardeners,
11:37farm-to-table was a common theme on this episode.
11:40We hope you enjoyed this peek beneath the surface,
11:43but that's all the time we have for now.
11:45For more, check out euronews.com and connect with us through a hashtag.
11:48Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time on Qatar 365.