We think live greens are best, fresher, longer lasting and more nutritious. There are a lot of reasons to add microgreens to your diet but for the consumer it is often about nutrition. Because microgreens have much higher levels of nutrients than their mature counterparts they can add a nutritional punch to your plate (or eat less kale for the same number of nutrients).
When any plants are harvested their nutritional value starts to decline so the most nutritious foods are the ones consumed (or frozen) closest to harvest. Broccoli sitting in your refrigerator, after sitting in the store, after sitting in the warehouse, after traveling across country, etc. may have lost as much as 80% of its cancer fighting nutrients.
We sell microgreens still growing in their container. We think this offers the best nutritional value and the most choices for the consumer. You can harvest just a little bit as needed. You can let it grow a little while for bigger stems and leaves. You can harvest the entire amount and store it in the refrigerator for convenience or freeze for smoothies.
Another consideration is that we sell at farmer’s markets and the temperature in the summer can be in the 90’s. Cut greens would have to be refrigerated and or rotated on and off the table to try to keep them fresh over the 7 hours we are at the market. Plus we would have to harvest the day before. To be honest, we are considering offering cut greens along with our live greens because customers passing by our table at the market don’t always understand the concept. They think it is some kind of houseplant they have to make a long term commitment to or transplant somewhere. We have gotten some pretty interesting questions over the years!