Why Are Microgreens Often Referred To As Cash Crops?

July 14, 2021

Food prices have been dropping for a couple of decades. These days they are barely covering the costs of a farming business. Microgreens in particular are an exception to this paradigm. If you grow smart, these little shoots can help create a very profitable operation.

Smart Farmers elaborates on how growing microgreens can be profitable. 

Microgreens sell at high prices to specific niches: chefs, foodies, or just people who pursue a healthy lifestyle because their exceptionally high nutrient density attracts customers who choose a healthy lifestyle. They contain higher vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant levels than mature vegetables. In fact, research comparing microgreens to their mature counterparts report that nutrient levels can be up to 40x higher.

Besides, the flavor of microgreens is so intense that chefs and foodies go nuts over these babies. In addition, they are perfect to use as plate decorations and come in many different varieties. If you decide to only grow microgreens, you’ll still be able to offer a wide variety of products. There are at least 25 types that are commercially popular, and the market still allows for more exploration. 

A big advantage for growers is that they can provide up to 35 harvests per year. Depending on the variety, microgreens only need 1 to 2 weeks to grow. Even if for some reason, something goes wrong with a batch, you won’t miss out on an entire seasonal income.

Read the complete article at: Vertical Farm Daily:

For more information:
Smart farmers
www.smartfarmers.eu 

USA - MARYLAND: A New Farm In Hyattsville Is Growing Microgreens For Delivery

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Posted on May 25, 2021

by Alison Beckwith

A new farm in Hyattsville, which opened earlier this year, is focusing on growing freshly harvested microgreens for delivery.

Working out of his childhood home in the neighborhood of University Hills in Hyattsville, owner Max Fetter is growing microgreens including sunflower, pea, and buckwheat shoots; radishes; kale and broccoli for sale through Leafcutter Farm.

Without adequate sunlight or outdoor space for larger vegetables, Fetter told the Hyattsville Wire he and his partner, environmental planner Emma Prindle, are growing everything on shelves using LED lights.

“We are constantly experimenting and have grown over 30 varieties of microgreens, trying out each to see what will work at our small scale,” he told the Hyattsville Wire. ” We wish we had known how ridiculously versatile, nutritious, and flavorful microgreens are … we would’ve been growing and eating them for years!”

Fetter previously worked full-time at Dicot Farm in Waldorf and ECO City Farms in Edmonston, where he learned about growing larger vegetables while studying microgreen farming online. He hopes to add herbs and larger salad greens in the near future.

The farm takes its name from the leafcutter bee, which brings small bits of leaves home to build a nest, which Fetter said seemed like a “cute representation” of their microgreen delivery service.

You can buy from Leafcutter on its online shop, which offers free delivery every Monday to homes within a three-mile radius, or at Shopkeepers boutique in D.C. You can also get microgreens delivered throughout D.C. and other suburbs in Maryland. Containers come in two-and-a-half ounce to four-ounce ranging from $6 to $12 per container.

Meanwhile, 2Fifty Texas BBQ in Riverdale Park has partnered with Leafcutter Farm to grow an edible garden in front of its barbecue eatery and New Brooklyn Farms out of Mount Rainier has also partnered with Leafcutter previously.

BRITISH COLUMBIA: Whistler Harvest Corp. Announces Launch of Operations

Pemberton, BC Canada - May 20, 2021 - Whistler Harvest Corp., an indoor vertical farming company based in the Sea-to-Sky region of British Columbia, is pleased to announce that is launched and harvesting its first crops.

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The Company was founded in March 2021 and began growing its signature microgreens, salad mixes, and gourmet mushrooms in early April.  The Company provides its customers with microgreens and mushrooms the same day that they are harvested all year-round.  Our products are available at our Pemberton farm, selected farmer markets, restaurants, and online. 

 The microgreens market is driven by chefs that use them as flavor enhancements and as colorful garnishes on their plates but there is another niche industry that pushes new growth within this segment, cosmetics. These microgreens are processed into oils and ingredients for consumer items like shampoo and skincare products. Microgreens contain a lot of vitamin A&B in addition to many other micro-elements, making them very attractive ingredients for personal care product manufacturers.

Local. Fresh. Now. Our mission to create meaningful relationships with the food we nurture and to strive on providing locally grown, healthy food for our communities. Every day is a perfect day inside our farm.

Whistler Harvest Corp.

www.whistlerharvest.ca

(phone)  778.569.0717

(email) sales@whistlerharvest.ca 

P A D D Y  S M Y T H

www.whistlerharvest.com

US: NORTH CAROLINA: CraftGrown Farms Offers Fresh Microgreens, Lettuce And Herbs

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BY JESSICA MAURER

March 10, 2021

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CraftGrown Farms involves a hydroponic farm on Castle Street. (Photo courtesy of CraftGrown Farms)

Randall Rhyne’s career has included teaching high school biology and earth science as well as serving in the Army Reserve, with deployments to Iraq and Syria.

After visiting Wilmington last year, he fell in love with the city and decided to relocate from Virginia.

While serving overseas, Rhyne and his unit often had little to no access to fresh food, relying on MREs or snacks like Pop-Tarts. He often longed for fresh produce.

One spring when he was in the Syrian desert, he saw trucks hauling locally grown produce and found himself thinking that if the locals were able to grow their own food in the middle of a civil war, in a desert, there was no reason why he couldn’t do this at home. As soon as he returned to Virginia, Rhyne got to work.

Now, having secured a Castle Street storefront and growing space across from Luna Café on Castle Street last fall, Rhyne has created CraftGrown Farms, an indoor, hydroponic farm selling nutrient-dense microgreens, hydroponic lettuce, and herbs to local restaurants and the public.

All of the growing is done inside, allowing CraftGrown Farms to produce year-round and the ability to expand its growing capacity.

Rhyne said the response so far has been remarkable; in fact, he’s already outgrown his initial vertical grow system.

“It’s a great problem to have,” Rhyne said.

He said new customers are usually so excited about what they’ve tried that they want to take home more than they need.

“I’m an old school believer in the quality of the sale and even though these items have a good shelf life, I try to discourage people from buying too much at once,” Rhyne said.

CraftGrown Farms only harvests what it sells, so the produce is picked right in front of the customer, providing maximum flavor and freshness.

There are currently about a dozen microgreen blends available, as well as leafy greens such as kale, arugula, and tatsoi. The microgreens will keep in a vegetable crisper for two weeks, and all of the lettuce is sold with the root ball intact to preserve flavor and freshness.

“These are not your everyday lettuces,” Rhyne said.

CraftGrown Farms is located at 603 Castle St. and is open from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Have a tip for Restaurant Roundup? Email us at: restaurant@wilmingtonbiz.com.

Aquaponics In The Heart of Zurich

They produce greens, but they travel to work by streetcar and don't need to put on weatherproof clothing. That's because Umami employees will harvest vegetables and herbs already in the early growth stages, as so-called microgreens. And they do so in a largely self-built facility, on the 4th floor of an office building in Zurich's Kreis 4 district.

Full-time producers instead of restaurant operators
In the beginning, the three friends Manuel Vock, Robin Bertschinger and Denis Weinberg wanted to open a restaurant. They wanted to produce half of the products themselves. At the same time, Manuel Vock was researching aquaponics systems for his bachelor's thesis. He introduced the principle to his friends, and the team began building a prototype set-up in a former archive in 2016.

That was the end of their restaurant plan and at the same time the beginning of completely self-produced food. The guys grew several varieties of microgreens and sold them to restaurateurs who were excited to have a regional product. "Up to that point, microgreens from the Netherlands were the only alternative," says Luca Grandjean, who joined the team of Umamigos (as Umami employees call themselves) in 2019.

The aquapinic facility / Image: Umami

Microgreens
Microgreens, unlike sprouts, grow on a substrate or in soil, require light and nutrients, and are consumed without roots. They are vegetables or spice plants that are harvested immediately after their cotyledons develop. As a result, microgreens contain a high concentration of vitamins and trace elements. The small plants are used as nutritional supplements and can add sweetness and spice to different dishes.

Fish excrement as fertilizer
Regionality is not the only plus of the little plants. Umami grows the microgreens in a cycle based on nature; the only input is fish feed. But even this is actually food waste and, additionally, insects that Umami produces via scraps.

