Behind The Seeds Tour at Epcot, Walt Disney World

During my trip to Walt Disney World for the Capture the Bite Photography Workshop, we were hosted at a Behind the Seeds Tour at The Land Pavilion. If you are familiar with The Land, this is where Soarin is housed, along with four green houses and a fish farm.

Behind the Seeds is a tour that I have wanted to do for a very long time. If you’ve been on the Living with the Land ride, you've likely seen guests on this tour.

This tour is held daily. starting at 10:30 am. It is a walking tour so be sure to wear comfortable shoes. I by no means have a green thumb (skipped a generation) but this tour still kept my attention the entire hour.

Prior to starting our tour, we had a continental breakfast in The Land. It was the first and probably only time I have ever seen this always busy venue completely empty! Of course everyone had to take a shot of this surreal scene.

Our tour guide was interning at Disney and was quite knowledgeable in the world of horticulture. She was very patient with us too – let me tell you, corralling 11 bloggers is not an easy job!

We started off learning how they use bugs as natural pesticides. If you know me, you know I had zero interest in this and mentally blacked it out, waiting to put some distance between myself and the creepy crawlers.

Next up was seeing how Disney uses hydroponics in their garden, a form of gardening using no soil. I was first introduced to this style of growing vegetables from my father in law. However, his hydroponic garden looked nothing like Disney’s!

We also encountered one of the largest squash I have ever seen.

We saw many vegetables and fruits that Disney uses at its onsite restaurants. In fact, we had edible flowers from here the night before during our dinner at Tiffin’s.

Throughout the tour, we saw scanners where you could get recipes served at Disney restaurants using the produce found at the greenhouse. This particular one was the Tomato and Cucumber Salad found at Sunshine Seasons Restaurant in Epcot!

Moving through, we learned how Disney uses molds to shape some of it’s vegetables. Mickey shaped cucumbers? That will surely help kids eat veggies! Mickey shaped pumpkins?

What I wouldn't give for one of these in October.

What would you make with a Nine Pound Lemon?

We walked through the fish farm and witnessed a variety of fish including some of the largest shrimp I have ever seen in my life. We even saw white catfish! I thought he was albino but this is a variety of the catfish. Other varieties seen were eels, tilapia, catfish and freshwater shrimp

One of my favorite parts of this tour was going to the spice garden. This is typically where you will start your boat cruise once you get inside the greenhouse. It’s always fascinated me on the boat ride, so being that close and personal to the garden itself made me geek out just a bit.

If you my spice cabinet, you would understand my fascination. My name is Megan and I have a spice problem. They played a little game with us, testing our noses with the ground spices. Having 11 food bloggers in one area was a bit funny. I got a few right! We also learned how truly expensive saffron is. I always hate buying it in the store as I can spend the same amount on a bottle of wine.

Overall, this is a great tour if you are into plants and gardening. I am by no means a green thumb but I found the entire experience fascinating. The Behind the Seeds tour is $25 a person and last about an hour long. Click here for more information.