Today we’d like to introduce you to Irma Marrero.
Hi Irma, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Petit Green Giants™ evolved out of a love of gardening, nutritious living foods, and tinkering. My husband and I experienced significant health renewal and illness reversal after drinking green smoothies daily. My gardening endeavors slowly expanded from strictly flowers to growing our own food and more specifically, microgreens for our family. As seed catalogs flooded our home every winter, I became curious and excited about the many different varieties available for every green, flower, and herb. No more boring spinach or one type of beet. I began to share with friends and family my excitement and the benefits of greens, living foods, smoothies, health, and natural “medicine”.
In the Fall of 2019, we started offering cut microgreens at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market. The Pandemic hit and our small business evolved from selling hydroponically grown cut microgreens to selling live trays of microgreens that are grown in soil. We continue tinkering with new ways of growing every day and we experiment with different varieties often. It’s what we love to do.
We’re currently at three different farmers’ markets in the Piedmont Triad area and at three different retail locations as well as local restaurants.
In order to reduce waste as much as possible we dehydrate all unsold products and turn them into a powerful concentrated microgreen powder that we then, mix with salts to create microgreen-infused finishing salts.
Dehydrating at a low temperature ensures the microgreens preserve as many of their nutrients and enzymes to be considered live food. It is just as versatile as live microgreens in its use and can be brewed as tea. The popularity of our Concentrated Microgreens Powder has taken us by surprise.
We’re very sensitive to our customers’ needs and thanks to their input we have expanded our product line to offer growing kits, edible flowers, learn-to-grow classes, shipping, and a subscription service. We now grow large trays of microgreens strictly to meet the demand for our Concentrated Microgreens Powder and Salts.
At the farm, we also compost all the spent soil to then be used in the garden to grow edible flowers. We try as much as possible to reuse and avoid waste.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The pandemic for sure. Everything was closed, The farmers Market was not allowing the handing out of samples and I was not interested in being around the larger public at that time. Remember when we were sanitizing our groceries? We laugh now but it was a scary time.
Growing hydroponically meant cleaning equipment often and I developed a tennis elbow. While I healed, and while we all hunkered down, we looked for ways to make the business work. We opened our online store and launched a delivery service but without capital for marketing, it was invisible.
In the spring of 2021, we cautiously went back to the market strictly to offer our delivery service of large microgreen trays. We attempted a newsletter. Pero Nada. People were not keen on having large trays delivered and going to market and not taking anything home with them.
One day at the market I purchased a small apple pie from a fellow vendor. It was packaged in a kraft take-out container. Ever the tinker, I wondered if the microgreens would grow there. They did. Beautifully. The packaging and smaller sizing worked. And here we are today.
I wish I could just blame the Pandemic. But a large obstacle has definitely been consumer ignorance. Most people still have no idea what microgreens are. 90% of our time is spent educating customers.
Other obstacles are lack of capital and time. That means we have to not only know and master growing microgreens, but we also have to be superb salespeople. Like any other small business owner, we have to know and become experts at Marketing, Accounting & Bookkeeping, Law (State and Federal), Health Department and Department of Agriculture requirements, Social Media platforms, Business Management, and, if you’re not completely exhausted, Networking. If I had more capital I would hire people to do all these things a lot more efficiently and leave me to happily grow every seed I can get my hands on.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We grow Live Microgreen Trays. They do not need refrigeration and are alive and at their most nutritious when you cut them and put them on your plate. It does not get any fresher than live food.
People are starting to recognize our sustainable packaging and really appreciate our efforts to support zero waste.
This year we started giving away reusable bags to our customers and incentivizing them by giving a dollar off each purchase when they bring the reusable bags.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
People can educate others about the benefits of microgreens and get the word out about their versatility of use in every dish. They can reach out to us via email or social media to collaborate, work with, and support. We love to connect with other growers and would love to develop a network of microgreen growers.
Pricing:
- $5. per 5 boxes of live microgreens
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.petitgreengiants.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petitgreengiants/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PetitGreenGiants
