Microgreens business turns bountiful, sustains Buckley family through pandemic and beyond
Patrick Brown, co-founder of Moms Micro Garden in Buckley, never imagined the difference the company’s microgreens could make.
The business, which grows and supplies microgreens, was started by Brown and his wife, Rachel, and sparked from an idea after his mom contracted E. coli from tainted lettuce a few years ago.
He says after that, his mother became an avid gardener to grow her own food and soon encouraged him to grow microgreens as a side venture to his regular restaurant management work.
“It is shocking the amount of people that have called me after buying my product for a few weeks, and have said, ‘Hey, I got off this medication because I’ve been eating your produce,’” he told The News Tribune in a recent interview. “And it’s nothing I can quantify, but it is a really cool experience to have somebody call you and say, ‘Hey, the food that you grew made me feel better.”
Microgreens are vegetable greens harvested after the first leaves are developed, and grown from both vegetables and herbs. They are not to be confused with sprouts, which are produced by germinating seeds soaked in water, where even the seedling is considered edible.
“The growing methodology is very different for microgreens,” said Brown, “so we actually grow in what’s called a soilless mixture.”
He said of the bagged mixture, “it’s been tested for pathogens, our seeds are tested for pathogens, and they’re also tested for germination rates.”
“We plant them in the soilless mixture, and we harvest above the soil line. So our microgreens don’t have any roots or seed material in them typically.”
Many consider them “superfoods” for their elevated concentration of fibers, essential minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. In 2012, researchers from the University of Maryland in College Park found the microgreens they examined contained four to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts.
Cabbage, broccoli, radishes and more can offer microgreen options.
“The radish is super spicy and has like a strong horseradish-type spice,” said Brown. “The mustard has like a strong wasabi flavor to it. The pea shoots tastes like fresh snap peas.”
The possibilities, and flavor punch produced by the tiny greens, are bountiful.
“We’re growing cantaloupe microgreens right now. They taste just like cantaloupe, it’s absolutely nuts,” he said.
According to Brown, the business started to take off before the pandemic.
“I could run my business three days a week and work my job job four days a week, and I had plenty of flexibility,” he said.
Then came COVID-19 and widespread shutdowns among restaurants.
With no idea if or when restaurant work would come back, the couple delved into making microgreens their full-time focus.
“We were growing microgreens for ourselves to literally pinch pennies and save money on groceries because we had all the equipment in our garage,” Brown said. “We had the seeds, we had the soil, and we were like, ‘I don’t know when the next stimulus check is coming.’”
So it became a business to offer microgreens via home delivery, then farmer’s markets. Now, customers can get the greens at the two Harbor Greens grocery stores in Pierce County (University Place and Gig Harbor).
“We self-distribute from Gig Harbor all the way to Edmonds, twice a week,” Brown said. “We do about 60 deliveries a week. We do 10 farmers markets. We have a commercial lease on a greenhouse next to The Market,” (formerly the Bonney Lake Food Bank) on state Route 410.
“We love his products,” said Chad Roy, co-owner of Harbor Greens. “We also use his microgreens on our famous Avocado toast at Davenport,” the Gig Harbor coffee shop also operated by Harbor Greens.
Josh McNally, product buyer for Harbor Greens, told The News Tribune that after going through several different suppliers, Brown’s company has worked well.
With previous suppliers, “Some of them had a hard time just holding up in the cooler, like, kind of a short shelf life. Since we’ve gotten in Patrick’s stuff, it’s been phenomenal, probably some of the best we’ve had. ... The presentation is just beautiful with the vibrant colors of the greens,” he said.
He noted the best-selling one is the Harbor mix blend, which offers a variety of the greens, closely followed by the radish blend of red and green.
Contrary to what other companies have experienced in trying to find workers to support the area’s supply chain in recent months, Brown says he’s filled up with a staff of five; two working full-time, and three part-time.
Starting wage with the business is $20 an hour.
“We have focused on hiring people that were laid off, restaurant workers throughout the pandemic,” Brown said. “That’s been kind of our focus on who we want to hire because the job skills are really relatable.
“I had a large pool of unemployed people that I had previously supervised that I knew were going to match with my personality style and the culture that I wanted to build,” he said.
While at least one has returned to restaurant work, he said, it was gratifying to be able to give back to those workers in their time of need.
While other microgreens businesses helped pave the way for Brown to tap the Seattle market, “I would love for people in Tacoma to go online and sign up and try us out.”
As for the future, expansion into more sales in Pierce County is on tap along with overall sales growth.
“We have some good accounts coming in, and I feel confident that I’ll be able to keep my team members employed at or above the level that they’re employed at now,” Brown said.
One moment of arrival for Brown happened as he and his wife celebrated their anniversary at a Bellevue restaurant, which also happens to be a client.
“Every single plate in that restaurant that was all around us, had produce that we had grown on top of it as a garnish. Every single person in that dining room was eating something from our farm,” he said.
For more information go to momsmicrogarden.com or visit the store’s Instragram account: instagram.com/moms_microgarden/.
This story was originally published August 15, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
