Latest / The Shed Organics Show / #57 - Microgreens Made Simple | Paula Wiseman [Grow Wise Microgreens]

Transcript

#57 - Microgreens Made Simple | Paula Wiseman [Grow Wise Microgreens] · The Shed Organics Show

0:00
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
0:04
Organics Show. Today we are joined by Paula
0:09
from Grow Wise Microgreens and to be honest, I needed to ask a
0:14
few of the fundamental questions.
0:17
What are microgreens and what are they used for and how do you
0:21
grow them? And we covered all of these
0:23
topics. Paula was amazing to be able to
0:25
go through some of the fundamentals with me today, how
0:28
you can get started with microgreens.
0:30
And of course, Paula's journey through what she used to do,
0:34
which I won't spoil, but a job that she used to do and how
0:38
making a lifestyle change LED her into a permaculture world
0:42
and then ultimately selling some beautiful microgreens.
0:47
And she's also big on the education as well.
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You know, like myself, I love to teach and educate people and run
0:54
workshops and all sorts of things.
0:56
And Paula certainly shares that as well.
1:00
So we dive into all of this. It's a very interesting episode
1:03
to understand the crux of what it takes to A, make a shift, a
1:07
lifestyle shift into something different, but B, understanding
1:10
what microgreens are and the nuances and the differences and
1:14
how you can just get started on something that's super, super
1:18
simple and can be very nutritious, delicious, and just
1:22
a fun way to get kids inspired to grow something at home.
1:26
So here we are. Here is the conversation with
1:29
Paula from Grow Wise Microgreens.
1:49
My first ever exposure to them, I was thinking microgreens.
1:53
I was like, OK, are they just like really small versions of
1:56
plants? Are they just like, you know,
1:59
the first shoots that come out like is there a, is there a way
2:03
that you can define kind of what they are and what that means to
2:07
you? Yeah, yeah, of course.
2:09
So that's a good place to start, probably.
2:12
But what you said first is correct, if they're the small
2:14
versions of plants basically. So technically, I like to kind
2:19
of explain that there are 4 stages of growth of a regular
2:24
veggie that you're familiar with, like a broccoli or
2:26
something that you've got the sprout stage, which is when
2:30
you've got the seeds and you rinse them and then they just
2:33
germinate and you eat the whole thing.
2:35
Then you've got the micro green stage.
2:37
So micro greens are generally grown in some kind of growing
2:41
medium. They're grown just to the first
2:44
leaves, the codeledens, or sometimes, you know, with that
2:48
first true leaf coming through and then you just snip them
2:53
above the soil level and you eat them above that.
2:57
You've got sort of the baby leaf.
2:58
So when they've grown out a little bit more and the leaves
3:00
are nice and tender and you're going to eat them before they
3:03
turn into the adult plant, and then you've got the mature
3:06
vegetables. So microgreens are that sort of
3:08
second stage of growth of a lot of the veggies that you're
3:13
probably familiar with. So a lot of the brassicas and
3:16
even things like flowers and fruits and grains and things.
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So yeah. OK, cool.
3:21
That does make a lot of sense because I've, you know, I've
3:23
heard initially, I've heard initially about the like a
3:26
sprout where you just would, you know, sprout seeds and then you
3:29
can use them in various different methods.
3:32
And from what I understand like that when you first sprout the
3:36
seed, it's got all of its nutrient potential, you know,
3:41
kind of just like everything's firing, it's got everything it
3:44
needs in that seed and it's all firing off at once.
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And then you get that little sprout.
3:48
And then that's kind of like the, the most high density in
3:53
terms of nutrient value or that that's what I've come to
3:57
understand. But then you know, the micro
3:59
green is not far off that at all and it and it kind of would add
4:04
different, different things. So is is the main purpose of
4:08
microgreens or one of the main purposes to eat them for their
4:13
nutritional value? Is that kind of where the
4:16
majority of them come in? Yeah, you think so?
4:20
I feel like in the past they've become popular because chefs
4:24
have used them in fancy dishes, and so they're looking not so
4:29
much at the nutrient density, they're looking at the colour
4:32
and the flavour and maybe even the texture of some of them,
4:35
which is wonderful. I love all of those things about
4:37
microgreens as well, but it's become more more popular for
4:42
people to be buying them and eating them for the nutritional
4:46
density. So there's something that is
4:48
really easy to just sprinkle on whatever you're already eating.
4:53
You don't have to change your diet or eat something fancy or
4:56
eat something different. You just add your broccoli
5:00
microgreens to your eggs and toast or to your sandwich that
5:02
you're eating or to your steak and veg and you're adding a
5:07
whole lot of nutrients there with just a little sprinkle of
5:10
microgreens. So it is, I mean, they are still
5:13
used in cafes and restaurants. They sort of as a garnish, I
5:17
guess, or in really nice restaurants where chefs are
5:22
using them particularly for color and flavor and different
5:25
things. But it's becoming a lot more
5:27
popular and for people to be just everyday people, to be
5:32
buying them and eating them because they're just really good
5:35
for you. Yeah, OK, that doesn't make a
5:37
lot of sense because you do see them like displayed on AI don't
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know, like on a piece of cake or a little like a you know, it's
5:45
beautiful. And like, I've chatted to to
5:47
Sarah during the edible flowers and, and stuff at Basili and
5:50
she's like, you know, all of these beautiful little
5:52
decorative and as you said, texture as well, like all of
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these cool little things that people can get a bit of a
5:59
surprise out of. You think, oh, can I eat that?
6:01
You know, and then you just go, wow, that's like actually adds a
6:04
lot to the dish. But as I was, you know, saying
6:07
before about the sprouts, how that initial bit of nutrient
6:10
density people are starting to go, OK, well, then there's like
6:13
two birds with one stone going on here.
6:18
Why then microgreens for yourself?
6:19
Why did you turn down that path? Had you been growing before?
6:23
And why did you decide? OK, yeah, this is my lane.
6:29
Well, it's, I mean, it's, it could be a short story, but it's
6:33
also a long story. I mean, as a from a growing
6:38
perspective, I've been interested in growing, you know,
6:42
food for a while, you know, and particularly since my kids came
6:46
along. So they're 10 and 12 now.
