Q. How can I purchase from Fresh Origins?

A. Our Products are only available from specialty produce distributors who provide them to professional fine dining foodservice venues.  We do not sell direct to restaurants or individuals.  If you are a professional chef interested in our products, please have your favorite produce distributor contact us.  If you are interested in purchasing individual quantities, please click on the following sources of our products:

Food Innovations
Gourmet Sweet Botanicals
Marx Foods

Q. What is a MicroGreen?

A. MicroGreens are a tiny form of edible greens produced from the seeds of vegetables, herbs or other plants. They range in size from one to two inches long, including the stem and leaves. Some Microgreens can have only the cotyledon leaves but often they have the first set of true leaves as well.  They are generally one to two weeks old when harvested.

Q. How are Microgreens used?

A. Having surprisingly intense flavors considering their small size, MicroGreens are used as a visual enhancement and flavor accent primarily in fine dining restaurants. These restaurants place a strong emphasis on both the creative presentation and flavor of their dishes.  MicroGreens’ delicate, fresh appearance adds beauty and dimension combined with a range of distinct flavor elements.

Q. What is the best way to store MicroGreens prior to use?

A. Refrigeration at 38-40 degrees in a closed container.  Basil is very sensitive to low temperatures and may turn dark brown or black within a few hours of exposure to temps below 32 degrees.

Q. How long can MicroGreens last once they have been harvested?

A. MicroGreens usually last at least 5-7 days if they are refrigerated at the right temperature.  Depending on the variety, shelf life will vary. Some items can last up to two weeks.

Q. Why don’t you offer living microgreens?

A. Living microgreens are offered by some growers and are said to be fresher because they are cut as needed in the kitchen.  There are a few reasons why this format has not been widely utilized.  This method requires more packaging in terms of either bulky cardboard boxing, or heavy plastic trays and growing medium. The result is a a much higher cost for a relatively small yield with lots of wasted packaging and growing medium. It is also more costly and is less efficient to deliver in this form, resulting in a higher carbon footprint and limited delivery range. The product, may start out fresh and vibrant in the ideal growing conditions of a greenhouse, but once removed and put into a restaurant kitchen or cooler, the quality and flavor quickly declines.  Outside of the greenhouse, they rapidly begin to get soft, stretched, as they loose color and flavor, though technically they are still alive, but not at all fresh.  Cut microgreens shipped in lightweight plastic clamshell containers are less costly, use less packaging, and save time in the kitchen.

Q. What unique items does Fresh Origins grow compared to other growers?

A. At Fresh Origins, we create a steady stream of original innovations.  The following items have not yet been duplicated and are not available from anywhere else:
MicroGreens: Micro Mustard Dijon^TM, Micro Carrot Fernleaf^TM, Micro Mint Lavender, Micro Cucumber.
PetiteGreens: Petite Basil Nutmeg^TM, Petite Pumpkin Green, Petite Lavender.

A few more items Fresh Origins created and introduced to the culinary world are:  Micro Intensity Mix^TM, Micro Mirepoix Mix, Micro Iceplant, Micro Tangerine Lace^TM,  Micro Wasabi, Micro Spectrum Mix^TM, Petite Fava Leaf, Petite Haricot Leaf, Petite Lucky Shamrock^TM, Petite Amaranth Carnival Mix^TM, Petite Stevia^TM, FireStix^TM (edible flower), MicroFlowers^TM, and Nature Straws™ (edible straws).

Q. What growing medium do you use?

A. We grow our products in peat moss (decomposed prehistoric moss plants).  Peat moss is not soil and is known to be a very clean material.

Q. Are your products grown in greenhouses or outside?

A. The majority of our products are greenhouse grown.

Q. Where do you ship to?

A. We ship nationwide and to Canada and the Caribbean using overnight delivery services.

Q. Why don’t you sell direct to restaurants?

A. We let our distributors handle the selling and delivery, allowing us to concentrate on growing and harvesting the best possible product we can.  Often this also saves on shipping costs.

Q. Are your products certified organic?

A. For the most part, no*.  In fact today, much of the certified organic produce being grown today in the Western United States, is produced on ground that has had conventional fertilizer applied over the last few years.  This fraud was recently exposed but unfortunately the people in charge of organic certification (Certifying Agencies and the USDA) have decided not to enforce the rules in order to protect the farmers at the expense of consumers.  In other words, certified organic is an almost meaningless term. *We have actually received organic certification from CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers).  They are the oldest and most prestigious organic certifier in the business. This has been done primarily to have a better understanding of the process, and more credibility on the subject.