African cichlids (tilapias) and other fish species swim in various tanks, and their excretions enrich the water with nitrogen and other micronutrients. The enriched water flows into the system to the tray on which the microgreens thrive.

These are sown on a hemp-based substrate and positioned in hard trays so that their roots can touch the water, absorbing the nutrients. The water, now purified by the plants, flows back to the fish, who recharge it. Thanks to this recirculation system, only about 1% of the water needs to be replaced with fresh drinking water each month. "That's about two bathtubs full of water. Just what is lost to evaporation," Grandjean says.

Aquaponics
Aquaponics refers to a process in food production that combines raising fish in aquaculture and cultivating crops in hydroponics. There are various combinations, such as the cultivation of tomatoes and the production of tilapias, as described in this article.

Not just fish and microgreens are part of the 'ecosystem', as the Umamigos like to call their jungle. Mussels, shrimp, snails, algae and many other plants also contribute to the Umami ecosystem. "We are copying nature. Yet we have learnt that the more players there are in the cycle, the better the system works," says Luca Grandjean. This might seem to be a contradiction, but he explains: "If there are just two actors in the system and something happens to one of them, the system is quickly unbalanced."

Nomen est omen
Their most important element, he says, is Zurich's tap water; it sets the pace. "We have no soil percolation, 95% less water loss than conventional agricultural systems," Grandjean says.

Environmentally-friendly production, free of chemicals, strikes a chord with consumers. Above all, however, the products have to taste right, says Luca Grandjean. It's no coincidence that the three friends named their startup Umami when they founded it in 2015. The Japanese word means tasty or spicy, and is one of the five basic tastes, alongside sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

"The glutamate found in meat, for example, tastes umami," Grandjean explains. He adds: "The microgreens are very palatable and don't contain glutamate, but our fish do." He is referring to the license to sell fish that the Umamigos recently obtained.

For more information: https://www.eat-umami.ch/  

SCOTLAND: Elevate Your Meals With Microgreens Produced by Aberdeenshire’s Vertical Shoots Urban Farms

by Karla Sinclair

18/02/2021

Vertical Shoots Urban Farms produces an array of microgreens in Westhill, Aberdeenshire. © Supplied by Brindha Shayana

Turning your hobby into a business is not always the goal. But when Brindha Shayana and Sathya Vasudevan discovered their passions for vertical farming, they knew it was the only way forward.

Both qualified engineers working in the oil, gas, and service sector, Brindha and Sathya were eager to switch things up and start with a clean slate. This was to involve growing microgreens in their Westhill-based home.

And now, two years on, their produce can be seen in a line-up of local stores and is featured as part of dishes created by north-east restaurants, cafes, and bistros.

With that said, there’s no doubt that their business, Vertical Shoots Urban Farms, will continue to grow.

But what’s the process in growing microgreens, you may ask? Well, we caught up with the partners to find out all about the process, as well as what encouraged them to start their own business.

So, Sathya and Brindha, have you always wanted to start your own business?

Sathya: We were always keen to do something different but never had the idea of starting a business.

A few years ago while we were shopping in a supermarket, a question sprung into our mind asking, where does the food we eat come from? Since then, we started to look into the origin of every product we purchased and it amazed us how foods were produced in different countries and distributed around the world in such a massive scale.

Brindha: At the same time, we also felt how important it is to grow the essential food we eat closer to the end consumer. This triggered an interest to take up a hobby growing herbs.

The pair of us started to do loads of experiments and trials day in and day out. At one point, we started to share our produce with family and friends.

The more we thought about getting local produce out to people, we realised how challenging it is to produce any kind of food and distribute it to the community. This gave us the push to think ‘why not start a business and face these challenges to do our part in solving a global issue and contribute towards a sustainable future’. This sounded exciting and we kick-started our journey.

For those that don’t know, what do you offer?

S: Vertical Shoots are currently offering a wide range of micro salads. They come in different shapes, colour, and flavours. We supply them to restaurants, cafes, bistros, and stock micro salad boxes in shops for home consumers to use in salads, smoothies or alongside any dish.

B: For restaurants, cafes and bistros, we grow the varieties they request based on their need. Our lovely customers include Buchanan Bistro in Banchory, Inverurie’s Fennel Restaurant, Rothesay Rooms in Ballater, JK Fine Foods, Replenish in Stonehaven, and much more.

For home consumers, we offer variety boxes – spicy mix, rainbow mix and flavour punch – which will include a variety of greens with different flavour tones. These are available for direct home delivery.

That’s very interesting. Why did you choose microgreens?

S: Two years ago, we started to think of doing something related to farming and had to start with a clean slate (with no previous experience).

So, we started growing leafy greens as a hobby, gradually learning and experimenting each day. And after some research, we came across hydroponics – soilless farming with plant roots suspended in water filled with nutrients – and vertical farming, which enables the use of any urban space to grow a substantial amount of greens.

B: This sounded fantastic and we converted a small shed in our back garden into an indoor farm. Both of us were experimenting in this setup for a year.

With every seed germinating and shoots cropping up, this became a serious hobby with great interest and it kept progressing. Then we kick-started our journey with Vertical Shoots in March last year with our aim to utilize underused urban spaces in an effective way.

Am I right in saying that the pair of you wanted to offer products that redefined the way we eat salads?

S: Yes, exactly that. When we tried microgreens ourselves for the first time, we felt it was so different from the usual salad greens we eat. Microgreens bring in a nice flavour and their colour and texture just brighten up the plate. I am sure people who have tried microgreens would agree with what we think.

B: When we looked around in the supermarkets, we could not find any such product apart from micro salad cress in very few shops. So, this triggered an idea to start growing a range of micro salads and make it more available for the local community to try and experience the goodness of micro salads or microgreens.

What encouraged you guys to launch Vertical Shoots Urban Farms? Were there any obstacles?

S: There is so much going on in this world trying to move towards a sustainable future. Innovative ideas are being implemented to revolutionize every sector. Just looking around getting to know about the new happenings encouraged us to take a step trying to do something different and be a part of this change. This thought lead to the start of our journey with Vertical Shoots Urban Farms.

B: It was the beginning of the first lockdown when we started our journey. With the restrictions in place, it was difficult to approach other businesses and customers. Slowly we started to take baby steps which got us going.

We still have a long way to go, but we have started marching towards our vision.

You mentioned that it was difficult to approach other businesses and customers, understandably. So how have you gone about promoting the business?

S: This is a work in progress as we are fairly new. To get our name out, we are active on social media, like Instagram, sharing what we do. Also, we have visited many restaurants, cafes and bistros to spread our name. Some of the people we met were amazing and kind enough to spread a word about us.

Vertical Shoots also has a regular stall at the Westhill Farmer’s Market. With the Covid-19 restrictions, it is not easy to get a space in all the farmer’s market. Hopefully, things will change and we can attend many more.

B: We also stock our greens in local shops to make our products accessible to the people of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. This will help us to spread our name within the local community even more.

What’s the process involved in producing them? And how are they distributed?

S: All our greens are grown hydroponically. The pair of us sow the seeds to start with and germinate them in a dark room for the first few days. Then, we transfer them under lights for a number of days and continuously monitored.

Each variety prefers a certain growing condition. During the growing process, we maintain the ideal temperature, humidity, sufficient air circulation and nutrition to get the optimum growth. At the end of the growing stage, we harvest on the day of the delivery, box and deliver to our customers.

By growing the greens closer to the end consumer, the customers can take advantage of a longer shelf life and freshest greens on their plate.

Can you explain a bit more for our readers about vertical farming?

S: Vertical farming is a method of farming where the greens are produced vertically in racks in a controlled environment. By this approach, larger quantities of produce can be grown in a small space.

The produce is grown hydroponically (roots suspended in water) or by aeroponics (roots suspended in a mist). We use hydroponics to grow our greens. Since the greens are grown indoors, light is provided to the plants through LED with a certain spectrum of light mostly containing blue and red. Nutrients for the growth of plants are supplied through the water.

B: By this method of farming, there can be a great saving in water consumption compared to traditional methods. With the controlled environment in place, crops which are not possible to be grown locally can be grown; for example, basil which requires warmer temperature. Vertical farming methods can be used to grow leafy greens, few types of fruits and flowers.

Vertical Shoots Urban Farms’ new indoor farm, where they grow their fresh produce.

© Supplied by Brindha Shayana

Why do you think the demand for microgreens is constantly on the rise?

