September 29, 2020
Before I started helping out at Stone Bank Farm two and a half years ago — first as a volunteer and, somewhat recently, as part of the farm staff, I’d never heard of micro greens. Now, I’m never without a package of them in my fridge.
Micro greens are basically the baby version of their mature vegetable or herb-plant counterpart. For example, kale micro greens are the young seedlings of mature kale plants. Because micro greens are harvested soon after they germinate, all of the nutrients they need to grow are packed into each little seeding. Researchers, in fact, have found micro greens to be four-to-40-times more concentrated with nutrients (depending on the variety) than their mature plant version. The flavor, too, is a little more intense so a little goes a long way.
Although the nutritional benefit of micro greens has always been a draw for me, these little green guys have landed in my shopping basket each week because of their convenience. I frequently sprinkle micro greens over our meals and add them to our sandwiches when my time and energy are limited. There’s no chopping, shredding, slicing or dicing necessary. I just pull those little micros out of their container and sprinkle —– reaping the nutrition of a vegetable, with minimal effort.
Thanks to Maggie, our Micro Green Girl, market shelves are stocked each week with a wide variety of fresh micro greens: Kale, broccoli, cilantro, arugula, and spicy mix are part of the line-up, and Maggie has been experimenting with basil and dill micro greens as well (watch for these herb-plant micros to show up soon at the market).
