FAQ
Microgreens are young and tender edible leaves grown from seeds of popular vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, beets, and kale planted in soil and harvested 8 to 14 days after seed germination.
They are packed with nutrients and have a concentrated flavor, making them a popular ingredient in salads, sandwiches, and smoothies.
Microgreens can also be used as a garnish for various dishes, adding a pop of color and flavor to the plate. They can be sautéed or stir-fried as a quick and healthy side dish or used as a topping for pizza or pasta.
Because we always want to give you fresh microgreens, we start seeding the day you place your order. Growth times differ for each microgreen, so delivery time will vary based on your choice.
However, you’ll receive your order between 10-12 days from when you place it
Microgreens can remain fresh for as long as 7-10 days. Its shelf life would depend on the type of microgreen and how religiously you follow all our care instructions. Some can even stay fresh for as long as 12 days.
Sure! Microgreens are packed with powerful health benefits. According to Healthline, the nutrient level in microgreens is highly concentrated. They contain about 40% more than the amount of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants traditional mature greens contain.
Microgreens are a great source of potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and copper.
It gets even more interesting when you know that these young vegetables are aromatically flavoured. So they add colour and spice to make your meals look and taste exotic.
You can cut your microgreens and store them in zip lock bags, releasable bags or containers. When putting them in bags, make sure the microgreens are dry and you press out as much air as possible. This helps them stay fresh for long by preventing them from wilting.
But there’s a downside to doing this.
Cutting microgreens make them gradually lose their nutritional benefits over time. To avoid this, it’s best you order live microgreens and harvest them when needed because they’re best consumed fresh.
We supply live microgreens.
The standard health practice is to wash or rinse all food products before consumption. So, although we grow our microgreens in a germ-free environment and deliver under the strictest hygienic condition, we still advise you rinse them before consumption.
A quick rinse with cool filtered water will do just great.
Cold or hot water will damage them, thus affecting their nutritional contents. So don’t use cold or hot water to wash.
N.B.: Don’t soak your microgreens while washing and don’t put wet microgreens in the fridge. Doing these will make them lose more than half of their nutrients, and mushy.
Microgreens are best eaten raw, not cooked. You want to feel the crispiness and taste the delicate flavour of these vegetables. Cooking your microgreens will deprive you of that satisfaction.
These micro vegetables are as delicate as plants can be. They are averse to heat. So no, you shouldn’t cook microgreens, else they’ll break down and lose all their nutritional benefits.
To get the best out of them, add them to your dish once it’s ready to be served. Consider it a ‘topping’ that adds color and extra nutrients to your meal.
Yes. Having microgreens in your smoothie is really great.
Dehydrating microgreens for your smoothie can be a way to prevent waste when you have excess microgreens.
Considering that it’s not advisable to refrigerate microgreens and they begin to gradually lose their nutrients after they’re cut, dehydrating them is your best option.
Dehydrating microgreens increase the number of ways you can use them. So apart from smoothies, you can use it as seasoning, potato toppings, etc.
Freezing is a form of preservation and microgreens can be frozen. But we don’t advice you to do so because freezing reduces the nutritional benefits of the plant by over 50%.
But if you must freeze your microgreens, then freeze them right.
To freeze your microgreens do the following:
- Rinse to remove impurities
- Leave them out to get as dry as possible
- Spread them out on a tray so they do not stick to each other
- Put the tray in the fridge. Leave for 45 – 60 minutes
- After they’ve frozen, transfer them to freezer bags and leave in the freezer.
An alternative way to preserve your microgreens would be to dehrdate them. We recommend this method above freezing because you’ll lose just about 3-5% nutritional benefit of the plant by dehrdating.
Yes, they’re organic.
Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t use pesticides or fertilizers in the growing process of our microgreens. We grow them in a clean environment. To crown it all, we use organic seeds.
We do all of this to ensure you get the best, healthiest, safest microgreens products possible.
Below are some common signs of spoiled microgreens:
- Molds or fungus are visible in the live microgreens which may appear in form of a spider-web crawling across the surface. This can expand very quickly in a couple of days and ruin the entire plant in no time.
The stems also begin to decay especially when its in contact with too much moisture. - Change in Colour: you will notice a change in the colour of your microgreens (often yellow or light brown).
- A noticeable change in smell. As with all perishable foods, once your microgreens start to go bad, they give off an offensive smell.
Agreed, some microgreens have naturally offensive odor, but you’ll be able to tell the difference. - Wrinkled or drying leaves. This is a sign of dehydration. It means the microgreens are losing water content and also losing nutrients.
At this point, all hope isn’t lost. They can still be quickly consumed, but the nutritional content and taste would have drastically reduced.
This would depend on the seed planted. Usually, microgreens are ready to be harvested within 8 – 14 days after planting or when they grow up to 2-3 inches high. Once they sprout their first set of true leaves, you know its time for harvest.
Send an e-mail to farmfreshchoiceedm@gmail.com or call us on (780) 802-5585 We’ll be there to answer your questions.