S: The need for healthy nutritious food is increasing day by day. A lot of people are also looking towards a vegan diet. Microgreens tick all the boxes required for a healthy living.

Greens harvested in its early stages of growth are nutrient-dense compared to a mature green – they also taste and look great. We could also consume leaves of some of the vegetable crops such as cabbage, broccoli, radish etc. so there are so many varieties of microgreens, which can be consumed as a salad. This makes eating salads more interesting.

B: Additionally, microgreens can be grown indoors all-year-round and are not season dependent. So, it can be grown closer to the end consumer reducing food miles which ticks the box on sustainability.

Growing microgreens can also be a hobby which would interest many. This way people can get their hands on growing and enjoy the greens grown by themselves in their own space which could be exciting and satisfying.

Other than microgreens, do you grow anything else?

B: Offering microgreens is just a start at Vertical Shoots Urban Farms. We are working our way towards offering baby greens, mature greens and edible flowers. Hopefully, we will increase our range of products in the near future.

Over the past two years, what have been the main highlights of running Vertical Shoots?

S: You learn something new each day and it is always a treat to see these beautiful greens grow up. New ideas, experiments and DIYs on the farm keeps us thinking all the time. It gives a sense of satisfaction that we are working on something which is essential for our day-to-day living and trying to find innovative ways to grow crops closer to the end consumer for a sustainable future. This keeps us motivated to do more each day.

B: Two years ago, our experiments just started on our study table. Slowly the experiments got bigger and encroached into our living space and now we have built our own fully functional indoor vertical farm. Starting from scratch, we now grow about 15 varieties of micro salads and there are many more to be added on to the list.

You’re both clearly very passionate about the business, which is amazing to see. What are your upcoming plans?

S: Microgreens are something new for many in the local community as we rarely see these in the supermarkets. We have noticed many customers who come over to our stall at the farmer’s market really chuffed to see these micro salads as they couldn’t find them locally. On the flip side, we do come across people who don’t have any idea on microgreens but are really excited to try them out!

B: As a local urban farmer, we would like to get these healthy greens into as many homes as possible and see people consuming them in their daily food.

In addition to serving cafes, restaurants and bistros, we aim to have our produce in many more outlets and do more direct home deliveries to make it accessible to the local community. As a business, we always look to keep adding more products to our offering.

Visit Vertical Shoots Urban Farms on Facebook or Instagram to find out more information.

Top Tips to Growing Your Own Microgreens

There are loads of materials available online to guide you on how to grow each variety of microgreens.

The best way to learn is to try it yourself, so below are some tips provided by Brindha Shayana and Sathya Vasudevan of Vertical Shoots Urban Farms to get you started.

1. Microgreens are grown in two steps: Step 1 – germinating the seeds and Step 2 – propagating the seedlings under light (sunlight or LEDs). It is as simple as that.

2. Start simple. Look around your kitchen cupboard to see if you have any seeds which you use for your daily cooking. Seeds like mustards, fennel, coriander, fenugreek and many others used in cooking can be used to grow as microgreens. Although bear in mind that sometimes older seeds may not germinate well. If you are buying seeds, then make sure you buy the right seeds for microgreens which are not chemically treated and are suitable for consumption.

3. To grow microgreens, you need a medium. You could use kitchen towels as a start. Soak about three layers of the paper towels in water and sprinkle the seeds on top. Spray some water and then cover with a lid to maintain humidity. Keep it in the dark for three-to-four days. Check once a day to keep them moist.

4. Once the seeds have germinated, remove the lid and place them on the window sill. In the winter time when it is dark most days you could use a study lamp with a daylight LED bulb for lighting. Water them once a day and not let the medium dry out. Keep them well ventilated and maintain a room temperature about 20C (for cool crops).

5. Once the microgreens are about two inches tall with the first set of leaves well developed, they are good to harvest. Cut the greens just over the medium and enjoy them in your dishes. Most of the microgreens are ready within 10-14 days.

6. Keep it simple when you grow microgreens for the first time. If you fail on the first trial don’t worry, it takes a few trials to get the trick of growing. Once you get to know about the basics you could start experimenting with different mediums and a variety of seeds.

7. Finally, if you need any help with growing your microgreens, we are happy to help. Just message us on Instagram – @verticalshoots

CANADA - CALGARY: Local Produce Options Expand With Vertically Farmed Greens

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Elizabeth Chorney-Booth

Feb 20, 2021

Pictured is a package of sunflower microgreens produced by ALLPA in Calgary on Thursday, February 11, 2021. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

Over the years, the local food movement has grown from a handful of agriculture advocates touting the importance of supporting local farmers to a large-scale demand for everything from meat to chocolate that’s been produced and, when possible, grown here in Alberta. With Canada’s Agriculture Day being this Tuesday, it’s as good a time as any to celebrate homegrown products, be it artisanal honey or good ol’ Alberta beef.

Yet, as we look outside at our February weather, it’s obvious that some of our favourite foods simply can’t grow in abundance here. Greenhouse technology allows farmers to grow local cucumbers and tomatoes alongside wheat and canola fields, but greenhouses take up a lot of real estate. A new breed of urban farmer is using vertical farming techniques to grow crops like microgreens and baby kale on a much smaller footprint, right inside the city limits.

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Pictured are some of the microgreens produced by Allpa in Calgary. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

The newest local player is Allpa Vertical Farms. The company is headed by three young entrepreneurs who used their shared interest in food, sustainability, and engineering to build a vertical farming operation. It involves vertically stacked levels of plants, grown indoors, usually in a warehouse or shipping container. The lighting, irrigation, and soil are carefully controlled so that crop yields aren’t reliant on exterior factors like weather and sunlight.

Allpa specializes in microgreens, growing radish, broccoli, sunflower, and arugula sprouts that can be bought by the tub at the Italian Centre Shop and all Sunterra locations. Since microgreens only take about 11 days to go from seed to harvest, the Allpa crew can grow their greens to order, making for less food waste.

From left: Andrey Salazar and Guillermo Borges, Allpa co-founders, with Zakk Tambasco, head of production, with their products. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

“The company (began) with an internal conflict I had between climate change and farming,” says founder Andrey Salazar, who grew up on a coffee farm in Columbia and has studied physics and electrical engineering in Calgary. “I wanted to combine my background as a farmer and my practical skills as an engineer, so I went to my garage and started building the equipment.”

Allpa is far from the first vertical farming outfit in Calgary. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Deepwater Farms had developed a huge following among restaurant chefs with its greens grown via a vertical hydroponics system. The company was originally conceived as a closed-loop aquaponics operation, raising fish and using the fish waste to fertilize plants. Food safety regulations have prompted the company to decouple the two systems, but it continues to sell both indoor-grown baby kale, arugula and beet greens as well as barramundi and tilapia.

It’s been a successful model. Before COVID-19, the majority of Deepwater’s business was with restaurants seeking products previously unavailable from local producers (you don’t see a lot of barramundi swimming around Calgary), all of which came to a screeching halt last spring. The company was able to pivot and is now doing a booming retail business, with their products available in 80 retailers, including all Calgary Co-Op stores, select Safeway and Sobeys locations, Blush Lane and Community Natural Foods, among many others.

“We work with some of the best restaurants in the area and that’s how we started,” says Paul Shumlich, Deepwater’s founder and CEO. “Now we’re 99 percent selling to retail, which we’re very grateful for.”

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Reid Henuset and Paul Shumlich of Deepwater Farms pose for a photo in the city’s first commercial aquaponics farm on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. Al Charest/Postmedia Al Charest/Postmedia

Vertical farming methods are hardly dominating in Alberta – with so much farmland we obviously have other options to grow food, along with a reliable flow of food grown in warmer climes. But it is taking hold in other parts of the world and Calgary has the potential to be a leader in vertical farming technology. The Harvest Hub is a local tech start-up developing soil-based indoor farms, with a focus on green energy and diversification of crops, which will allow urban farmers to go beyond microgreens and leafy greens. Founder Alina Martin says Harvest Hub has had success growing crops like saffron, zucchini, carrots, and bell peppers in its Calgary test farm. Once they hit the market, technological innovations should make vertical farming more feasible for urban growers.

“Vertical farming is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, but most people in Canada don’t understand it,” Martin says. “As much as we romanticize the idea of having your food growing just down the street, the challenge here is the cost. You can’t be in downtown Calgary growing basil and make money. The infrastructure costs will kill you.”

