WHAT ARE MICROGREENS?
Q. What is a Microgreen?
A. Microgreens are a tiny form of edible greens produced from very young vegetable, herb or other
plants. They range in size from 1 to 1.5 inches long, including the stem and leaves. Some Microgreens
typically have the first set of partially opened or small fully opened true leaves as well. They are
generally one to two weeks old when harvested.
Q. How are Microgreens used?
A. Having surprisingly intense flavors considering their small size, Microgreens are used as a flavor
ingredient and accent while bringing visual enhancement for upscale cuisine. Microgreens’ delicate,
fresh appearance adds beauty and dimension combined with a range of distinct flavor elements.
Q. What is the best way to store Microgreens prior to use?
A. Microgreens and related items should be kept in Refrigeration at 38-40 degrees in a closed container.
Basil is very sensitive to low temperatures and may turn dark brown or black within a short time of
exposure to temps 32 degrees or lower.
Q. How long can Microgreens last once they have been harvested?
A. Microgreens usually last at least 5-7 days if they are refrigerated at the right temperature.
Microgreens shelf life will vary depending on a variety of things such as climate, growing method,
handling, and packaging. Growing under artificial lights will result in softer growth with shorter shelf-life
compared to properly grown in natural sunlight.
Q. Why don’t you offer living Microgreens?
A. Living Microgreens are offered by some growers and are said to be fresher because they are cut as
needed in the kitchen. There are a few reasons why this format has not been widely utilized. This
method requires more packaging in terms of either cardboard boxing and plastic trays filled with soil or
other growing media. The result is a much higher cost for a very small yield with lots of wasted
packaging and growing medium.
It is also more costly and is less efficient to deliver in this form, resulting in a higher carbon footprint and
limited delivery range. The product may start out fresh and vibrant in the ideal growing conditions of a
greenhouse, but once removed and put in a restaurant kitchen or cooler, the quality and flavor quickly
declines. Outside of the greenhouse, they rapidly begin to get soft, stretched, as they lose color and
flavor, though technically they are still alive, but not at all fresh.
Properly grown, fresh pre-cut Microgreens shipped in lightweight plastic containers are much less costly,
use less packaging, are higher quality and save time in the kitchen.
Some living Microgreens are grown inside warehouses under unnatural artificial lights. This results in an
inferior quality that is very soft, with extra long stringy stems and tiny leaves. It is not natural. This
method also requires humidity control and air conditioning so when combined with industrial lighting,
the electricity use is substantial. Savings of water do not come close to making up for the increased
energy usage and wasted resources needed to power these urban industrial factory farms.
Q. Are your crops grown in greenhouses or outside?
A. The majority of our crops are greenhouse grown.
Q. Do greenhouses fix harsh climate issues?
A. Greenhouses help moderate weather extremes in the outdoor climate. Nevertheless, greenhousegrown crops are significantly affected by the weather outside. Cloudy days, short winter days, extreme
cold, high humidity, hot temperatures, all have a profound effect on the quality of what’s grown in a
greenhouse. Climate matters!
You can use LED lights to grow pineapples in Chicago or New York, but should you? Local? It won’t be
sustainable, it will cost way too much and the quality won’t compare to what is naturally grown in the
tropics. The same principles apply to Microgreens; they should be grown in a mild sunny climate.
Q. Why don’t you open up a growing operation in the eastern United States? That way, you’ll be local to
that area.
A. Like fine wine: Location matters! For Microgreens, growing in a less than ideal climate results in
inferior quality. Harsh winter cold requires major energy use for indoor or greenhouse heating.
Extremely hot summers require cooling. This should not be considered sustainable. In San Diego, the
weather is mild and sunny; perfect for growing the highest quality Microgreens. The best chefs place
priority on flavor and quality above which state it comes from. Fresh Origins provides a better quality
product to the eastern United States than what can be grown there. There’s no reason to sacrifice
quality, flavor, selection, shelf-life and food safety with locally grown when our product is better and is
readily available nationwide.
Q. What about Microgreens from high-tech urban factory-style farms?
A. These new wave factory/industrial farms claim to be earth-friendly but, they are not. The quality is
also very different from what is grown naturally on an actual real farm.
For example, full-sized Lettuce grown inside an urban plant factory with artificial lighting is very soft,
with thin, limp, floppy, anemic leaves. They lack a firm crunchy texture. A side-by-side comparison with
Lettuce grown outside on a real farm reveals a huge difference in quality, color, flavor, crispness, leaf
thickness and shelf-life. Indoor factory full-sized Basil is also flimsy and weak compared to normal Basil.
Additionally, the nutritional content of these products is much lower than what is grown naturally in the
sun and soil.
Some of these operations are trying to produce Microgreens. Beware! This product is forced to grow in
unnatural conditions. It is very stringy, mostly long stems with tiny leaves. The stems have very little
flavor, shelf-life, nutrition or presentation value. A beautifully prepared plate is ruined by stringy,
elongated stems that look more like sprouts than Microgreens.