6:48
Yeah. But even before that, I had a
6:51
little balcony garden in my apartment in Sydney and like to
6:54
have herbs on hand and I, I love food and I love cooking.
6:58
So having my own things growing was great.
7:01
I'm absolutely not a great gardener.
7:05
I'm constantly learning. So, yeah.
7:08
So there was that interest generally in, you know, growing
7:13
a bit of my own food and being able to eat things that I've
7:16
grown and cook with them. So, yeah, I guess if you look at
7:22
the whole picture, six years ago I was living just outside of
7:25
Sydney. You know, my husband, my kids, I
7:28
was working as a permanent firefighter.
7:31
So I was just homeschooling our kids, you know, so we just had a
7:37
regular kind of life. We actually travelled, Our goal
7:41
was to go around Australia and then COVID happened and so a
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nine month trip around Australia became a let's just run away to
7:52
wherever we can go. And so we went to Queensland for
7:54
five months and travelled in our van.
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And during that trip I actually discovered permaculture, which
8:04
was really an interesting moment for me because we did an intro
8:08
to permaculture course up in quranda with a beautiful couple
8:12
who were running a course. It was lovely.
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And that moment for me kind of shifted our life because within
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a year from that moment, we were actually living in Queensland
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and we had, you know, as we've kind of downsized our life and
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just slowed everything down. I'd moved away from my 14 year
8:33
career as a firefighter, you know, still homeschooling the
8:36
kids and things like that, but trying to grow a bit of food.
8:38
We've got chickens where we live.
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We've got a bit of space, trying to have time to be in nature and
8:43
all those sorts of things. Yeah.
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So once we kind of got settled, I wanted to find something else
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that I could do that, you know, might bring in a bit of money
8:55
ideally. And yeah.
8:58
And something that was fulfilling and coming from a
9:01
service background as a firefighter.
9:03
My husband is ex military as well for many years.
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So we both have that kind of mindset.
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And yeah, I came across microgreens on social media.
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I had there was a lady who popped up a few times to me.
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She's in America. Laura.
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Hi Laura. And she was doing a make money
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with microgreens course. So I did some of her free
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offerings and just learnt about growing a little bit and ordered
9:30
some seeds, started growing some microgreens myself.
9:34
And yeah, that was was a light a light up kind of for me.
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I was like, oh, I could do this and I could sell this to people
9:41
that I hear around me in my community.
9:44
I could provide really nutrient dense food that was locally
9:49
grown and I could encourage people to grow a bit of their
9:52
own food too, which is why we focus on selling living
9:54
microgreens instead of harvest. So yeah.
9:57
So that was kind of the journey. I hope I haven't made that too
9:59
long. I'm good at making a No, this is
10:01
long. This is what this what's this is
10:03
all about having a little bit of time to be able to Share your
10:06
story in depth, because I, I think all of that context
10:09
matters. And like, I relate to it a lot
10:12
in terms of how you, you were wanting to slow down your life a
10:16
bit. And, you know, homeschooling
10:19
kids is hard enough as it is in terms of like the time and the
10:23
efforts and stuff it takes. And you do want to be around
10:27
home more. And I imagine that as a
10:30
firefighter or, you know, your husband in the military, they're
10:33
intense jobs. They're not, you know, there's
10:37
something that we, I guess, underestimate how intense it can
10:42
be to just like come home after something like that, that you
10:46
might have had a day at work and to kind of just be able to
10:48
decompress and be at home. And I think nature does that for
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a lot of people. I don't know whether you relate
10:54
to that or not, but if you've got a chaotic life or job or
11:00
situation, whatever it is, then nature tends to kind of give us
11:04
that little bit of grounded balance and decompression after
11:10
these types of things. So I can totally see why this
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move was like something that you wanted to do.
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I'd love to like just click on the the learnings in terms of
11:24
like permaculture and what you've then taken from that into
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growing microgreens. So if you can, can you just give
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me a bit of a rundown about your process now of growing the
11:38
microgreens without giving away your industry secrets, but?
11:42
Give us a little bit of. Everyone down, it's actually, I
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mean, there's absolutely no secrets here.
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I share pretty much everything I do on our social media because,
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again, yeah, my goal is to encourage people to grow more of
11:57
their own food. Exactly what you're doing,
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right? So and from what I understand of
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you, you're in the same, you know, you're trying to put all
12:04
this content out there for free for people to be able to access.
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You know, that's one great part of the technology that we have
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access to today. So, yeah.
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So no secrets. But yeah, I mean, microgreens is
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so easy to grow there, but they're also particular things
12:20
that will make them great. It's a bit like scones.
12:24
So you know, when you make scones and they're really simple
12:28
recipes, literally butter and flour and milk and and it's
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that's it. And but there's a certain way
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that you stir it and you don't over mix the.
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So the process can be refined really well to make a really
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awesome scone. So yeah.
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So I do love that microgreens are super simple.
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You basically just need a container seed and soil, you
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know, a little bit of light, some fresh water, that's it.
12:54
It's so simple. You, if you live in an
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apartment, you can grow microgreens.
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If you live in a share house, you can grow microgreens if you,
13:01
you know, it's so accessible to everybody.
13:04
So yeah, so it's, it's super simple.
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I mean, I can go through the process of just generally like
13:12
from start to finish. Or did you want me to focus on
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the kind of permaculture side of things?
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Because I feel like the permaculture side of it is, it's
13:23
probably more about how I run my small business as well.
13:29
And yeah. Well, maybe just go through the
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microgreens part first, like what's your process in terms of
13:34
getting to the end result? And then, yeah, we can sort of
13:37
touch on that because I know the permaculture is a bit of a like,
13:40
you know, don't waste anything and keep everything in an
13:42
enclosed system, all of that kind of thing.
13:44
So maybe that relates more to the business.
13:47
But go through the the Margareens, if you, if you will,
13:49
because I know that like you do this in a lot of your workshops
13:53
and education and things like this.
13:56
So, you know, I don't want people to not go to those
14:00
because you're going to go into some real depth in terms of all
14:03
of that, but like a basic overview of how you're getting
14:06
to the product that you're selling at the end of the day.