While Martin suspects that Harvest Hub’s business will largely come from outside of Calgary (the company is working on addressing food insecurity in communities in Canada’s North), she does believe vertical farming is the way of the future on a global scale. While we may not have locally grown saffron in our cupboards in the immediate future, it is nice to have access to that Calgary-bred barramundi and handfuls of affordable microgreens for now.

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @elizaboothy or Instagram at @elizabooth.

February Indoor Ag Science Cafe - February 23rd Tuesday 11 AM Eastern Time - "Indoor Farming In Mexico: Current Status And Opportunities"

Karla Garcia

Microgreen FLN & HortAmericas

• Please sign up so that you will receive Zoom link info.

• Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA project team supported by USDA SCRI grants.

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Cafe archive & QA forum

Our archived Indoor Ag Science Cafe page in OptimIA website now has a forum function!  Please click on presentations of your interest and ask your quick questions. Notifications come to us and we should be able to respond promptly. 

Submit Your General Questions

For 'Indoor Ag Sci Queries'!

Please submit your questions (anonymously if you wish) about sciences and technologies of indoor farming to this submission site.  Any questions are welcome! The site is always open for your questions. Selected questions will be discussed in our future Indoor Ag Science Queries series.

Indoor Ag Science Cafe is organized by the OptimIA project team funded by USDA SCRI grants program.
Previous café recordings are available in the OptimIA project website.
Please contact for more info: kubota.10@osu.edu

No Dirt? No Farm? No Problem. The Potential For Soil-Less Agriculture Is Huge

By CATHARINE HAMM

At Plenty’s South San Francisco hydroponics growing facility, a million plants produce leafy greens that are sold through area grocery stores. The company plans to open a farm in Compton this year.

(Plenty)

Imagine kale that doesn’t taste like a punishment for something you did in a previous life. Envision leafy greens that aren’t limp from their journey to your plate. Anticipate the intense flavor of just-picked herbs that kick up your latest culinary creation a notch or three.

Then consider the possibility that such advancements will play a role in altering the face of agriculture, becoming sources of flavorful, fresh produce in “food deserts” and making farm-to-table restaurant cuisine possible because produce is grown on the premises, even in urban areas.

This is the potential and the promise of hydroponics (a term that also includes aeroponics and aquaponics systems), the soil-less cultivation of crops in controlled environments. It’s a growing industry — $9.5 billion in sales is expected to nearly double in the next five years — that stems, in part, from concerns about growing enough food to feed a worldwide population expected to hit 10 billion in the next 30 years.

The growing method isn’t new. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, dating to the 6th century B.C., maybe a precursor to today’s hydroponics, if they existed. (Historians disagree on that as well as where the gardens were.) Then, as now, technology is a key to giving growers, not Mother Nature, more control overproduction.

The size of today’s systems varies. They might be as simple and compact as an in-home system that’s about the size of a couple of loaves of bread stacked on top of each other. Some of the growing popularity of those units may be connected to the pandemic, according to Paul Rabaut, director of marketing for AeroGarden, which produces systems for in-home crop production.

“As soon as the pandemic was declared in mid-March and the quarantine took effect, we saw immediate growth spikes, unlike anything we’d ever seen before,” he said. Those spikes resulted, he said, from the need for entertainment beyond Netflix and jigsaw puzzles, a desire to minimize trips to the grocery store and the promise of teachable moments for kids now schooled at home.

At the other end of the spectrum are large urban farms. Plenty, for instance, has a South San Francisco hydroponics growing facility where a million plant sites produce crops, some of which are sold through area grocery stores. The company hopes to open a farm in Compton this year that’s expected to be about the size of a big-box store and will grow the equivalent of 700 acres of food.

Plenty scientists, engineers and growers at work in their South San Francisco hydroponics growing facility.

(Plenty)

“It’s a super vibrant community with a rich agricultural history,” Nate Storey, a cofounder of the vertical farming company, said of the Compton facility. “It also happens to be a food desert.

“Americans eat only about 30% of what they should be eating as far as fresh foods,” he said. “We started this company because we realized the world needed more fresh fruits and vegetables.”

As different as hydroponics growing systems are, most have this in common: The plants thrive because of the nutrients they receive and the consistency of the environment and can produce crops of fresh leafy greens and other vegetables, various herbs and sometimes fruits.

Such controlled-environment agriculture is part of the larger trend of urban farms, recognized last year by the May opening of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. The farms’ proximity to larger markets means produce can be delivered quickly to consumers, whether they’re grocery shoppers, airline passengers, students or communities in need or restaurants, an industry that has been devastated in the last year.

Today’s micro-and mega-farms have taken on increased importance, partly because of world hunger, which will increase as the population grows.

Add increasing urbanization that is gobbling available agricultural land in many countries, mix in climate change and the scramble for water to grow crops — as much as 70% of the world’s water is used for agriculture — and the planet may be at a tipping point.

No single change in the approach to feeding the world will shift the balance by itself.

Hydroponic farming is “a solution,” said Alexander Olesen, a cofounder of Babylon Micro farms in Virginia, which uses its small growing units to help corporate cafeterias, senior living centres, hotels and resorts provide fresh produce, “but they are not the solution.”

Babylon Micro farms in Virginia provides fresh produce for corporate cafeterias, senior living centers, hotels and resorts.

(Babylon Micro-Farms Inc.)

For one thing, not all crops are viable. Nearly everything can be grown using hydroponics but some crops, such as wheat, some root vegetables (including carrots, beets and onions), and melons and vining crops, are impractical. The easiest crops to grow: leafy greens, including spinach and lettuce; microgreens; herbs such as basil, cilantro, oregano and marjoram; some vegetables, such as green peppers and cucumbers; and certain fruits, including tomatoes and strawberries.

Although hydroponic farming means crops grow faster — thus increasing output — the process comes with a significant carbon footprint, according to “The Promise of Urban Agriculture,” a report by the Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Marketing Service and Cornell University Small Farms Program. Lights generate heat, which then must be removed by cooling. Lettuce grown in traditional greenhouses is far cheaper, the report says.

If these crops can be grown traditionally — in a garden or in a commercial field — why bother with growing systems that are less intuitive than planting seeds, watering and harvesting? Among the reasons:

Climate control: Such indoor agriculture generally means consistent light, temperatures, nutrients and moisture for crops no longer held hostage by nature’s cycles of drought, storms and seasons.

Environmental friendliness: Pesticides generally aren’t used and thus create no harmful runoff, unlike field-grown crops.

Productivity: Leafy greens tend to be cool-season crops, but in a controlled environment, it’s an any-time-of-year crop without the worry of depleting the soil because of overuse because, of course, there is no soil.

Use of space: AeroFarms, a former steel mill in Newark, N.J., boasts that it can produce 2 million pounds of food each year in its 70,000 square feet, or about 1.3 acres. California’s Monterey County, by contrast, uses nearly 59,000 acres — out of 24.3 million acres statewide of ranches and farms — to grow its No. 1 crop, which is leaf lettuce valued at $840.6 million, its 2019 crop report showed.

AeroFarms in Newark, N.J. boasts it can produce 2 million pounds of food each year at its 70,000-square-foot facility in Newark, N.J.

(AeroFarms)

Food safety: In E. coli outbreaks in late October and early November of last year, fingers pointed to romaine lettuce that sickened consumers in 19 states, including California. In November and December of 2019, three other outbreaks of the bacterial illness were traced to California’s Salinas Valley. A Food and Drug Administration study, released in May with results from that trio of outbreaks, “suggest(s) that a potential contributing factor has been the proximity of cattle,” whose faeces often contain the bacteria and can find its way into water systems.

That’s less of an issue with crops in controlled-environment agriculture, said Alex Tyink, president of Fork Farms of Green Bay, Wis., which produces growing systems suitable for homes and schools.

“In the field, you can’t control what goes where,” he said, including wildlife, livestock or even birds that may find their way into an open growing area.

And as for workers, “The human safety approaches that we take [with] people in our farm make it hard for them to contaminate even if they wanted to,” he said.

“Before people walk in, they gown up, put their hair in nets, beards in nets, put on eye covering and bootie covers for their shoes, then walk through a water bath.”

None of the statistics matter, though, unless the quality of soil-less crops matches or exceeds that produced traditionally.