Q. Isn’t organic supposed to be safer?

A. Organic growers fertilize primarily with animal feces, dried blood, ground up bones, and other slaughter house remains (by products of the meat industry), they also use rotted fish entrails.  We prefer not to use these on our crops.  Coalitions of small, local, and organic farms launched a successful campaign to fight against improved food safety regulations.  *They feel they should continue to be exempt from having to follow food safety guidelines; instead their preference is not to be accountable for the cleanliness, sanitation and safety of what they produce.  Most organic farms would instantly fail an actual food safety audit.  Organic regulations require very little in terms of sanitation procedures.  They are not required to wash their hands, their produce, or their facilities! In 2011,  50 people have died and over 4,000 got sick across 16 countries in Europe and North America after eating sprouts from a small local organic farm in Germany.  The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has now warned consumers against eating sprouts or sprouted seeds unless they are thoroughly cooked.

*August 2011:  Strawberries grown by a small local farm and sold at a roadside stand in Oregon are linked to a cluster of E.coli O157:H7 cases that have resulted in one death and several illnesses. Speaking of locally grown, in September and October 2011, 25 people died from eating locally grown cantaloupes from a farm in Colorado. No farm should be exempt from food safety rules, no matter the size.

Q. What about pesticides or synthetic materials?

Organic farming is not pesticide free, in fact organically approved pesticides like sulfur, copper, petroleum oils, and pyrethrum, are among the most widely used toxins in our country, with hundreds of millions of pounds of these agricultural chemicals applied annually in the USA, yet the organic movement and the media perpetuates a myth that they do not use any pesticides.  Pyrethrum (a nerve toxin), one of the most widely used organic pesticides, has been declared a likely human carcinogen by an EPA scientific advisory committee.  Kenya produces hundreds of thousands of pounds of the dry flower petals that yield this organic pesticide, the majority of which is used in the USA. There is a high social cost involved since they utilize child labor in the picking for this organic pesticide.  Those infants that are too young to work are carried on the backs of the mothers and young girls who do the picking.

Many synthetic substances and antibiotics are also allowed and used by organic growers.   Tetracycline and streptomycin are used to grow organic fruit such as apples and pears.  Organic supporters have perpetuated the myth that organic farming is pesticide free.  They play word games here, but if it kills insects, it is a toxic pesticide.  Arsenic, anthrax, ricin, and botulism are also all natural, but deadly.  Just because they may use a natural substance, they feel it is fine to say it is not a pesticide and therefore claim they are pesticide free.

We are very concerned about the tremendous amount fraud and dishonesty in today’s organic movement.  For example, we have a competitor (S**G**** Organic Distributors) who uses the word organic in their company name but, most of their products are not organic and yet they conveniently fail to mention this to their customers!  We have another from Ohio who claims to be Sustainable and “Beyond Organic”, but is not certified organic, and there are no rules for “Beyond Organic”.  This is greenwashing at its finest!  Organic certification relies upon the honor system.  Certification is based upon an annual review of paperwork.  A recent review of the USDA National Organic Program revealed that complaints have not been followed up on, violations have not been corrected, required testing has not been carried out.  In short the rules of organic growing are simply not being followed and little is done about it. Organic certification is lax, inconsistent and one of the most abused regulations in all of agriculture.

Keep in mind that the organic certification agencies are actually for-profit companies that make money by certifying the farms.  This conflict of interest is one of the main reasons for the cheating and dishonesty in organics.

Q. Isn’t organic farming more sustainable than modern farming?

A. Actually organic farming has proven to be unsustainable.  Just a few generations ago, most farming was organic.  Organic farming with its low yields, poor quality, and major crop losses is a bad use of valuable resources and could not be sustained over the long run.  That is why today, despite the hype,  over 99% of farming in North America is no longer organic*.  Today we have the  most abundant, high quality fruits and vegetables in our history.  Our average life expectancy and quality of life has risen dramatically from the old days of organic farming.

*Total organic crop acres accounts for less than one percent of total U.S.  farm crop acreage. Much of these organic acres are  rangeland and pasture for cattle, and does not actually produce any edible crops, so the real percentage of land producing organic crops in the United States much less than one percent.

Cuba is an interesting study of organic farming.  Due to the loss of economic support from the former Soviet Union, they have not been able to afford modern farming technologies such as conventional fertilizer and modern pest controls.  They have been forced to farm organically and the result is that their people must go without the bounty of fresh, healthy, affordable produce that we enjoy.