14:09
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So basically, like I said,
14:14
container seed and soil. So I've actually got a couple of
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containers here. Cool.
14:18
This is what I so this is what I use.
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This is just a normal nursery pot.
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Yep. But it was too deep for how I
14:26
sell my microgreens so I just cut it down.
14:29
Amazing. So I just made them little mini
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ones. These have lasted forever.
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So what I do is this is how I sell my microgreens.
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They're in these little cups. That's so sweet.
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So this is tat soy, this little cup here.
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So I don't want to give people these because they're plastic
14:46
and I'm relying on them to then be able to turn them or reuse
14:49
them themselves, which, you know, not everybody does.
14:52
So whilst this isn't a perfect solution, it's, you know, the
14:56
stickers compostable, the, it's a paper that's compostable or,
15:00
you know, the soil that I use can just be popped out in your
15:04
garden, things like that. So, so yeah, so starting with a
15:08
container, the reason I cut this down is because I want a shallow
15:11
container, right? So, so a shallow container could
15:14
also look like a sushi tray, like, you know, you know what,
15:19
what do you have at home? I'm sure there's 50 things that
15:21
you have at home that you could use.
15:22
There's a Tetra pack that I've just sort of cut in half and
15:26
I've put holes in. Yeah.
15:28
Wow, there's these. This is a really cute one.
15:31
This is, it's a beautiful little low lying in the shape of a cat
15:37
pot. But even like a dip container,
15:40
you know, you can absolutely take the lid off of that and
15:43
then put some holes in the bottom.
15:46
So the main thing you're looking for is something that shallow
15:49
clean, poke some holes in the bottom for drainage because you
15:52
don't want your root sitting in too much water.
15:56
And that's it for the container. Like super simple.
15:59
So just quickly on that, sorry to interrupt.
16:02
Why shallow is that? Because like as above, so below,
16:06
so if you've got a root system that's going really deep, it
16:08
tends to be a bit leggy up on top.
16:10
Is that kind of the idea? Yeah.
16:12
So the main thing to consider is that you don't need, I mean,
16:16
you're not having a whole lot of root growth.
16:17
You're having enough root growth just to get to the microgreen
16:20
stage and then you're harvesting them, right.
16:22
So if you have a really deep pot like this, you're kind of
16:29
wasting a whole lot of soil each time you're growing microgreens
16:31
because you actually want your soil to go all the way to the
16:34
top of the container. So the reason why you want it at
16:38
the top of the container is that if your soil only goes halfway
16:42
up and then your microgreens are growing, you kind of got to poke
16:45
your scissors or your knife down into the container to be able to
16:48
harvest them. Yeah.
16:49
And plus, there's not great airflow.
16:51
They're growing really densely, so you need airflow amongst all
16:54
the the stems. So having your soil all the way
16:57
to the top of your container is important.
17:00
So that's something to consider with, Yeah, when you're popping
17:03
your soil in is if you want it all the way to the top.
17:05
Yeah. So, so that's basically
17:08
container as the soil mixer use. You can use a few different
17:12
things. I use a mixture of Coca-Cola.
17:15
I buy them in little bricks and hydrate them the an organic
17:22
input. This one's, I think they're
17:23
called echo name nature Shield is the brand.
17:27
So I use those. I use propagating sand and
17:31
perlite. That's it.
17:32
So no nutrients unless I'm growing some of those longer
17:36
growing microgreens. So particularly herbs, things
17:39
like basil or even onion or lemon balm, like they can take a
17:44
little bit longer. And so I, I have like a water
17:46
nutrient that I add, but the actual seeds have everything
17:52
they need in them to grow to the microgreen stage.
17:55
So you don't need nutrients in the grow medium.
17:58
There are grow mediums you you can use that are non soil.
18:01
So there's like hemp mats and Rockwall and things like that.
18:04
You can grow hydroponically on mesh mats and things like that.
18:09
I'm sure everyone at some point, or maybe maybe I'm aging myself
18:13
here in school, you got cotton wobbles and you sprinkled this
18:18
press seeds on them. I mean, that's basically
18:20
hydroponic growing, right? You're just watering the wool.
18:24
So yeah. So there's lots of things you
18:27
can use as a growing medium. But like I said, the main thing
18:30
is to have it all the way to the top of your container and
18:33
something that is quite fine in texture too.
18:36
You don't want a big potting mix with big chunks.
18:38
You've got tiny little roots trying to get down in there.
18:40
So something fine, the propagating sand and perlite
18:44
that I add to my Coca Coya helps with drainage and aeration.
18:49
So I've just got, you know, I've sort of fine-tuned that mix to
18:52
just, you know, give the right kind of mix so.
18:54
How did you come to the decision to go with a soil mix as opposed
18:59
to all of those other different mediums that you said?
19:02
Is that just easier? Is it just something that you
19:08
gravitated towards naturally? You just thought that's just
19:10
something the first thing I'll try and then kind of go from
19:13
there. What was?
19:14
What was the thought process? Yeah, I've tried a lot of
19:17
different things. That's something that I've done
19:20
a lot of is just trying everything and seeing what works
19:23
best for me. And we grow, I mean, we
19:26
germinate everything in racks indoors.
19:27
We grow outside. I have a grow house that I built
19:31
to be able to sew all my microgreens and I was sewing
19:33
this morning. So soil making a mess is not a
19:36
big deal. Most people who grow microgreens
19:39
actually grow indoors. And so soil can be a bit of a
19:42
problem because it makes everything messy.
19:44
If you're, you know, a lot of people who do microgreens
19:47
business as a side hustle just have their little spare room
19:50
with a few racks on it. So they've got to be really
19:53
careful with, you know, throwing soil around.
19:55
I mean, I have soil every, so that part doesn't bother me.
19:59
I like that it's more natural. I like that it's more as nature
20:04
intended. Again, like someone who's
20:07
growing under lights. If you have to grow under
20:10
lights, that's great. If that works for your business,
20:12
that's great. For me, I really love the fact
20:14
that my microgreens are outside. They're understand.