Not a contest, new-age growers say. Flavors of leafy greens, for example, tend to be more detectable and, in some cases, more intense.

So much so that when AeroFarms introduced its baby kale in a New York grocery store, Marc Oshima, a cofounder and chief marketing officer, says he saw a woman do what he called a “happy dance” when she sampled this superfood. The version that AeroFarms produces is lighter and has a “sweet finish,” Oshima said, compared with adult kale grown in traditional ways that some say make the superfood fibrous and bitter.

Storey, the cofounder of Plenty, judged his Crispy Lettuce mix successful when his children got into a “rolling-on-the-floor fistfight” over a package of it.

Some credit for that flavor can be attributed to the time from harvest to market. Arizona and California are the top lettuce producers in the U.S., but by the time the greens get to other parts of the country, they have lost some of their oomph. AeroFarms and Plenty, for instance, distribute their commercial products to nearby grocery stores in New York and the Bay Area, respectively, where their time to market is significantly reduced.

And when was the last time you had a salad on an aeroplane flight that didn’t taste like water gone bad? Before the pandemic constricted airline traffic, AeroFarms was growing greens to be served to passengers on Singapore Airlines flights from New York’s JFK. The fresh vegetables travelled just five miles from the warehouse to Singapore’s catering kitchen, a new twist on the farm to (tray) tabletop.

Because the turnaround from harvest to market is shorter, Storey said his products often last several weeks when refrigerated.

Leafy green vegetables are grown by AeroFarms.

(Emily Hawkes)

And perhaps best of all? Growers say that because the greens have a flavorsome peppery, some like mustard — salad dressing may be optional, perhaps dispossessed in favor of the flavor of naked greens.

Getting consumers interested in vegetables and incorporating those foods into their diets is especially important, growers say, because of skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, especially for populations in food deserts.

Tyink grew up in rural Wisconsin but moved to New York to pursue a career in opera. By chance, he sampled some produce from a rooftop garden that he called life-altering. “My eating habits changed because [the greens] changed my emotional connection to food,” he said.

His exposure to homelessness and poverty on the streets of New York also focused his attention on what people consume and why. Price and convenience often drive bad food decisions and unhealthy habits.

Young farmers in training can help change those habits; some of Fork Farms’ systems are used in schools and other nonprofit organizations for children. Kids become accidental ambassadors for the nutrient-rich crops, and the fruits of their labors go to school cafeterias or to local food distribution centres in their communities.

“I really think when you lose fresh, locally produced food, you lose something of [the] culture,” said Lee Altier, professor of horticulture at Chico State University, where he has been working with students to develop its aquaponics program. “I think it is so important when communities have an awareness … that this is for their social integrity.”

As for the future, much still needs to be done to put such products in the right hands at the right time. That requires investment, innovation and technology to perfect the systems and keep costs under control, never mind persuading buyers and consumers that food that’s healthy can also be satisfying.

Is it a puzzle worth solving? Storey thinks so. “I want to live in a world where [we create] delicious, amazing things,” he said, “knowing that they are not coming at a cost that we don’t want to pay.”

About Catharine Hamm

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Catharine Hamm is the former Travel editor for the Los Angeles Times and became a special contributor in June 2020. She was born in Syracuse, N.Y., to a peripatetic family whose stops included Washington, D.C.; Honolulu; and Manila. Her varied media career has taken her from McPherson, Kan., to Kansas City, Mo., San Bernardino, Salinas and L.A. Hamm has twice received individual Lowell Thomas Awards, and the Travel section has been recognized seven times during her tenure as editor. Her favourite place? Always where she’s going next.

US: NORTH CAROLINA: Bourgeois Lettuce: New Microgreens And Hydroponic Farm Opens on Castle Street

By Shea Carver

December 6, 2020

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Randall Rhyne has installed 90 8-foot hydroponic growing systems in his Castle Street shop, CraftGrown Farms. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

WILMINGTON — “People never believe lettuce has a flavor,” Randall Rhyne said as he walked through his shop, CraftGrown Farms, on Castle Street. 

Located where Aluna Works used to be (603 Castle St.), the microgreens and hydroponic farm is a modern twist on producing healthy, homegrown greens. 

“What do you think spicy is?” he asked. 

He handed over a handful of what he calls “painkiller.” The microgreens’ unassuming little leaves and stems tasted rather sweet at the start, but with each chew, lit up the entire mouth and tongue.

“But it fades quickly, doesn’t it?” Rhyne inquired. 

The heat, in fact, didn’t last long. 

He handed over a sunflower leaf — what he called a “palate cleanser.” Just like that, a blank slate on the tongue was prepped for a new flavor.

Microgreens and lettuce tastings are open to the public daily at Rhyne’s indoor farm, which is outfitted with 90, 8-foot, hydroponic LED strips, and multiple mini-greenhouse systems.

Rhyne is growing various microgreens, including but not limited to broccoli, cilantro, kale, collards, spinach, anise, basil, plus multitudes of lettuce — arugula, endive, fin star (a hybrid of romaine and iceberg), tatsoi (a mustardy Asian lettuce), Swiss chard, skyphos (red butter) and Muir (sweet green lettuce), among others.

“I seeded these on the 28th,” he said, pointing to small stems of greens that actually looked like tiny enoki mushrooms. “They’ll be ready for sale in two or three days.”

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Rhyne is growing multiple varieties of lettuce that stay crisp and are nutrient dense with more flavor than normal lettuce. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

“What can I say? I like bourgie lettuce.”

Rhyne’s love for microgreens started a few years ago while he was deployed in Iraq and then Syria. 

A staff sergeant for the Army Reserves, while on assignment Rhyne kept in touch with his neighbor, retired veteran Jason O’Connor, via social media. Back home in Richmond, Virginia, before Rhyne was deployed, they had begun growing their own gardens of fresh food. 

While forced to eat the same 12 MREs day in, day out when deployed, Rhyne said having access to fresh, healthy vegetables never seemed more desirable. A friend told him to look into growing microgreens when he returned. He did.

By 2019, Rhyne and O’Connor started their own healthy homegrown food business, Two Veterans Farm. They grew microgreens in O’Connor’s garage, and Rhyne bought a ½ acre of land for them to build a 55-foot-by-25-foot greenhouse to grow tomatoes and other vegetables. Plus, they tilled another small portion of the rectangular land for root vegetables.

They sold their wares at the local farmers market and started a subscription veggie box. The box included homegrown microgreens, leafy lettuces, and root vegetables. It was a modest business at first, but once Covid-19 hit, it exploded.

“We went from eight customers to 28 in two days,” Rhyne said.

The problem then shifted to making sure they had enough product to keep boxes filled as their customer base kept growing through the pandemic. Yet, they didn’t have enough product planted. 

“And you can’t sit there and say to a plant, ‘Grow faster,’” Rhyne quipped. 

The two partners had different ideas on where they wanted to take the business. Rhyne wanted to grow larger quantities of the same crops to fill boxes, especially since the subscription side of the business was bringing in $2,000 every couple of weeks. But he said O’Connor wanted higher diversity of smaller batches of crops. 

When they couldn’t come to an agreement, Rhyne decided to branch out into the niche market of microgreens and hydroponic lettuces. 

“I just don’t like being a dirt farmer or farming outside,” he said. “What can I say? I like bourgie lettuce.”

He made the decision to move to Wilmington in June to launch his idea. The space on Castle St. already was outfitted with indoor drainage and a cooler perfect for running CraftGrown Farms. 

Rhyne has created a near-perfect growing environment, so his plants have optimum flavor profiles and rich nutrient density. 

Take broccoli, for example. He doesn’t allow the plants to grow beyond an inch or so out of the soilless jute mats (a wood-pulp byproduct that’s 100% compostable) before cutting them. It gives the plants 40% more nutrients than if allowing broccoli to grow to its full floret.

“A seed is the plant analogy of an egg,” said Rhyne, who also used to be a biology and earth, science teacher. “From an egg, you get feathers, bones, and the whole organ system of a chicken. A seed is the same: You’re getting the most nutrients when the plants are young.”

All microgreens grow on the jute mats, while lettuces and herbs grow in the hydroponic system. Basically, hydroponics allows Rhyne to grow vegetables without dirt. Plus, he doesn’t have to worry about outdoor environments that affect the growth: bugs, deer, weather, hours of daylight, pH of the soil, among other factors.

