Microgreens are a form of young edible plants produced from vegetables, herbs and other species, harvested between 7 and 25 days. They vary in size, from 5 to 10 cm, are more developed than sprouts and smaller than "petit" and "baby" plants. Microgreens can be considered both a visual and nutritional plus for any plate.
Recent studies conducted at several universities in the USA have revealed that plants at this stage of growth can be 4 to 40 times more concentrated in beneficial nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Unlike sprouts, microgreens accumulate nutrients from three parts: the organic substrate based on peat, sunlight photosynthesized by the plant and the reserve from the seeds.
We learn more about them directly from Cristian Tudor, founder of Microgreens Romania, in a very interesting interview.
1. What does Micro Greens mean? Where did its story begin?
The concept of "microgreens" first appeared in the 1980s in the kitchens of master chefs in San Francisco. Large-scale production began in 1990 in California, with a limited range of species (broccoli, cabbage, red beet, basil).
Since the beginning of 2002, the commercialization of "living microgreens" cultivated in an artificial cellulose substrate has begun, similar to the one we use. The only difference is the substrate, which is natural for us, based on peat.
2. But what about your story, the ones who started this initiative?
Our story begins in March of this year. At that time we were working for a multinational company producing professional seedlings. In a fairly short time, we reached the point where we considered that was the maximum evolution there and we started looking for alternatives.
One option was to find another job and the other was to start the project I had proposed to myself since college, a business in the field, on my own.
Because it was precisely the conventional type of crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers or watermelons that made me make this decision, I started documenting myself to find out what we could come up with new in Romanian vegetable growing, and shock!, I found nothing.
Precisely because I didn't neglect my job, when I was doing research in the library of the University of Florida about a new disease in watermelons, I discovered a research on "Mighty Microgreens", I had no idea what they were, but I felt from the beginning that "this is it". That's how it was, after the first google search, I was convinced that this is what I would do, to go from seedlings to another kind of seedling.
Several months passed in parallel until I managed to raise the capital needed to start the business, two loans, at two different banks, at the same time. Start from scratch, new greenhouse, heating, tables, raw materials for a few months, START.
In the meantime, for many months during the summer, we tried, tested, re-tested and tried again, species, varieties, substrate recipes, and other things that we were going to encounter when we seriously started working. If someone says the word "tested" in our yard now, they get a deadly look.