20:18
They've got air flow, you know, natural freshwater, all those
20:22
things. So the soil kind of made more
20:24
sense to me. And then the only other thing is
20:26
I have tried some hydroponic kind of, I, I guess more just
20:30
soil less so using like a mesh sort of, you know, over the tray
20:36
to then sprinkle your seeds on. And but I find it's really
20:39
difficult to keep the moist while they're germinating.
20:43
So for the first few days, oh, whoops, I just moved my, that's
20:46
right. The first for the first few days
20:50
that the seed, you know, that you're growing, your seeds are
20:52
germinating and sort of growing their first roots and shoots.
20:56
And I have them covered at that stage.
21:00
So I will actually have, you know, them piled on top of each
21:04
other. If I've got a tray, I'll have
21:05
something sort of weighing it down.
21:08
And what that's doing is it's pushing the seeds into the soil
21:12
and the more contact the seed has with soil and moisture and
21:16
darkness, then that's the perfect germination environment,
21:20
right? So with hydroponic, I find that
21:23
it's really difficult to keep the seeds moist during that
21:27
germination period unless I'm opening them up every day and
21:30
sort of spritzing them with water and all of that.
21:32
So it became a little bit too tricky.
21:34
So yeah, so soil works worked best for me and my situation.
21:38
Yeah, cool. And you're also like you
21:40
mentioned growing outdoors right in under the sun in the
21:44
elements. And I think I'm right in
21:47
thinking that you're kind of central to North Queensland and
21:53
well, maybe central QLD, I'm not quite sure.
21:57
Yeah. So we're just inside from
21:58
Bundaberg. That's our closest big town.
22:01
Yeah. So we're regional, but we're
22:03
kind of the, yeah, any north than us is more central QLD.
22:07
OK. Yeah, about four hours north of
22:08
Brisbane. Yeah, I always get confused with
22:10
that because it's so massive to drive the length of Queensland.
22:14
So then with that, you know, choice of growing outside and
22:18
being subject to the elements and, and being a tropical,
22:23
subtropical kind of climate, you know, these tiny little sweet
22:28
baby little seedlings and plants, they can be like
22:32
thrashed around by the weather. How do you combat that with a
22:36
like, it's your business, right? So you know, like farmers and
22:39
like everyone who, who has these types of things where you're
22:41
growing outdoors and relying on that, how do you manage that?
22:45
Or how do you find that? Is it challenging that kind of
22:48
thing? Yeah, the main thing for me, I
22:50
mean, our property is in a quite a protected area.
22:53
And I mean, we, I'm, I probably haven't mentioned this yet, but
22:58
like I'm not growing 100 trays for, for restaurants and cafes
23:05
every week. I'm, I'm growing literally for
23:07
my local community for markets and things like that.
23:10
So my grow space is actually pretty small in comparison to
23:14
most people that you'd see the. So we're in a sort of protected
23:18
area. So wind is not as much of a
23:20
problem. The main thing is the heat, the
23:22
humidity and yeah, that can be challenging.
23:26
But yeah, I, I mean, I wouldn't say I enjoy that part of it, but
23:31
I kind of relish the fact that they are outdoors and that they
23:35
are having to deal with the elements and because they're
23:40
more like a natural plant, right?
23:42
They're not just something that you've, you know, shoved under a
23:45
light and a shelf and you've fed them a bunch of weird nutrients
23:48
and things like that. Like it's closest to their their
23:51
natural environment. The main thing is, yeah, like I
23:54
said, the heat and humidity because we're growing outside,
23:58
the time frames really I have to adjust them constantly.
24:05
So right now, I mean the small varieties, the brassicas that I,
24:10
I grow a lot of. So things like broccoli, radish,
24:13
things like that. They're taking sort of six days
24:16
to grow right now because we're in the middle of summer, whereas
24:19
in the middle of winter they're actually sort of closer to 8 or
24:22
9 days. So it's and because we sell
24:26
living, I have to sort of plan out that time frame of growing
24:30
because I want them to be just ready to go when I sell them to
24:34
somebody. Yeah.
24:35
So yeah, I can't just sort of go, oh, well, that's all right.
24:38
They're they're a bit quick. I'll harvest them and put them
24:40
in the fridge. So yeah, I'm constantly
24:43
adjusting my growth schedule throughout the year to suit
24:48
what's happening around so. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
24:51
Yeah. Like hard to juggle, I imagine,
24:53
but also like when you're you're you're selling living
24:58
microgreens and if they've been outdoors and what I would say
25:02
climate adapted and soil adapted, you know, coming from
25:06
something that's maybe a soil less medium into someone who
25:09
wants to then go and plant them in the garden.
25:11
Like you're, you've got a much better chance of them succeeding
25:17
when they're being put in the garden.
25:19
Is that kind of what people might do with them?
25:22
Are they? Are they varied?
25:24
Different reasons why people would buy these things from you?
25:29
Yeah, Yeah, that's a good question because a lot of people
25:31
do ask that. They say, so do I plant these
25:34
out or can I put them in a pot? And, and I sort of tell people,
25:39
I mean, if you look at how many little, you know, shoots of
25:43
tatsoy that I have in here probably got, you know, 200.
25:47
I mean, I mean do you want 200 tatsoy in your garden?
25:52
That's crazy. That's a lot.
25:54
So what I tell people is, you know, keep most of them as a
25:58
microgreen. So, you know, snip most of them
26:01
as a microgreen and leave a little patch in your cup.
26:05
And then keep ordering that for another week or two until they
26:07
harden up a bit and they grow their true leaf and all of that
26:10
sort of thing. And then absolutely plant some
26:12
out in your garden. Grow them to the adult stage.
26:14
That's one thing we encourage, especially the kids to do in our
26:17
education programs is like, what else can you do aside from just
26:20
snipping and eating them? Or you could grow them bigger.
26:22
You could see what their true leaves look like.
26:24
You could plant them out and see what the adult vegetable looks
26:26
like. So yes, that's a great idea to
26:29
do that. I just say, you know, eat half
26:31
and then plant half. Yeah, that's a really good idea.
26:34
I didn't even think about the fact that, you know, there are
26:36
insane amount of seeds densely planted in there.
