3 Reasons to Grow Microgreens in Soil
At Back Mountain Microgreens, we organically grow all of our non-GMO microgreen products in soil. Growing in soil isn't by chance either, there are a few reasons! If you've eaten or used any Back Mountain Microgreens products, you know what we're talking about when it comes to health benefits, flavor, taste, and eye appeal!
Our microgreens are top notch and we do our best to ensure the products we deliver exceed your expectations! You expect the best from us, but maybe you have questions about why we grow your greens in soil instead of using other mediums or growing processes.
If you're curious and have pondered why we grow in soil, we want you to know some of the benefits growing in soil offers—so keep reading! Our goal is to be your source for farm-fresh, local, healthy, and tasty microgreens. We believe growing in soil helps us do that and we explain why we hold that belief below. Before the end of this post, you'll have a better understanding of three reasons why we grow your greens in soil rather than other mediums or using other processes.
Why Grow Microgreens in Soil?
Soil Provides a Natural Nutrient Supply
In soil is where seeds grow naturally, and we're aiming to reproduce the sort of natural fertile soil our microgreen crops demand. Fertile soil provides a steady supply of nutrients directly to a plant's roots. The nutrients in natural, fertile soil come from the cyclical breakdown of decaying plant and animal matter. Remember in grade school science class when we learned we can't create matter? Matter just changes forms, or moves from one place to another, as time passes.
In our case, we're not growing microgreens on a fertile forest floor that's full of nutrients from fallen leaves and animals, so we use two products to help us ensure our microgreen products get the nutrients they need while growing: PRO-MIX MP organic-approved growing medium, and GAIA Green all purpose organic fertilizer. These two products combined get us as close to natural fertile soil as possible.
As if that weren't enough, in Luke 8, Jesus shares a parable about a farmer scattering seeds. He says the seeds that fell on good, fertile soil produce a huge harvest—a hundred times what had been planted! For these reasons, we grow our microgreen products in fertile soil because, in our opinion, soil incorporates optimal nutrition for the growing seeds and is our best option.
Soil Simplifies Growing Microgreens
Soil is simple. We don't need special knowledge or equipment to grow with soil. For now, we mix our soil and fertilizer by hand. Maybe someday we'll need a cement mixer type of machine once the quantity of soil gets outlandish, but for now, sowing our seeds in soil is simple. We like it that way! If we decided to grow using another medium, we might incur extra expense, or need specialized equipment to support a specialized process. PRO-MIX, and GAIA Green are all readily available and are as no-fuss as we can get.
We Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle the Soil
Let's think long-term for a moment. We like the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle! Our home—and when I say home I mean Earth, not our house—is beautiful. We want to take care of what's been entrusted to us, enjoy the beauty that surrounds us, and contribute to others (including our kids!) being able to do the same. We rely on products and processes that are sustainable.
All that said, we'd like to eventually develop a business process to compost and recycle our microgreen growing soil, we're just not there yet. There are regulations that govern composting and the use of compost as a growing medium on commercial farms. Even though we don't compost as part of Back Mountain Microgreens business, we do recycle our microgreen growing soil for personal use—like letting our chickens pick through it!
One of our to-do list items for spring is to build a compost bin so we can start learning what is required to compost successfully—and how to stay in compliance with applicable regulations. It may take years to feel confident regarding composting, but we're in no rush since we still have plenty of personal uses for the leftover soil!
We look forward to one day being able to compost all of our leftover soil—where there's a will, there's a way!
In business and life, there are two ways of classifying what we hold on to... either as assets or liabilities. Soil is both an asset and a liability at Back Mountain Microgreens. Soil is one of our greatest assets because of the nutrients it provides for the microgreen products we grow. Soil is also our greatest liability because it's the biggest piece of the expense pie that cuts into our profits.
Regardless, we're sticking to growing your microgreens in fertile soil! Without the nutrients in the soil, Back Mountain Microgreens' products may not provide the nutritional content, flavor, colors, and eye appeal you appreciate! We believe our soil contributes to the quality of your microgreens and thus, we won't compromise this part of our growing process.
We hope this post made the why behind this part of growing your greens a bit clearer. Now that you understand 3 reasons we grow your microgreens in the most nutrient-rich soil we can muster, are you in the mood for some nutritious microgreens to curate your next farm-to-table style meal? Look no further! Kick off a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly microgreens subscription today by clicking on the links below so you can fill your fridge with whole foods that support good health, and become a part of the Back Mountain Microgreens community!
