US (ME): Nonprofit microgreens farm sprouts in Saco
He pointed to a tray of radish microgreens, their tiny green and purple leaves shining under the bright glow of a grow lamp.
“I like the green ones and the purple ones,” he said. “They’re nice together.”
Those microgreens – now sprouting in a warm greenhouse in Saco – will be served at high-end Portland restaurants within a week. They are grown and sold as part of the Teenie Greenies business at Cultivation Works Farm, a program of the nonprofit Creative Work Systems that employs adults with disabilities as they gain financial independence and the skills needed to become working farmers.
With the opening of a new greenhouse in Saco and recent high-profile exposure in the Portland food scene, the leaders of Creative Work Systems are hoping the fledgling social enterprise program will take root in the same way as its longer-running Maine WoodWorks Program, which grosses $1.25 million a year in sales from furniture handcrafted in Saco and sold around the country.
Read more at The Portland Press Herald