26:39
So yeah, if you just pop that whole thing in, it would just
26:42
explode, right? And probably a lot of them would
26:46
maybe die off because they get out competed by the, the
26:49
stronger ones and, and all of this sort of thing going back to
26:53
like your sort of day-to-day, maybe of, of your growing your
26:58
week, your average week. You said that you've got a lot
27:02
of planning to do. If you've got something coming
27:04
out in six days that's like every week you're sowing, every
27:07
week you're probably, you know, harvesting and potting up and
27:10
taking them out to customers and, and that sort of thing.
27:13
What's a basic like rundown of a typical week for you in terms of
27:17
what the workload looks like, what sort of things that you're
27:20
doing and that kind of thing? Yeah.
27:24
Well, there's a lot of different activities, which is I think why
27:28
I really enjoy this small business is because it's like
27:34
firefighting. I mean, when I was a
27:35
firefighter, that's one thing I loved about my job is that No2
27:38
shifts were exactly the same. There were so many different
27:41
things you were doing. You could just be sitting around
27:42
doing a bunch of admin. You could be doing a bunch of
27:45
sort of training and theoretical learning.
27:47
You could be doing practical learning.
27:49
You could be out on a job doing all sorts of things.
27:51
It could be going to a school and teaching kids about fire
27:54
safety and talking with the old, the older neighbor down the road
27:58
here, you're putting a smoke alarm in the house.
28:01
So, so many different things. And that's why I like that job
28:05
and running a small business like this where we don't just
28:09
grow, churn them out, deliver them, keep growing because we
28:15
focus on selling to the public and we focus on a lot of the
28:21
education part of it and encouraging people to grow in
28:24
workshops and things. We have a lot of different
28:27
things going on. So this morning I was in the
28:31
Gray house sewing a bunch of cups for a market we have next
28:34
Thursday. So a lot of asset.
28:36
We do about two markets a month. And then we also do
28:41
presentations sometimes just for garden clubs and for community
28:46
groups and things and our great kids to sell and things like
28:49
that for that. So so yeah, that's the sort of
28:52
growing part. We have an online ordering
28:55
service, so we'll be growing full trays and things like that
28:58
as well for everyday people. And there's a select few cafes
29:02
in our real local region that are happy to only receive a
29:06
delivery every fortnight, which is kind of a boundary I've had
29:10
to put in. Otherwise, I'm literally growing
29:12
365 days a year and I don't get a break.
29:17
So yeah, so that's the growing side of it.
29:21
And then there's sort of the packaging and things like that.
29:24
So getting everything ready for market.
29:27
There's the marketing side of it, which is sort of mainly
29:29
social media and brochures and things in people's businesses.
29:34
There's the creation of any education content that we're
29:40
doing. I mean, we've got a whole school
29:41
program that we we take out to school.
29:43
So, you know, we put all that together and we actually attend
29:47
a school as an incursion and take a bunch of supplies there
29:50
and all of that. We do grow kits.
29:52
So I'm packaging grow kits. So I, you know, I hand slipped
29:58
all of the parts of our grow kit and so that it's as sustainable
30:02
as possible. And I, you know, sometimes we
30:04
have grow kit making day and my kids come up and we all put all
30:07
the things in the great. That's.
30:10
Awesome. And then learning and recording.
30:12
So there's, there's so many different parts of it.
30:15
Yeah, there's a lot of behind the scenes, I guess, that we're
30:19
all a part of, as well as being out of the market and selling
30:23
microgreens to people. I love that it's I like how you
30:26
said that it's varied everyday because that does keep it
30:29
interesting. It keeps, you know, you've got
30:31
different hats that you wear at different, different times.
30:35
Hey guys, really quickly jumping in.
30:37
I just want to remind you, if you are not subscribed to this
30:40
show, that is the number one thing that you can do to show me
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your support. So if you're finding value from
30:45
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30:50
All right, back to the show. Let's talk about that education
30:54
side of things then, because you know that is such a really cool
30:59
part of what you do. Obviously myself, I share a lot
31:02
of stuff like I love teaching, talking about it and educating.
31:07
Is that something that you knew that you wanted to do through
31:11
this because you mentioned doing it through firefighting And like
31:16
how does that look for you in terms of like, what sort of
31:19
things are you running and what's your favorite parts about
31:22
it? Yeah, well, I've had a little
31:26
bit of experience with sort of, I guess teaching and education
31:31
through through the brigade, you know, not just going to the
31:36
schools and preschools and things like that.
31:38
But I actually after I had my second daughter, I went back to
31:42
work, but I didn't, I wasn't able to do the 24 hour shifts
31:46
and leave her at home for 24 hours.
31:47
So I did some day work and I spent some time as a recruit
31:51
instructor. So obviously that's more adult
31:56
education most of the time. But yeah, but yeah, I was, you
32:01
know that And I really enjoyed that.
32:04
I enjoyed sharing about what I knew and with people and helping
32:09
them get better and helping them learning skills.
32:12
So yeah, I guess that's something I've always enjoyed
32:14
doing. And so, yeah, when I started
32:17
this though my my business, I didn't imagine that I would be
32:22
doing that side of it, which it's been a fun part of my small
32:27
business development has been seeing where the next step takes
32:31
me. I mean, the initially we just,
32:34
we were growing and I was like, this is great, we're growing,
32:36
let's sell it to people. And then we sold it to people.
32:38
And then I was like, I want to encourage people to grow.
32:42
So grow kits was sort of always on on my mind.
32:46
That was the next thing we did. We created grow kits.
32:49
And then I had someone asked me would I come to talk to their
32:51
garden group about growing microgreens?
32:54
And I was like, sure. So we did that.
32:58
And then after that initial presentation, they were like,
33:02
could we actually grow some with you?
33:04
We'll do like a workshop. And I was like, OK, great.
33:07
Yeah. So we went to the land, the
33:09
beautiful land care down the road at Gin Gin and they all
33:13
came out and we all sewed a little cup of microgreens that
33:16
sort of look like this. This is one of our radish.