Fresh Origins has been growing sustainably for 21 years using natural sunshine that is free and clean.
Our Microgreens are not produced in an urban factory farm with unnatural artificial industrial lighting.
The new vertical plant factory people tend to have little or no experience with farming and growing,
especially Microgreens, no understanding of quality and many seem to be operating with investor or
grant money. They are forcing the growth with unnatural, artificial industrial lighting, air cooling and
dehumidification equipment which requires lots of electricity. They talk about using less water, but they
conveniently don’t mention how their electricity use compares to normal, natural farming. Compared
to real farming, they use massive amounts of electricity per crop. Their yields are also much lower due
to the thinness of their leaves and stems. The cost of a Kilowatt of electricity is almost 100 times the
cost of a gallon of water in California and has detrimental environmental impacts by wasting our
precious resources; vertical urban factory farming is not sustainable.
Urban-type Microgreens are often already stretched and stringy the day they leave their factory. This is
a very different type of Microgreen. The quality that they are shipping would be rejected by most
professional chefs and is worse than what we would reject and dump every day at our farm.
There are some claims being made of long shelf life for the living urban Microgreens, but because they
are poor quality, soft, stringy, long-stemmed micros with tiny leaves, and have a very low yield per
container from day one, the value and shelf-life is not there.
Microgreens should have short stems, fully expanded leaves, with deep vibrant color, and honestly
grown in bright natural sunshine. This simply cannot be achieved by forcing them in vertical factory
farms, stacked inside an industrial building, under unnatural artificial electric lighting, with energyintensive machinery for air cooling and dehumidification, in an urban setting.
Because we grow in natural sunshine, and fresh air, our Microgreens are short and leafy, full of flavor
with great shelf-life. Fresh Origins Microgreens are pre-cut with a 100% usable yield of the highest
quality Microgreens available.
Q. What unique items do Fresh Origins grow compared to other growers?
A. At Fresh Origins, we create a steady stream of original innovations. The following items have not yet
been duplicated and are not available from anywhere else:
Microgreens: Micro Mustard Dijon™, Micro Carrot Fern Leaf™, Micro Celery Feather Leaf™,Micro Mint
Lavender™, Micro Cucumber™, Micro Sorrel Bitter™, and Micro Hibiscus™.
Petite®Greens: Petite®Basil Nutmeg™, Petite®Basil Allspice™, Petite®Pumpkin Green™, Petite®Lavender,
Petite® Watercress Pink Ice™.
A few more items Fresh Origins created and introduced to the culinary world are: Micro Intensity Mix™,
Micro Mirepoix Mix™, Micro Iceplant, Micro Tangerine Lace™, Micro Wasabi, Micro Spectrum Mix™,
Petite®Fava Leaf, Petite®Haricot Leaf™, Petite®Lucky Shamrock™, Petite®Amaranth Carnival Mix™,
Petite®Basil Midnight™, Petite®Stevia™, FireStix™(edible flower), MicroFlowers™, and Nature Straws™
(edible straws).
Q. What growing medium do you use?
A. We grow our products in peat moss (decomposed prehistoric moss plants). It is not soil.
Q. What about organic?
A. We’d like to see more transparency and integrity in the organic farming industry and its regulation.
Currently, organic farmers are certified by private companies that are being paid not only for certifying
the farms, but they also get a percentage of the farm’s organic sales. The certifiers are for-profit
companies. This inherent conflict of interest is troubling. There is little or no enforcement, verification
or testing since this would reveal the true facts about the fraud that may be taking place and therefore,
diminish the profits generated by both the farmers and certifiers. This is why organic farmers are
adamantly against any form of testing.
Microgreens are not grown in soil. Peat Moss is not soil. The founders of the organic movement are
adamantly against hydroponic (grown without soil) farming being called organic. Organic principals are
based on nurturing the soil. There is actually a major battle going on over this within the organic
leadership. Microgreens grown in trays do not nurture the soil and therefore are not really grown using
organic principals and should not be called organic. Since the system is pay-to-be certified, that’s what is
happening. Being organic in our view is trendy, especially for the uninformed public, but does not really
look at the whole picture when growing food. We don’t need to be labeled organic just so we can sell
more produce. We sell based on quality and flavor. Our approach is to consider a much wider range of
issues, to grow responsibly, with efficiency, respect for our natural resources, and with naturally honest
methods to produce clean, safe, consistent, high quality, specialty produce.
Q. Where do you ship to?
A. We ship nationwide and to Canada and the Caribbean using overnight delivery services.
Q. Why don’t you sell direct to restaurants?
A. We let our distributors handle the selling and delivery, allowing us to concentrate on growing and
harvesting the best possible product we can. We simply do not have the kind of staff needed to directly
work with restaurants. We do have distributors who can arrange direct, drop-ship deliveries from our
farm to your door.