“The roots are where water takes up nutrients, leaves are where gas exchange occurs, and light is photosynthesis, what powers the whole process,” he explained. 

He turns on the LED lights from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. every day, and the system constantly provides a drip to the plants in their infancy from a sump pump that recycles and cleans the water through a UV filter.

“Water is a vector for the nutrients to get into the plant,” he said. “All I’m doing is providing support structure: water drips down the LED strips, roots have access to the water, with plenty of oxygen, fans are blowing on them to keep air moving, so they can transpire, and C02 can get taken in and oxygen can get pushed out.”

“I control it all,” Rhyne added. 

Rhyne cuts off the process before the plant’s flower, as to not change the way they taste.

“Once lettuce bolts, it goes sour, bitter, and nasty,” he said.

Rhyne is growing microgreens aplenty, including carrot, broccoli, anise, basil, arugula, tatsoi, and other varieties. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

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Growing the business

The lettuce, herbs, and microgreens have become popular already among restaurateurs in town. Rhyne is selling basil, tastoi, kale, arugula, and other lettuces to chefs at Floriana’s, Pinpoint, and Trucks in Wilmington. He’s currently growing 80 endive plants for The Chef and the Frog in Whiteville.

He wants to build his restaurant clientele, as well as draw in more foot traffic from the public. The public is welcome into the shop during operating hours for a taste tour, and to purchase the lettuce and greens first-hand. He sells microgreens for $3 per ounce and lettuce for $4 a head. 

Rhyne will even take requests to specialize a customer’s order. If they want pea shoots, he’ll make it happen. A special blend of seeds? He can work on that, too.

With every plant bought, Rhyne arms customers with instructions on how to keep the plants for longer use.

“A lady in Virginia had a head of lettuce that lasted five months and never went bad,” he stated. “She used two leaves a day for her husband’s sandwich. My lettuce tends to stay very pretty. If you keep it the way I tell you to, you will eat it before it has a chance to go bad.”

Rhyne is hoping to team up with his Castle Street neighbor John Willse at Wilmington Wine to do events soon.

“John and I are putting together a tasting,” he explained. “Wines with microgreens and maybe get Daniel from Floriana’s to come and make a meal.”

Though CraftGrown Farms technically opened in July, Rhyne didn’t produce growth to sell until September — October is when the business began to turn sales. A subscription box will be folded into the mix soon enough. 

Rhyne is toying around with adding gourmet rainbow carrots and baby beets, maybe a French Breakfast radish. “The flavor of a young beet is ridiculously wonderful,” he praised. Still, he doesn’t foresee going into full vegetable production. 

Though he will evolve his herb menu. Rhyne is considering growing varieties of thyme and mint that restaurants and bars could use.

“I’m even growing a dessert microgreen,” he said. 

He cut a small snippet of bronze fennel and lemon balm. 

“I think this would be great with ice cream,” he said. “But I had a new customer come in yesterday, tasted it, and launched into a 20-minute list of everything it would be great with. That’s the fun part of the job.”

CraftGrown Farms is open Monday through Friday, noon – 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

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Rhyne has installed 90 8-foot hydroponic growing systems in his Castle Street shop, CraftGrown Farms. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

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Lettuces run the gamut of flavor, from sweet and buttery to bitter and spicy, at CraftGrown Farms. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

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Newly sprouted microgreens, grown on a jute mat, maintain 40% of their nutrients and pop with flavor. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

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Rhyne is growing carrot, broccoli, anise, basil, arugula, tatsoi and other microgreen varieties. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

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Folks can walk in off the street to CraftGrown Farms and enjoy a tasting of the various microgreens and lettuces that Rhyne grows. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

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D.I.Y. Microgreens You Can Grow On Your Kitchen Counter

Think of The Rewards of Cultivating

The Tastes of Summer All Through The winter. You Can Do This.

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New to microgreens? Start with something in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) that offers a quick payoff, like arugula (shown), radish or mizuna (a mild-flavored mustard). Credit...Kate Spring

By Margaret Roach

• Nov. 18, 2020

Since Kate Spring and her husband, Edge Fuentes, founded Good Heart Farmstead in Vermont in 2013, she has cultivated not just mesclun, strawberries and tomatoes, but also the abundance of the patience required of a farmer. Plant parenthood reminds us: Living things take time. And sometimes they have minds of their own.

Lately, as mother to Waylon, a 7-year-old son she calls “our best crop ever,” Ms. Spring is occasionally asked to dig down even deeper, in a growing test of wills — as she did after three long days of carrot harvest. “There are those moments, like when all those root vegetables need to be washed,” she said, “and your child commandeers the hose and washes you instead.”

But there is one crop, whose time is now, that promises near-instant gratification, requiring little patience and exhibiting blessedly minimal rebellion.

Microgreens — fully developed seed leaves or cotyledons plus a true leaf or two, bigger than sprouts but smaller than baby greens — can be grown indoors in a small space, making them the ideal off-season do-it-yourself project for those who miss the vegetable garden and its in-season flavors. By investing a couple of weeks in each tray of tiny, leafy greens, root vegetables or herbs, you can enliven winter with concentrated bursts of nutrition and taste.

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In the garden off-season, freshly harvested basil microgreens grown indoors punch up the summery quotient when Kate Spring, an owner of Good Heart Farmstead, serves red sauce she cooked and froze at peak tomato harvest. Credit...Kate Spring

Microgreens are a cusp-season crop at Good Heart Farmstead, an L3C, or low-profit limited-liability corporation, which means it’s “a mix between a nonprofit and for-profit business — a for-profit but with a social mission in the forefront,” Ms. Spring said. “We work on increasing food access for low-income Vermonters,” often in collaboration with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.

The small, certified-organic operation in Worcester (Zone 4a) focuses on farm shares, or CSA subscriptions, serving up to 100 subscribers in the summer season, one of four subscription periods each year.

As the last outdoor fall greens fade, Ms. Spring and Mr. Fuentes sow microgreens in greenhouse flats to add “a nice, fresh green item in the share,” she said, that is otherwise transitioning to roots and other winter storage vegetables.

So order some seed, clear a space on the kitchen counter and call the seed-starting light into service. It’s microgreen season.

Larger seed for microgreens like chard and beets can be scattered on a level surface of an inch and a half of tamped-down, seed-starting soil, with about six to eight seeds per square inch. Credit...Kate Spring

Why Grow Microgreens?

Besides the sheer awe inherent in any version of seed-starting, there are other motivating factors. Price, for instance.

Microgreens are what farmers refer to as a high-value crop. In plastic grocery-store clamshell boxes they may run $2 to $3 an ounce ($32 to $48 a pound) — “a really premium product,” Ms. Spring said.

Microgreens are also nutrient-dense. Researchers with the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the United States Department of Agriculture evaluated vitamin and carotenoid concentrations in a range of varieties in a 2012 paper. The findings, in brief: Microgreens contained up to 40 times the nutrients of the plants’ mature leaves.

And oh, the flavor. Yes, they brighten up salads and sandwiches, but cilantro microgreens on top of black bean and sweet potato tacos, anyone? They’re highly recommended by the Spring-Fuentes household, where there are always basil microgreens as well, for punching up the summery quotient of red sauce frozen at peak tomato harvest.

“Arugula or basil or kale microgreens are also really good on eggs in the morning,” said Ms. Spring, who tends to use them “as an additive, not the main ingredient.”

Organic field pea seeds will become pea shoots, a customer favorite at Good Heart Farmstead, in Vermont. They are sown very densely and pressed into the soil after the seeds are soaked overnight. Credit...Kate Spring

Start With These Varieties

The diversity of organic microgreen seed offerings in catalogs like Johnny’s Selected Seeds and High Mowing Organic Seeds can be intimidating. Start with something in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) that promises a quick payoff, Ms. Spring suggested, like radish, arugula or mizuna (a mild-flavored mustard).

“Our favorites are basil, cilantro, Red Russian kale and the arugula and mizuna,” Ms. Spring said.

Broccoli and chard are popular, too. Catalogs also offer mixes — like a spicy one of various mustards, selected to germinate and mature on a similar timeline.

