Microgreen growers are popping up like mushrooms after a good English rainfall, but it seems the appetite for tiny salads is still on the rise. Lee’s adventure started with two lights and five trays to explore the health benefits for his family.
After sharing surplus salads with his work colleagues, the orders started coming in regularly, prompting Lee to scale up his production. Less than six months from starting, he’s now supplying a local veg and fruit wholesaler, four farm shops and three restaurants, including one in England’s oldest hotel. For Lee, it’s the most rewarding way of growing, going from seed to punnet in around two weeks. His two older kids love that they have healthy food on demand, and his younger two have started eating better and are always keen to try new varieties. It may be that Lee’s green fingers came from his mum, who, as he says, ‘was always in the garden or a potting shed’.
With three full racks now, he’s planning to expand his green revolution even further, as the demand isn’t slowing down. A microgreen success story from a family farm in a small village just shows that this ‘trend’ can be successfully replicated pretty much anywhere.