33:18
So everyone sews a little cup of microgreens and takes it home
33:23
and you know, they do tastings and things like that and they
33:27
learn about growing it. And then from there, I had more
33:30
community groups interested. And, and then, yeah, it just
33:35
kind of came about that I was interested in teaching kids and
33:38
I wanted kids to know, I mean, you have a kid.
33:41
I know your child is probably very young still, but I'm sure
33:45
you started thinking about what you want your kid to learn, how
33:49
you raise them and the crazy society in which we live and the
33:54
food system that we are swimming in and how unhealthy it is.
33:59
And So what you want to do differently?
34:01
So with my kids, I've been so conscious about all of those
34:05
things and I want them to learn about where the food comes from.
34:09
I want them to be able to know the basics of growing food so
34:12
they have that that skill and knowledge.
34:15
So, and there are, I mean, it's getting better in schools.
34:19
I don't have a lot of experience, I guess as a parent
34:23
in schools because we've always homeschooled, but I have a lot
34:27
of friends and family who have have schooled kids.
34:29
So I get feedback and information from them.
34:33
I mean, a lot of schools have kitchen gardens, they have
34:36
little gardening programs and things and that's great.
34:39
So this is something else that can encourage people to, you
34:44
know, encourage the kids to learn about how a plant grows.
34:48
And you know, microgreens are such a great gateway.
34:53
So it's one thing to have a whole big kitchen garden and
34:58
there's so much learning that can happen there.
35:00
But I feel like microgreens is that little Like let's open the
35:03
door to that. Because when you grow
35:05
microgreens, you are seeing the process of germination of a seed
35:10
and your understanding from just real life experience day-to-day
35:14
how that happens, how the the seed opens up and then the root
35:18
and the shoot come out and how big they get.
35:22
And then when you open them out to the light, the color that
35:25
they have and how, what does that mean?
35:27
And then the true leaves that. So there's so many things that
35:30
you learn about plant needs at different stages of growth that
35:34
you can then apply to all of these other parts of your
35:37
gardening. So that's what I love about
35:39
microgreens and why I think they're so suited for kids.
35:43
Yeah. To learn about because aside
35:45
from the fact that they love them, you know, kids even like,
35:49
even if they don't know what they are, they come up to the
35:50
market. So they're like, it's this.
35:52
And I'm like, have you tried a sunflower shoot before?
35:54
And I give them one. They're like, do I eat it?
35:57
And I'm like, yes. I love how you've been doing
36:00
that with the kids because focusing on what really
36:05
interests them and sparks their little imagination and, and
36:08
their understanding from the get go is really how we make that
36:12
change to the food system and get people to understand that
36:15
like it doesn't come from, well, the supermarket.
36:18
You know, we don't just the food doesn't just magically appear
36:21
out of the supermarket. We have to understand that it
36:23
grows somewhere, comes from a seed and that miracle of life
36:29
starting from a seed. That's just so crazy cool that
36:33
you just get to see that germination and it's encoded in
36:37
that seed exactly what it needs to do and it's got everything it
36:41
needs. As you said earlier, it doesn't
36:42
even need any nutrients, which is crazy.
36:44
And it's off and running and and turning into something that
36:48
creates a lot of wonder and a lot of curiosity, which I think
36:53
is so important for our our kids.
36:57
What's then what's then the uses, I guess of like, so you're
37:03
you're educating in terms of your workshops and things that
37:06
all sorts of different age groups and all of this stuff.
37:09
And then you're also, you've got the other side of it, which is
37:13
like a culinary side where you've got certain chefs or
37:17
restaurants, cafes, things that you know, as you say, you don't
37:20
want to go too heavy into that sort of work.
37:22
But the, they're, they're people that already understand the
37:27
quality of it, the nutrient density.
37:29
They can really pick good produce with their eyes because
37:33
they work with it every day. They understand how that
37:37
translates to taste as well. So what kind of things, what
37:43
sort of feedback or like what sort of things have you had to
37:47
think about when working to grow for these kinds of culinary
37:55
instances? Is there anything that had to
37:57
change or was it kind of just the way you grew it initially
38:01
really worked and everyone's happy?
38:03
Or is there any sort of challenges or differences
38:06
between what you might do for yourself or at home or like your
38:11
process as opposed to making it perfect for culinary?
38:15
And I imagine like just to give a little bit more context, I
38:18
imagine that as you mentioned earlier, with texture colour and
38:25
then you know, like the size of certain ones and things like
38:28
this and the. Arrangement.
38:30
All of these types of things, really.
38:34
Make a dish a lot better. So are there things that you're
38:38
doing to try and get to that result, or is it just the seed
38:41
knows what to do, the plants are already there, and it speaks for
38:44
itself? Yeah, I'd say a bit of both.
38:48
Yeah. I think that, you know, if
38:51
you're growing really well, and I mean, I don't think I'm a
38:55
perfectionist, but I think I, I'm, I'd never, I'd never put
39:01
out things that I'm not super happy with and proud of.
39:04
And so, yeah, I've, I feel like I've nailed down my grow
39:10
processes. And that's not to say I don't
39:12
make mistakes. I could tell you a few, but
39:17
yeah, I've nailed down the process so that my microgreens
39:20
are consistently really good quality, which, yes, I, I
39:26
totally get what you're saying. So as a, as a restaurateur who
39:30
is aiming for, you know, perfect produce and things like that,
39:35
then yes, I would say the handful of people that I do grow
39:41
for in that sense there. I mean, I'm in a regional part
39:45
of, of, of Queensland and there's not a whole lot of fancy
39:50
restaurants around us. There are a few people that I
39:52
grow for that are just really keen and all over and they love
39:55
that I provide the trace of living microgreens rather than
39:59
harvested because they can see the freshness.
40:01
They can see that they're crunchy stems on, you know, the
40:05
pea shoots or so. All the colour of them is so
40:09
different and I can recommend different sort of varieties for
40:13
different colour and things like that.
40:15
So yeah, I'd say, I mean one thing that I can think of that I
40:21
have had to adjust here and there.
40:24
Is there's certain so I talked about sort of the, the that sort
40:29
of germination phase at the beginning where you've, you're
40:32
covering your microgreens so and what you know, often waiting
40:36
them to press them down to the soil until they get to a certain
40:38
height. So some of the smaller varieties
40:41
actually like things like amaranth as well.