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While the fields are resting, there are usually microgreens growing on Good Heart Farmstead’s greenhouse benches, to add a fresh, green item to the wintertime CSA shares. Credit...Kate Spring

The Gear

Yes, you can upcycle a cardboard egg carton or plastic sushi container into seed-sowing service, and maybe that’s a good place to begin. But once you’re hooked, a couple of standard nursery flats with drainage holes, called 1020 flats, with trays that fit beneath, will optimize the process. (In the meantime, a plastic boot tray or a rimmed baking sheet could be called into action under ad hoc seedling trays.)

You’ll also need:

• A spray bottle for watering (recommended: a one-hand pressure sprayer like the Solo 418)

• A germination dome to fit your flats, or paper towels

• A bag of seed-starting mix and a moisture-proof tub or other container to stash it in (after each harvest, the soil can be composted, and once the plant matter breaks down, reused two or three times)

• A grow light with T5 high-output fluorescent tubes on an adjustable stand (microgreens grow faster and stronger with proper overhead light than they will on a windowsill)

• A fan

• And, of course, seeds

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You can simply can upcycle a cardboard egg carton or plastic sushi container into seed-sowing service, but once you’re hooked, a couple of standard nursery flats with drainage holes, called 1020 flats, and trays that fit beneath will optimize the process. Credit...Kate Spring

Kate Spring’s Step-by-Step Instructions

There is no one-size-fits-all growing method. “It takes some guesswork and practice, so go into it with a trial mind,” Ms. Spring said.

Experimenting with varieties, sowing density and harvest timing — an extra day or two, a half-inch taller than the last batch? — will reveal what works for you.

Using more than one flat and tray will mean fewer gaps in your supply. You could try sowing a succession crop when the current one is within a few days of harvest, or sowing slower- and faster-growing varieties at the same time.

The key is taking notes and researching the catalog websites, where the “number of days to first true leaf” will indicate how fast one variety will grow relative to another. That is especially important if you want to grow partial flats of two things. A good match for a uniform harvest pairs crops with similar days to maturity — like broccoli and Red Russian kale (both 10 to 15 days to true leaf) or basil and cilantro (16 to 25 days).

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Trays of microgreens at various stages of development in the Good Heart Farmstead greenhouse benefit from the circulation provided by a fan on low nearby, which helps prevent a fungal disease called damping off. Credit...Kate Spring

Start with the right location: 65 to 70 degrees, not adjacent to a heater or a drafty window. Moisten a supply of potting soil, either in its plastic bag or in a waterproof tub, by adding a small amount of water and mixing it with your hands or a trowel. Squeeze a fistful; it should be moist enough to hold its shape, but not so wet that water drips out.

Then line your tray with an inch or so of soil, tamped down so it’s compact, with an even surface. This will help ensure that seeds have equal soil contact for even germination.

To sow the seeds, scatter them thickly, according to the packet directions, aiming for 10 to 12 seeds per square inch for small seeds like basil, mizuna or kale and six to eight seeds for larger ones like beets or chard. Gently press them into the soil.

Lightly water the seeds with a mister or spray bottle.

Cover the tray with a germination dome or a damp paper towel. (If you use a paper towel, mist it daily so it stays moist during germination.) No supplemental light is needed yet.

As soon as the seeds germinate, usually in about three to five days, remove the dome or towel and place the uncovered tray under grow lights for 16 hours a day.

Water as needed to keep the soil moist but not waterlogged. Microgreens flatten easily, so use a mist or spray, or switch to bottom watering, adding a quarter of an inch of water to the tray below; the flat’s drainage holes will allow the soil to wick up water. For even watering, trays must be on a level surface.

Airflow is important, or thickly sown microgreens can suffer from a fungal disease called damping off. A fan set on low nearby helps.

Microgreens are harvested around the time the first true leaf appears — the one that resembles an older version of the plant, often between an inch or two tall. Use sharp scissors or a harvest knife (Johnny’s and High Moving both sell Victorinox serrated knives). Eat immediately or refrigerate in a closed plastic bag or container for two to three days.

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Waylon, the son of Good Heart Farmstead owners Kate Spring and her husband, Edge Fuentes, is 7 years old and a lover of pea shoots and all things salad. This year, he grew his first garden. Credit...Kate Spring

Ready to Graduate to Pea Shoots?

Pea shoots, a CSA-subscriber favorite at Good Heart Farmstead, are grown indoors in spring from organic field pea seeds, a kind of pea used for cover-cropping beds to improve the soil.

There are subtle differences in the process, Ms. Spring said: “We soak the seeds overnight, so that they have a little head start, and we really pack them in there.”

After that, the seeds take 12 to 14 days to harvest, at two to four inches high. Ms. Spring likes them on the bigger side — as does Waylon, who has all too quickly gone from sprout to shoot stage himself, his mother noted.

CombaGroup SA Reveals Rebrand With New Name, Logo, and Products

Molondin, Switzerland – 5 November 2020: On the 21st October 2020, CombaGroup SA has announced the company's complete rebranding and launch of its new website.

Last year, the company realized it was time to leverage its unique position in the field of mobile aeroponic growing solutions. This year, they've rebranded to solidify their stance, offering, and direction within the industry.

The new name, CleanGreens, is synonymous with powering clean, sustainable solutions in the agrotech space. It also reflects the company's mission to represent more directly what they are bringing to the table: fresh, healthy, premium quality yields of their customers’ favorite crops.

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The rebranding is a response to accelerated company growth and a renewal of its corporate vision, subtly captured by its new

With six years of R&D and technology breakthroughs in mobile irrigation and agronomy expertise, CleanGreens is proud to offer CleanGreens Pro, a system designed to be as simple as A-B-C, with immediate support and maintenance as well as a technical hotline available in addition to the built-in resources.

As a platform, CleanGreens is expanding to welcome new communities of users and has gone even further in solidifying its global position going forward. It has released new product packages and features that allow its clients to build, manage, and deploy custom applications quickly with its own intuitive, integrated, cloud-based operating application, GURU by CleanGreens. The platform gives clients the ability to grow exactly what they want with the support they require whenever they need it.

Based on the experiences and feedback from CleanGreens’ agronomist team and customers, this new app assists in key tasks like sowing, harvesting, and preventive maintenance and also features built-in reminders, alerts, and real-time records. It’s like having your own personal CleanGreens agro-expert assistant at your fingertips.

Currently, there are seven cultivation lines in operation in three locations: Molondin and Geneva in Switzerland, and Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in France. More are in the pipeline for the future. The new improvements have allowed CleanGreens to meet elevated customer demands for more of its innovative products and technologies.

"Our complete solution is different from any system in the market and our re-branding is largely driven by our effort to reflect this for our products, mission, vision, and of course, our customers and consumers,” says Serge Gander, CEO.

He adds: ”We've taken a clean, modern approach to the name, the website's design and the user experience in our new look and rebrand. We purposefully set out to challenge the status quo in all aspects of our business and this redesign reflects that." logo with the notion of interaction and connectedness. These are core to the capabilities of scalable mobile aeroponic technology platforms that are a priority for both CleanGreens and its clients and partners.

Please visit the revamped website www.cleangreens.ch to explore the new website and learn more about the products and services offered.

About CleanGreens

CleanGreens is a Swiss agro-technology company that provides farmers and industrialists with innovative mobile aeroponic farming solutions for growing fresh, environmentally-friendly, nutrient-rich vegetables. A certified B Corp company CleanGreens’ patented technology significantly reduces water consumption and contamination risks while offering maximum productivity per square meter and minimizing environmental impact. Automated irrigation and mechanized spacing system produce clean, quality, pesticide-free salads, aromatic herbs, and medicinal plants all year round, thus providing consumers with healthy, responsible products.

For more information

info@cleangreens.ch +41 21 545 99 25 www.cleangreens.ch

Media information online

Media information and images can be downloaded directly from cleangreens.ch Journalists can subscribe to our media mailings to receive information on CleanGreens’ aeroponic solutions and technology.
For the latest updates on CleanGreens, visit www.cleangreens.ch, or follow on Instagram, Twitter @SmartLettuce, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

5 Microgreen Types Packed With Nutrients You Should Be Eating

Microgreens are known for their nutrient-packed health benefits. But which microgreen types are the most nutritious and healthy to add to our diets? We are going to cover the top nutritious microgreen types and why you should add them to your eating habits now.

