Behind The Seeds-Epcot
Do you love the ride Living with the Land at Epcot? Have you eaten at The Garden Grill and wondered about the source of the delicious produce? Did you know that you can actually take a one hour tour of the four greenhouses and fish farm that you see on the ride and learn all about the gardening and natural science approaches that they take at Disney?
Living with the land is one of our favorites (mostly because it’s so long and relaxing and we love to try to find all the hidden Mickeys), so when we found out there was a backstage tour for only $35 per person we decided we had to give it a try!!
I went in with low expectations. How much more could you learn after being on the ride? But I have to be honest, we were super impressed. We loved the exclusive feel of being backstage while all the boats went buy, and we learned so many cool facts about the plants (and fish) they produce at Epcot! The guide Emily, was friendly, entertaining, and knowledgeable.
You learn about pest control and how they create their own wasps, then you move on to learn about how they protect themselves with backup supplies of their produce by way of cuttings. The third and longest phase of the tour is in the greenhouse’s. You go through several and learn about all the different plants, how they control the growth, the technology they use, sustainability, they even tell you the PH levels of the nutrients they feed the plants!
We got to enjoy a bite of a cucumber which was a fun treat we were not expecting! Some fun facts we learned were that they harvest their lettuce about once a week (they have two giant displays of it and they rotate the harvest). We also learned that the sand is anywhere between 3-5 feet deep wherever you see it and gives the plants support.
When we got to the fish farm, we spent the majority of our time with the Tilapia. We got to feed them which was also a fun surprise! We also learned that they stay in the fish farm for about 18 months before harvest. After 18 months they harvest about 50 a day. A lot of them go to the China pavilion but she mentioned that a lot go to Tippins as well. All the shrimp you see are just for show! They don’t harvest the shrimp at Epcot.
The last stop of the tour was the final greenhouse (the first one you enter in the ride) and we got to see a magnificent 21 year old pepper Mickey plant. It is not visible from the boat ride and was a true highlight for me (I love finding the hidden Mickeys in the ride, and Emily shared that there are 13).
If you can get the reservation (you must do this ahead of time on the app as they were completely booked for the day) I definitely recommend going behind the seeds!!
