Getting your children to eat their daily vegetable servings just got easier with the addition of microgreens into their everyday diet. But, children aren’t the only ones who benefit from these delicious micro treats!
Brazos Valley Microfarms, located in Hearne, is a passion project of Chris and Jen Schiavo, who began growing microgreens at their home for their family to enjoy before venturing into providing microgreens for those in Brazos Valley.
“When we decided to move from the city, my son and I decided we wanted to do something small before we went full blown,” Jen says.“It got shelved for a while until we decided to venture to Facebook and that’s where we found the idea of microgreens and enrolled in a program that taught us how to establish a presence in the community as micro farmers.”
For those who may not be familiar with the term, a microgreen describes a vegetable or herb that has not yet matured and is in its most nutritious state. The product is the middle ground between sprout and baby greens that are safe to each and are much more nutritious for those who consume them, Jen says. The Schiavo family specializes in four different types of microgreens including broccoli, sunflower, pea and radish.
“We started with our original four microgreens and have continued to improve the production of them,” Jen says. “Preference for favorites depends on each person's tastebuds, but a lot of kids seem to like the sunflower since they are a little sweeter.”
Each serving of microgreens provides a number of nutritional values including boosts to the immune system, lower inflammation and improved gut health. When consumed microgreens also provide high doses of needed vitamins including A and C as well as nutrients like zinc, magnesium and potassium.
“The best way to get our nutrients is from food,” Chris says. “We can take our health
for granted, but when it's not there then we know we notice immediately how important it is. We want people to be proactive and have something that tastes good, but it's super nutritious for them and very easy to use.”
Only needing a small space to grow, microgreens provide opportunities to farmers who may not have as much space or specialized equipment. Only having three acres themselves, the Schiavo family is able to maximize their space by producing the microgreens in a grow tent creating a controlled environment for the veggies to grow while maintaining proper temperature and humidity.
“The process is pretty simple,” Chris says. “To begin, the seeds a regerminated so they can start to form roots in specialized trays in a covered dark space. Every day we puta little mist of water on each plant and once they hit the three days they are moved underneath growing lights for 18 hours a day and after seven days we are ready to harvest.”
Since the microgreens take less time to grow, the number of harvests are more frequent with weekly harvests happening on Wednesday evenings followed by packaging on Thursday mornings for delivery straight to customers' doors immediately afterwards.
“Customers can order microgreens on our website or call us to inquire about getting microgreens delivered straight to your home,” Chris says. “We have some customers who have standing weekly or biweekly deliveries and we also do one time deliveries.”
Upon delivery customers should refrigerate immediately to prolong the shelf life of the microgreens, Chris says.
“We grow to order so we don’t grow a lot of extra,” Chris says. “We want everything to be fresh for our customers so they can enjoy the microgreens longer with a shelf life of at least one week when opened.”
Use of the products can vary depending on consumers preferences, Chris says that microgreens can really be used on anything that the customer already eats or even eaten as a standalone snack.
“Not everyone does, but about a third of our customers do smoothies,” Chris says. “The second most popular way people use them is just to add to what they normally eat. You don’t need to cook them so you can just sprinkle them on top of any meal from sandwiches to omelets.”
As their business continues to grow, Chris and Jen say they hope to eventually add more types of microgreens to their offerings and also might expand in other market areas.
“Our focus for now is helping the average family get healthier,” Chris says. “We may someday deliver to restaurants, but for now we are building the base for educating and sharing microgreens straight to our customer’s doors.”
Brazos Valley Microfarms is located in Hearne offering locally-grown microgreen varieties available for delivery monthly, bi-weekly, weekly or even on one-time occasions. For more information or to order, visit brazosvalleymicrofarms.com or call (979) 401-4511.
