Solas and Sustainable Food – It’s not all about surfing in Sri Lanka
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Solas and Sustainable Food – It’s not all about surfing in Sri Lanka
24th May, 2019
While travel is great for job creation and cultural exchange, ‘over-tourism’ can have negative effects on our host communities and the environment.
At Solas Surf, we have thought about how we can do our bit and be a catalyst for positive change in Sri Lanka. From greening your experience to helping the local community of Ahangama, all it takes are small steps to make your time with us impactful.
We want you to leave us not only with lovely memories of Surfing in Sri Lanka but feeling as if you have “given back”
– SOLAS SURF
We want you to leave us not only with lovely memories of Surfing in Sri Lanka but feeling as if you have “given back”
– SOLAS SURF
WHAT EXACTLY IS SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL?
For us, sustainable travel is not about roughing it in small eco-huts in the wilderness. We at Solas Surf believe that it involves making simple choices to lessen negative impact on a given destination, to preserve resources for future generations. We ourselves are avid experience seekers and travelers, so we know the importance of preservation.
Our guiding principles on sustainable travel are:
Preserving the natural environment and most importantly the surf beaches of Kabalana
Supporting local communities of Ahangama in the long-run
Protecting the cultural heritage of Sri Lanka
Our main focus at the moment is incorporating these sustainable practices to the food we serve our guests food practices at the villa. We are making an effort to reduce our carbon footprint by being conscious about where our food comes from and how it is produced.
“We can’t just consume our way to a more sustainable world. “
– JENNIFER NINI
OUR FOOD & SUSTAINABILITY
We take pride in the food we serve at the villa, it continues to be a journey of experimenting which will not stop! What is consistent at Solas Surf is the quality and freshness of the produce we use. And most importantly, it must meet our ethos. This applies whether it is produced at our very own Secret Garden or sourced from third party suppliers within Sri Lanka.
1. Solas Special Quesedillas | 2. Our Head Chef – Kalum – prepping something tasty for the guests | 3. Refreshing Quinoa Salad
The food items in our menus are curated based on seasonally and locally available fruits and vegetables in Sri Lanka. This means optimization of the harvesting cycle and helping the local growers. Our menus are balanced and generally cater to most dietary preferences. We have the tastiest dishes available to keep you energized before or after your surf and yoga sessions.
Everything produced at our Secret Garden is organically grown in a sustainable manner.
The fruit and vegetable plants are fertilized by our own composted garden and kitchen waste. From inedible fruit skins to vegetable waste to even your brewed tea leaves, these all get collected and composted for re-use as fertilizer in the garden.
Some fresh eggplants, bananas and gotukola straight from our garden
You would love to know that at our Secret Garden we grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and spices including pineapples, mangoes, papayas, bananas, passion fruit, jack fruit, coconuts, beans, chilies, lemon grass, limes, gotukola, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, sweet potato to name a few. We even have our own cashew trees.
We try to have something from our own Secret Garden at every meal at the villa depending on availability. Of course nothing is grown in commercial quantities and someday we hope to supply 100% of Solas’ food needs from here.
1. King Coconuts | 2. Chillies | 3. Spinach Leaves | 4,5,6. Our unique pink pineapples. We have just planted 55 of them.
If you are willing to get your hands dirty, let us know and we can take you down to the garden to help tend to it. You’ll get to enjoy a fresh king coconut straight from the garden and see first hand exactly what we do.
Thilake cutting a fresh coconut picked straight from the tree
THIRD PARTY SOURCING
Apart from our own, we work very closely with local growers to educate them on sustainable and organic practices, this is an example of how we bring local communities in Ahangama to profit from you. We make sure they know this and they are so appreciative of helping their livelihoods.
We also source our seafood fresh from the nearby towns of Weligama and Mirissa which are known for their amazing catch of Tuna, Mahi Mahi & Prawns.
Our responsibility is about educating communities on long term benefits of sustainable and organic farming. It is about making people realise the long term gains over short term profit.
Tourism leads to many unsustainable and unethical practices driven by demand and quick profits. We at Solas Surf will never be driven down this path.
THILAKE & SURANGA – our local growers who take care of our garden throughout the year. They love taking guests around and showing them all the produce.
WHAT OUR GUESTS HAVE TO SAY
“Was it with the amazing food or always keeping the place in immaculate conditions. The Solas Secret Salad was a must for lunch to get the energy levels back up after the great surf lessons.”
– TOMAS
“The food was amazing, thoughtfully thought out menu catering for all tastes. The curry night was my favourite and one of the tastiest I tasted in Sri Lanka “
– KRISTIN
“The in-house kitchen staff cooks the most delicious of meals using fresh local produce, both healthy and tasty, I miss the food already.”
– FLORIS
As you can see, some of our past guests have been blown away by the delicious food available at the villa. We don’t want to brag or anything so you’ll have to come try it for yourself!
Any feedback welcome
Please don’t hesitate to shout out if you see something we can improve on with regards to sustainability, as there is always more we can do. At Solas Surf, we are all about listening and embracing your thoughts and values.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
– ROBERT SWAN
Written by: Anosha De Saram | Owner of Solas Surf Sri Lanka
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Solas Surf Sri Lanka
Solas invites you to Ahangama, a tropical paradise that boasts a vibrant community and some of the island’s most unique and uncrowded surfing spots.