Sustainability

Our Growing Practice

Microgreens are well known for their tastes and nutritional benefits. Commercial farms include greenhouses, hydroponics, and aeroponics. We do it a little differently. We grow in soil, indoors, in growing trays located in grow racks. We use our own designed and manufactured LED lighting that provides maximum efficiency and control. Our farm is located in a building designed with a semi-controlled environment. Growing indoors enables our greens to avoid pests and eliminate the need for any chemicals or other unnatural pest control. We can also grow any time of the year; there are no more seasons.

Why Soil?

The chemistry of plant growth is very complex. In addition to light and water, plants need nutrients absorbed by their roots. This process alone is very complex. While known essential nutrients and the correct pH can be provided by water-based solutions (hydroponics) there is more to it. Trace elements, beneficial bacteria and natural pest control are located in the soil and cannot be readily replicated. We find that growing in soil also provides the finest in flavors.

Water Usage

We use very little water. A 20” x 24” grow tray gets about a pint of water from planting to harvest. We also use water purified by Reverse Osmosis, a simple but efficient and effective process.

Energy Footprint

Growing indoors, we don’t use the sun. At least not directly. The one issue with growing indoors is that we have to replace the sunlight with artificial light. The change to LED lighting from legacy technologies such as Sodium and Fluorescent helped substantially but the numbers still add up. A large user of electricity and cost. Our Farm building roof is covered with Solar PV panels, generating nearly all the power we use. In addition, we do not use white LED lighting. This is because most of the lights colors of white light are not effectively used by plant chlorophylls. We studied this extensively over several years, leading to the design and manufacture of our custom LED lighting. About 40% of the energy output by (daylight) white light is wasted as it is not effectively utilized by the greens.