My Tiny Greens Has Steadily Grown Since 2000 to Serve the Community
by DEMI GUILLORY
As it did for countless others, the COVID-19 pandemic changed Patsy Rogers’ life. Rogers, along with her husband, Wayne, has always been a planner, ready for most any obstacle in her path.
That level of preparedness was challenged during the early days of the pandemic, when supply chain interruptions left many grocery shelves bare.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Rogers admits. This realization inspired what is known today as My Tiny Greens — the microgreen business Rogers and her husband started.
Having already acquired a green thumb for planting vegetables and fruit on their Lakeland property, Wayne began researching what else they could grow that would offer high nutritional value with a quick harvest.
What he discovered in his search were microgreens and sprouts; sprouts, however, were quickly ruled out. “There’s a lot of fungus in sprouts, and we didn’t know if we wanted to deal with that,” Rogers says.
The decision was made, and the pair wasted no time learning everything they could through YouTube videos and online research before getting their plans in motion.
“There’s four to 40 times more nutrients in the microgreen than the adult vegetable,” explains Rogers, who goes on to say that plants like broccoli have harvest periods of up to three months, but microgreens only need eight to 10 days before they are ready for harvest.
Planting microgreens seemed like a no-brainer for Rogers, who started with sunflower seeds and gradually began to experiment with other varieties. She currently grows broccoli, salad mix, kale, radish, spicy mustard, cabbage, pea tendrils, cilantro, and basil. It quickly became a pandemic hobby that blossomed into a lucrative business.
“I was just growing them for us, and then friends and family started asking for them,” she shares about what she affectionately calls ‘Vegetable Confetti.’ “People always say ‘those pretty vegetables you see on your plate in fancy restaurants.’ ”
NOT WITHOUT ITS CHALLENGES
As she soon learned, planting microgreens was a bit different than growing full adult fruits and vegetables. The process yields a higher volume of harvest in a much shorter period, but it is more hands-on and requires controlled settings in a stabilized environment.
“I would say there are parts of it that are definitely easier,” Rogers says. Less concern about insects and weather are two of the biggest advantages with growing microgreens, but indoor settings need to be maintained with both consistency and precision.
Microgreens are grown indoors, and the couple operate My Tiny Greens out of their home with special attention to two important things: temperature and water.
“Out in your garden, you can plant things and leave them for a couple of days,” Rogers says, adding that gardening allows more flexibility and brings gardeners to a point where “we can just kinda let things go once you plant them.”
With microgreens, every temperature setting and watering makes a big difference.
“I have air conditioning and dehumidifiers going, but on a real hot day, the A/C has a hard time keeping up,” she explains.
“Or when it gets real cold, I have to make sure, ‘Have I turned the heat on in the room?’ ”
Without the right amount of water, microgreens will not produce optimal harvest.
“At one point, they have to be watered twice a day,” she says.
Farm-to-Table Partnerships
For Rogers, the effort is well worth the reward. Local businesses have joined her family and friends in reaping the benefits of microgreens, and several restaurants use My Tiny Greens as a source of farm-to-table ingredients.
Anthony’s Health Hut was the first store to purchase from My Tiny Greens after Rogers noticed they carried a small selection of microgreens that came from a grower outside Lakeland. Seizing an opportunity to connect the business with locally grown harvest, she approached the owner, who also happened to be a longtime friend from church.
“I just asked her, ‘Hey, I’ve been growing microgreens. Would you be interested in selling some here or using any in your restaurant?’ ” Rogers says.
The answer was a resounding yes.
The health store welcomed My Tiny Greens to its table while saving some room for the other grower, who carries a few microgreen varieties Rogers does not currently grow. Other local businesses who partner with My Tiny Greens include The Terrace Hotel and the Japanese restaurant Hakucho.
Rogers says she delivers the microgreens the same day she harvests them, explaining that they have the most nutritional value the closer it is to the harvest point.
While Rogers is proud of how far My Tiny Greens has come in five years and relishes the opportunity to provide for her community, she is already hard at work doing what she knows best — preparing for the future.
“I would like to expand the stores that [My Tiny Greens] is in and expand the restaurants that I’m providing to,” she reveals.
In addition, Rogers says she’s interested in educating others about the benefits of growing microgreens.
“I also like teaching, and I can go to schools around here and talk to students in agriculture or culinary classes about growing and using microgreens. I’d like to do more of that.”