US (MD): Baltimore vertical farmers teach restaurants to grow microgreens
The Woodberry restaurant is among the first in Baltimore growing microgreens onsite using a process created by the urban farm City-Hydro.
Founded in 2011 by Larry and Zhanna Hountz, City-Hydro supplies 75 varieties of microgreens to local restaurants from a second-floor room of the Hountzes' rowhouse near Patterson Park. Now at maximum capacity, City-Hydro is teaching its growing technique to local restaurants — giving them access to fresher ingredients and more control over the microgreens that decorate diners' plates, and saving them money along the way.
It takes 10 to 12 days to grow a microgreen from a seed to the point where it's ready to sell. Seeds germinate in food-safe containers on coconut husk pads, elevated by bamboo sticks above water in the base of the tray. It's a sustainable system Hountz refers to as "pure," using only LED lights, filtered water and some TLC — no fertilizers, pesticides or soil.
City-Hydro offers free workshops to teach people how to grow microgreens using its method, usually training two or three people per week. They also sell their system — one rack of shelves, seven trays and LED lights — for $999.
Read more at the Baltimore Sun