We love our microgreens! Delivered to Nature’s Fare Markets within 24 hours of harvest, these nutritious pops of flavour and colour from Grown Here Farms are a favourite. We sat down with Krystine McInnes from Grown Here Farms to learn about their musical approach to farming, and what makes their microgreens so tasty.
Why did you choose to be a farmer?
Our passion is to reconnect people with their food, nature, and each other. We want to make sure the integrity of our ingredients is a cut above, and we’re committed to being a net-zero operating organic farm—from seed to distribution.
“I hope consumers know how much integrity Nature’s Fare Markets has in supporting their local farmers. They stand apart because they really do care.”
What are microgreens?
A microgreen is the baby form of the full vegetable, harvested at 10–14 days old, with all the nutrients and flavour of the full leaf. We grow kale, arugula, beets, radishes, red and green mizuna (mustard greens), Swiss chard, fava beans, and pea shoots, which we put into two different blends: Main Street Mix and West End Blend.
Tell us how they are grown
We are very much about Mother Nature and love, pure from the source. Our food production is vegan, as we grow everything in peat moss and coconut husk-based soil. No animal by-products come anywhere near our soil or greens, and we use only certified organic soil, and non-GMO seeds.
We also play sound therapy of the HU tone to our plants. HU is considered—spiritually and in quantum physics—the highest vibrational frequency in existence. Think of the hum of a beehive. This vibrational hum helps our plants to be stronger and healthier, and transfers to the people who eat them. Our plants taste better, too. Just compare our microgreen arugula with some grown on a monocrop farm…there’s just no comparison in quality and flavour.
We are also inspired by Masaru Emoto’s work, about how different vibrations from thoughts, words, ideas, and music affect the structure of water molecules. If all living things consist mostly of water, then the quality of our life is connected to its quality. We are interconnected with everything. All farmers get this relationship with life—and we are lucky to live it every day.
Microgreen Maximum Nutrition
Because microgreens are grown longer than sprouts (seeds are germinated in water just long enough to grow pale, underdeveloped leaves), they are packed with antioxidants and nutrients to fuel their growth into plants. A 2012 study* from the USDA Agricultural Research Service shows that microgreens in general contain:
- 5x higher levels of vitamins and carotenoids than their mature plant counterparts;
- Almost twice the amount of vitamin C found in tomatoes;
- More beta-carotene than carrots; and
- High levels of vitamin E, iron, and vitamin K.
To boost their nutrition even more, drizzle your microgreens with healthy oil to improve the bioavailability of the fat-soluble carotenoids, and vitamins E and K.
Grown Here Farms – Langley, BC
Local, sustainable, and certified organic greenhouse grows beautiful micro-green salad blends and are delivered within 24 hours of harvest. They use sound therapy with their plants as they grow.
Article was published in The Good Life magazine.
