I’ve just recorded a corporate voiceover explaining the sustainable cultivation processes used by growers of tomatoes in the Netherlands.

It seems these days they don’t use soil in their greenhouses – instead tomatoes are grown in “stone wool” – a spun mineral product made from volcanic basalt.

Growers prefer it as a growth and cultivation medium it because it allows much greater control of the flow of water and nutrients while the tomatoes are growing. No water or nutrients are lost or wasted as they would be when tomatoes are grown in the traditional way in soil.

After the cultivation season is over this stone wool can then be recycled for use in the building industry – apparently 50 cubic metres of stone wool can make 8 cubic metres of bricks.

While I was recording the voiceover a thought struck me. It occured to me that my voiceover sound booth is made by Netherlands based company Esmono. It’s made with an insulating layer of mineral fibre sandwiched between metal panels. Not only does it attenuate sound brilliantly but I realised the mineral fibre in the panels is what we in the UK call “rock wool” and (what I now know) the Dutch call “stone wool” – so (I wondered) does that mean that my booth is partly made from recycled tomato growing medium?   Or perhaps more interestingly – maybe I could I grow tomatoes in the walls of my booth?

The voiceover narration for Grodan was recorded for Arno at www.lubbinge.nl