Orlar’s system – now a business that supplies Vietnam’s top 200 restaurants and most middle-class supermarkets – uses greenhouses, with light and warmth provided gratis by the sun. The key, though, is in the secret rock. It has three seemingly magical properties: enormous thermal mass, the ability to retain water against the pull of gravity and an affinity for microbes.
Because such a microbe mix generates ultra-healthy plants, no chemicals are applied and only minimal amounts of organic-certified pesticides and synthetic fertiliser.