Q. Isn’t organic farming better for the environment?

A. Organic farming is less efficient, requires more land, and more fuel to produce the same amount of  food.  A significant increase in organic farming would result in the loss of more natural habitat to provide the land needed to offset lower yields and more pastureland for cows that produce manure.

While organic farming has lower yields, at the same time, it has much higher waste due to substandard quality caused by increased amounts of insect damage, plant disease, weed competition, and lack of fertilizer. Much of the production never makes it to market.  Organic farmers accept that a much smaller portion of the crops will succeed.  The result is wasted natural resources for less food; a bad bargain for the environment.

Availability of farmland is a major concern for sustaining our food supply.  Increasing efficiency with improved farming practices and modern technology is essential to increasing yields per acre of farmland. Organic farming is a giant step backwards for the environment.

Q.  Are MicroGreens particularly high in nutritional value?

A. So far there is no evidence of this.  It has become an urban legend that microgreens possess high concentrations of various nutritional and beneficial compounds.  As people read and parrot the misinformation, it spreads.  More and more people see the claims, and the myth just continues to snowball until it is accepted as fact by most people without any question.

Numerous articles and websites claim that microgreens are the latest nutritional miracle-food. The fact is, there have been no studies done on microgreens to substantiate any of these claims so at this point it is all just wishful thinking; new-age mumbo jumbo.  No evidence of microgreens’ nutritional value means, the numerous claims have no scientific basis. It would of course be to our benefit to claim that microgreens are some kind of super-food.  Most likely, microgreens actually have a lower nutritional value than full-sized vegetables and herbs.

As a point of reference, some sprouts (which are not microgreens), have been said to contain particularly high concentrations of a certain chemo-protective compound, Sulphoraphane Glucosinolate (SGS), however the highest concentration of this is actually found in the seed. Since sprouts are consumed with the seed still attached, this may explain the presence of this compound in sprouts. If people feel they really want more of this compound, they should simply eat the seed before it is sprouted to get the highest concentration.  Of course, microgreens are not sprouts.  Microgreens are cut at the stem, and have no roots or seed attached so there would be no reason to think this compound exists in any particularly high amount. There have not been any studies done on microgreens to determine the presence of SGS or any other compound.

The USDA has weighed in on the situation: Although research suggests a promising role for in promoting health, the research results do not permit definitive scientific conclusions on specific health benefits. At this time, the FDA has not reached any such conclusions or authorized any claims specifically for SGS or broccoli sprouts. There is no mention of microgreens.

Regarding the nutritional value of sprouts, the USDA has listed the nutritional value of sprouts compared to full-sized broccoli. In summary, broccoli sprouts are significantly lower in nutritional value when compared to full-sized broccoli. Of note: the sprouts were lower in protein (1.4 compared to 2.324 mg.), fiber, Vitamin A (561 compared to 1,082.64 IU), Riboflavin (none found in sprouts compared to .043 mg.), Vitamin B-6 (.07 compared to .112 mg.), Vitamin C (20 compared to 58.188 mg), and Iron (.22 compared to .665 mg.).

One study said to support the idea that microgreens have more nutrition:  USDA plant physiologist Dr. Gene Lester shows that younger spinach leaves generally have higher levels of vitamins C, B9 and K1, and the carotenoids (plant pigments with antioxidant action) lutein, violaxanthin, zeaxanthin and beta-carotene than more mature leaves (Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, January 2010.) This study compares leaves from the same plant. In other words, he is saying that the younger leaves at the top of a spinach plant have higher levels of antioxidants that the older leaves at the bottom of the same plant.  All of the leaves in this study came from large mature spinach plants and has no relevance the nutritional value/antioxidant content of microgreens.

This relates to microgreens in that since sprouts which are the youngest form of broccoli have lower nutritional value than mature broccoli, it stands to reason that microgreens have lower nutritional value than their full-sized counterparts as well.

Microgreens certainly have a lot of flavor considering their tiny size, however, they do have less flavor than their full-sized counterparts.  The flavors definitely increase in vegetable and herb plants as they grow larger.  It is logical to conclude that the nutritional value also increases as the plant matures.

People should not rely on unsubstantiated claims to make dietary decisions,  nor should any company attempt to sell a product or book using these fake nutritional claims.  Fresh Origins does not rely on unsubstantiated claims to sell its product.

If anyone makes the claim that microgreens are “packed with nutrition”, don’t take their word for it, ask for the nutritional analysis to back it up.  If at some point there are reliable nutritional studies done on microgreens, and they do show high values, Fresh Origins will be very pleased to promote it.