Arugula

In microgreen form, arugula has a nutty, peppery, wasabi-like taste. Arugula is one of the microgreen types that is nutrient-dense. It contains high amounts of vitamin C, copper, and iron, which help prevent illnesses like anemia. The phytochemicals also produce glutathione, which is an antioxidant. The combination of these health benefits help prevent and fight off toxins in the body.

Basil

The basil microgreen is a healthy addition to any salad since it has a crisp, citrus-like taste. This microgreen type has polyphenols that reduce oxidation and inflammation to promote gut health. It is high in vitamins such as A, B6, C, E, and it contains calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, copper, magnesium, and potassium. Basil is one of the microgreen types that are rich and nutrient-dense and can be a beneficial additive to your diet.

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Pea Shoots

Pea shoots are one of the microgreen types that can be eaten raw or cooked. Add them to your salad or cook them in a stir fry to add nutrient-packed vegetables to your food. These microgreens have a plethora of vitamins such as vitamin A and C and folic acid.

Radish

Radish microgreens are known for their spicy flavor profile. You can top off your dishes with the raw radish sprouts to add some heat to any dish. These microgreens are rich in vitamins such as vitamins A, B, C, E, and K. They also contain high amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. Radish sprouts contain amino acids and chlorophyll, which helps fight illnesses such as cancer.

Broccoli

Broccoli microgreens is another one of the microgreen types that are delicious and nutrient-packed. These popular microgreens contain a high amount of vitamin C, which helps our immune system fight off sickness. They also contain antioxidants and cancer-fighting compounds.

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Want to learn more?

Do you want to learn how to grow microgreens from the comfort of your home? We at the Nick Greens Grow Team use our in-depth knowledge to teach our subscribers how to grow microgreens at home!

Sign up for our microgreens class that takes place every Friday at 4:30 pm CST, and become a member of our FaceBook group to connect with others who are learning just like you. If you don’t want to take a class, subscribe to our blog and Youtube channel for weekly updates about growing microgreens and other farming related news!

#microgreentypes #microgreenstypes #microgreentype #microgreenstype #bestmicrogreenstogrow #bestmicrogreens #microgreenvarieties #microgreensvarieties #microgreenvariety #microgreensvariety #growingmicrogreen #growingmicrogreens #microgreen #microgreens

Pablo Bunster, Co-founder and CCO of AgroUrbana “In Our Next Farm, We Will Be Able To Use 100% Renewable Energy”

As Chile has been in a complete lockdown since mid-May, AgroUrbana is lucky to continue its operations. “It’s not easy, because you have to change the way of operating, the interactions, and in-farm activities, even when food safety was already key to the company culture. Our customers have been ordering through home delivery”, Cristián Sjögren, Co-founder and CEO of AgroUrbana says.

Renewable energy

Bunster notes: “It took us from the energy market, from renewable energy, to farming. We believe that this is the perfect testing round to see what vertical farming can do.” Chile has drought, cheap labor, we have competitive, available and abundant renewables. Which is always a discussion around vertical farming. We manage sunlight here as we use 100% renewable energy PPA. However, we cannot do this with our pilot because the overall consumption is too low, so we have to regulate it. In our next farm, we will be able to go 100% renewable. That puts a lot toward sustainability for vertical farming.” The urban population is growing fast in Latin America. AgroUrbana believes that vertical farming can accommodate that food demand.

“Our next stage is, going commercial to a scale where we can bring costs down”, Bunster continues. “First, we thought of a small community distributed model with a few small blocks around, such as container farms. But, we believe that scale is still required as you can become more competitive with higher efficiency.

“First, we’re farmers and technology comes to serve that purpose be the best farmers! We are developing some technologies internally to run our farms, but our focus now is how we can actually rate the curve of cutting costs to make our products increasingly competitive. We want to stay out of the commodity but still reach the masses. Our mantra is to deliver better quality food to everyone”, Sjögren adds.

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Pablo Bunster harvesting some fresh lettuce

Pilot farm

Sjögren states: “We started with a pilot farm, because vertical farming is something completely new in Latin America.” Before launching a new category for Agriculture in Chile, Sjögren and Bunster wanted to understand the economics of vertical farming. They took an approach of technology-agnostic by building a 3000 sq. ft pilot farm, where different technologies are tested. The 18-month pilot phase will be completed by the end of this year. 

“We are integrating our own recipe that combines the seeds nature provides us with its nutrition and environmental parameters. Next to that, we are constantly improving and optimizing our operations in order to drive down costs”, Bunster adds. These quantities are allocated in a 3000 sq. ft farm which is not a large production, Sjögren noted, but this is done to test the market, integrate and develop our technology and do R&D in new varieties. AgroUrbana is planning on scaling up throughout Chile in 2021 with an aim to further expand into the new markets, mainly large urban areas, in the region in the next years. 

“Chile is a perfect testing ground to start, test and stress what vertical farming can do, due to the Mediterranean weather we have, favorable to open farming, but also abundant and competitive renewable energy. We both spent our last ten years in the wind- and solar energy industry. Renewables will help AgroUrbana close the gap between traditional agriculture and vertical farming”, Sjögren says. 

The country has suffered from climate change, with a 10-year drought that highly affected Chilean agriculture. AgroUrbana has achieved surprising improvements in its yield. “We are planning to transfer all this knowledge to our next farm, a 30,000 sq. ft commercial-scale farm. In the upcoming months, we are doing funding rounds in order to help us realize this farm.

Sjögren says that AgroUrbana is going to pilot in the berry space as well, such as strawberries. “We are starting a pilot to test the different varieties of strawberries. Next to that, we are developing edible flowers and some microgreens”, Sjögren affirms. Most of the volume is lettuce, but we will be rolling out other leafy greens and we will see how it goes with the other crops. 

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Carmelo platform

“There are many components such as climate control, irrigation, growing structures, and so on. We want to put all the pieces together and operate these very efficiently”, Sjögren states. The company is developing a technology ‘Carmelo’, a platform of sensors with hardware and software to monitor and control our operations. “We are at a level of precision, where we are able to handle the microclimates within the farm. Using Carmelo, we are collecting data already for over one year which is helping us to become even more precise and consistent.” All data gathered will be used for our first large scale commercial farm planned for 2021.

“We’re all about technology and data because that’s how you drive down the costs. We are combining genetics, giving the perfect climate, and the perfect environment. Carmelo is all about finetuning the recipe we’re creating, through managing a farm, and having consistent quality food, every day of the year”, Bunster adds. 

Product pricing

“Our team is in good spirits as we have been keeping up production. The pandemic hit us hard, but we were able to relocate all production to different distribution channels, such as e-commerce, supermarkets and subscriptions”, Bunster states. We were planning on doing that already, but we accelerated our go-to-market because of the current situation. “There’s no going back on e-commerce because customers are getting used to it. If we can take our produce to e-commerce, keep our customers satisfied and easy about always getting the perfect product, they’ll always order it online. It’s something we already wanted to do and we are currently testing and proving it. So far, we’re doing okay”, Bunster adds.

AgroUrbana has two markets, one of them being retail with a fast pace opening of new distribution for their products, with 100% recyclable packaging. Furthermore, the company delivers its products to restaurants. Since one year, AgroUrbana has launched its own house mix of lettuce. 

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Cristián Sjögren and his colleague preparing the plugs for planting

Bunster mentioned that AgroUrbana is selling to restaurants that are price sensitive. Meaning that they care about food quality and the costs. “Here’s where food waste comes into play. We do not have any food waste. We’re coming to the point where most of what we grow, we’re able to process and sell. In restaurants only, we’re saving between 25-35% food of waste in leafy greens. We are very efficient in logistics as we don’t truck. We move food for a few miles from our farms to the kitchens of different clients. This helps us to make numbers for a competitive market.”

Focusing on the next generation

“It has been exciting to put our team together because nobody has a vertical farming degree on its resumé. We’re really excited to prepare the next generation of vertical farmers. We’re putting together different skills and attracting the next generation of farmers that want to move from the countryside to the city. It’s an attractive way to get a generation back to growing veggies in the city with a lot of interaction with technology”, Sjögren ends. 

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For more information:
AgroUrbana
Cristián Sjögren, Co-Founder and CEO
cristian.sjogren@agrourbana.ag 
Pablo Bunster, Co-Founder and CCO
pablo.bunster@agrourbana.ag
www.agrourbana.ag 

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Publication date: Tue 25 Aug 2020
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
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