40:43
They, they don't get a whole lot taller unless they actually have
40:48
to stretch for the light. So for example, if I was to
40:52
have, you know, if I was to sew a few pots of something in this
40:56
small pot and then I have it weighted and then it's sort of,
40:59
you know, it grows enough that it's maybe a centimeter or two
41:01
of, of, of shoots. And then I, you know, unstuck
41:06
them and then I pop them out in the light, they'll just green
41:08
up. They won't really get a whole
41:09
lot taller. So what you can do to make them
41:12
taller is that you can actually sort of put them in a blackout.
41:15
They call it a blackout sort of phase where they are still in
41:19
the dark, but you're not pressing down on them so much.
41:22
So I would put, you know, I would put this in a tray and I'd
41:25
put another inverted tray over the top so that they don't have
41:28
a lot of light. And the shoots, like any shoot
41:31
would do, that's what they're growing to do.
41:32
And you know, them, they have to grow taller to reach the light.
41:35
So, yeah, they'll stretch out for another 24 hours and get a
41:39
little bit taller, which means that when you know, if you've
41:43
got a whole tray and you've got a a chef who's wanting to
41:47
harvest them all in one go, they're easier to kind of grab
41:50
and and cut off. So you're not just getting the
41:53
tiny leaves at the top, you're getting more of the shoot.
41:56
So just, I mean, little, little adjustments like that that I've
41:59
made along the way. But yeah, like I said, there's
42:02
not a whole lot of that. I've been, maybe this is a bit
42:07
rough, but I've been very careful to kind of share with my
42:11
cafes and caterers. Look, this is this is how we do
42:16
things. We only deliver every fortnight
42:18
unless you have a special event. We'll happily grow for you if it
42:21
works for us and but other than that, if it doesn't work for
42:29
you, then we're not your business.
42:31
Yeah. It's my focus, my goal.
42:36
Yeah. My goal is to be sharing these
42:38
with my community with, you know, sharing them with kids is
42:42
getting kids to eat veggies. Like that's a huge part of it.
42:44
And, you know, the education side and all of that and the
42:48
cafes and the restaurants, they do pay some of the bills.
42:51
And they are. It's great to support local
42:54
businesses and make their business, their dishes look
42:58
great. But yeah, if all I was doing was
43:02
selling to them, I probably cry every time I went home from
43:05
delivery after I walked past some customer who's gotten their
43:09
beautiful plate with radish over the top.
43:11
And I kind of shove it to the side and they go, oh, I'm just
43:14
gonna eat the burger. So yeah.
43:17
And I'm like, that's the most nutritious part of the plate.
43:19
Just eat it. So yeah, I get way more joy and
43:25
fulfillment from having a kid come up to my store and go,
43:29
what's this? And then the mom go, oh, you
43:32
won't like that. You don't like veggies.
43:35
And then the kid eating it and going, actually I like that mom,
43:37
that's fun. Can we grow some?
43:40
You know, I get so much more fulfillment from that than I do
43:43
from, you know, giving 5 trays at the back of a Cafe so.
43:48
I love that. Yeah, that really would get me
43:51
going to. I can definitely see that.
43:54
Lastly then cuz I want to touch on maybe a couple of your
43:58
favorites to grow and kind of maybe the ones that people might
44:02
generally start with if they're looking to so some microgreens
44:07
for themselves. So a couple of your favorites.
44:09
And then yeah, what are some maybe beginner friendly ones,
44:13
some easier to grow ones that are pretty Hardy and stuff like
44:17
Amaranth or whatever that's just like, seems to grow pretty well.
44:20
I mean, that might not be one of them, but yeah, give me a couple
44:23
of those if you can. There's a bit of a longer grow,
44:27
but they're really fun because the red garnet version of such a
44:29
beautiful color. Yeah.
44:31
So yeah, I encourage people to start with the easy ones because
44:36
that's what our grow kits contain.
44:37
I've got 7 different seeds you can choose from for our grow
44:40
kits, and they're all the simple ones that take about a week.
44:43
So things like broccoli korabi, we've got two types of radish.
44:48
So there's this is the pink radish here that I showed you
44:51
earlier. It's got a beautiful pink stem.
44:53
I love that. And we've got a sango radish,
44:54
which is bright purple. Yeah, it's got a beautiful
44:57
colour. They have a really nice kick to
44:59
them. So they've got a spicy kind of
45:01
crunch that, you know, tacos or burritos or, you know, fried
45:05
rice sprinkle on the end kind of thing.
45:07
And yeah, they're great. Tatsoy.
45:10
What are the other small ones? Red cabbage, you know, they're
45:13
all kind of on the mild side. So flavour wise and it's really
45:17
simple to grow the the other really well, the kid favourites
45:22
are your sunflower and pea shoots and both of them are
45:26
relatively easy to grow. They're a little bit longer.
45:28
Sunflower this time of year is 7 or 8 days and peas are around 10
45:32
or 11, but they do involve A soaking step because it's
45:37
longer, it's a bigger seed. So soaking the seed beforehand
45:40
and even with the Pi sprout that for about 24 hours before I
45:44
actually, you know, sow it over the top of the soil.
45:48
It just helps with really even germination.
45:50
You get some, you know, beautiful forests of
45:53
microgreens. The kids love those.
45:55
They're really easy to put in smoothies as well.
45:58
You know, it's mango season up here in Queensland.
46:01
So frozen mango, some coconut yogurt, some lime and a whole
46:06
handful of like sunflower shoots or pea shoots.
46:09
And then you've got a bright green Shrek smoothie for kids.
46:14
But you know, because they taste really sweet and crunchy and the
46:17
sunflower's a bit nutty. So the flavor doesn't it's
46:20
complements rather than, you know, I have I have people who
46:24
broccoli and smoothies and I'm like, I just can't do that.
46:27
That sort of sulfury flavor in my smoothie is not what I'm
46:32
after. But those are the best ones to
46:34
start with. And like I said, super simple.
46:38
The container, the soil, we talked about the soil.
46:41
The last thing I guess to mention would be your seed and
46:44
where you get it from. I mean we, we ideally if you can
46:47
get organic seed, awesome. I aim for I tell people to aim
46:52
for non-GMO raw and untreated seed which is the same seed that
46:58
an organic grower friend of mine grows in the Northern Rivers.
47:02
So he is certified organic, so he can call his, you know, his
47:07
microgreens organic. But it's the exact same seed
47:09
that I use. Yeah.
47:11
And yeah, organic is a whole rabbit hole.
47:14
Yeah, it. Is so but yeah, if you can get
47:18
focused on non-GMO raw untreated, that is the the most
47:21
important I think. And you can order online.
47:25
There's a whole lot of different places online I could let you
47:27
know. But I mean, if you're just
47:28
wanting to throw a few seeds in and you've got a bit of seed
47:31
raising mix at home, health food stores are really easy.
47:36
You know, instead of whole food scoop stores, they tend to have
47:40
sprouting seed in fairly small packets and sprouting seed is
47:46
pretty much exactly the same as microgreen seed.
47:48
The only difference between sprouting and Microsteed and
47:54
your regular little broccoli packet at Bunnings is that the
47:57
germination rate is much higher with with microgreen and
47:59
sprouting. So yeah, OK, yeah, but that's a
48:01
good place to get them to. Yeah, Wicked.
48:03
OK, well that gives me a lot of information to to kind of roll
48:06
with lastly then what like looking forward for you for the
48:12
next like little bit. What's some exciting things that
48:15
are coming up and anything that you know, people might want to
48:19
go and check out or follow along for like what's on the top of
48:22
your mind at the moment moving, moving forward in the next
48:25
little bit? OK.
48:28
Well, we have, we've got our sort of our regular things.
48:31
So obviously you're in our local region, which is Bundaberg, Gin,
48:34
Gin, Harvey Bay. We even got in 70 for markets
48:39
here and there. We do 2 markets a month.
48:41
So that's kind of our region that we usually go to.
48:46
There's a a few of some bigger events that we go to each year.
48:50
We've been to the Botanical Bazaar, which is probably where
48:52
I saw you saw you last year. And there's a Rosella field day.
48:58
A friends of ours have a farm, a Rosella farm down in Waluga,
49:03
which is just West of Gympie, and that's coming up in May.
49:09
I have a couple of schools booked for our school program
49:12
this year, which is great. So I'd love to get more.
49:15
I mean, that's my goal. If I could do a school a month,
49:17
if I could do another workshop presentation with a community
49:20
group and a couple of markets a month.
49:23
The only other thing that I'm working on at the moment is
49:28
getting our school program together into like an online
49:32
package. So I can send that to a remote
49:34
or a regional school that I can't get to, but I can send
49:38
them a pack of growing suppliers and I can have an online course
49:40
so that their classroom can grow.
49:42
And that's kind of my next step, so.
50:03
There we have it, ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for
50:05
listening. Thank you so much to Paula for
50:07
being a part of this episode. It was really cool to be able to
50:11
dive into her story and to find out more about what microgreens
50:16
are. And hopefully after this episode
50:18
you have a few little inspirations as to what you can
50:21
go home and do and start. And as she pointed out, if
50:25
you're watching the video part of the episode, you would have
50:27
seen all of these different container shapes and different
50:30
ways of of growing mediums and things like this.
50:33
So there really is a very low barrier to entry.
50:37
So I highly encourage you to go out and give it a go.
50:40
Not only can you use microgreens as an edible thing or, you know,
50:46
even just as something really pretty to have on the table, but
50:49
they're really good for the garden as well.
50:50
And I'll tell you a little bit of a story about sprouted seed
50:54
teas, which you may not have heard before, but essentially
50:57
it's exactly what it is. We sprout seeds.
51:00
Generally it's done by soaking the seeds for a day or two or
51:05
having them in a special sprouted seed jar or something
51:09
like this, or even in paper towels and various other methods
51:12
to sprout seeds. And you wait till those first
51:15
tiny little parts of the seed has cracked open and then you
51:19
can see that first taproot coming out.
51:23
Now it looks like a little bit of a bean with a tail usually.
51:26
And there's plenty of different things that you can use in this
51:29
regard. But in the garden, what I like
51:31
to do is sprout these seeds and then blitz them up in a
51:36
Nutribullet or blender or something similar, add some
51:40
water obviously, and then that becomes this very nutrient rich
51:44
tea. And the reason being is because
51:47
as Paula mentioned in here, she doesn't have to give the plants
51:51
any nutrients for that first microgreen stage.
51:54
All the way through that first sprout to microgreen, there is
51:57
no nutrients essentially needed. Everything it needs, its
52:00
potential to grow into the full plant is there in the seed
52:04
already. So when we sprout these seeds,
52:07
there's a huge amount of growth enzymes in there.
52:10
There's a huge amount of beneficial, basically everything
52:14
beneficial about it because it's got everything in the seed to
52:17
grow plants and putting this on our gardens is a really, really
52:21
good idea and it can produce some outstanding results.
52:25
So I just wanted to share that little tip with you because we
52:28
missed out and we ran out of a little bit of time that I was
52:30
going to bring that up. But I thought, look, this is a
52:32
perfect opportunity to bring it in here at the end.
52:35
So if you enjoyed the episode, please go and check out Paula,
52:39
go and check out Grow Wise Microgreens.
52:41
If you want to be a part of any of the workshops or things that
52:43
she's got coming up or you just want to check out her on
52:47
Instagram and follow her along and see what they are up to,
52:51
then I highly encourage you to do so.
52:52
The links are always in the description.
52:55
If you enjoyed the episode, again, please share it around.
52:58
Remember following the podcast, sharing, commenting, liking, it
53:02
helps so, so much and allows me to continue to do this, continue
53:05
to bring you conversations every week that hopefully are
53:08
inspiring and empowering. But yeah, that's the one thing
53:12
that you can do that really, really helps me and I'd be so
53:14
super grateful. So thank you again for
53:16
listening. Very much forward.
53:17
Look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
53:19
As always, take care and bye for now.