Melbourne Micro Veg has to be the smallest farm to ever appear in the pages of Small Farms. In fact, we are prepared to describe this as the smallest farm in Australia. Indeed, unless someone wishes to contradict us with tangible proof, we might even suggest it’s the smallest farm in the world.
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When is a small farm really a really small farm?
Probably when it’s so small it really doesn’t even have room for a farm gate.
Because it only has room for a farm door in a suburban farmhouse, behind which (if you can fit in) you would find a vegetable farm which doesn’t quite measure 12 square metres.
Yep, 12 square metres. In a spare room. In a house in the heart of Melbourne’s sprawling suburbia.
But it’s also a small farm which defies belief, producing a mix of 15 vegies (with a core product range of eight) to regularly fill a stall at two or three farmers’ markets every week.
And it might be the most miniscule of farms, but its owners live in the hope it is on its way to being a big business — albeit on a small scale.
Bonnie Chivers is a nutritionist who has fallen into micro farming by chance (first) and then by revelation — having gone through her whole degree without ever hearing the story of just how good these tiny little nibble-sized vegies really are for you.
In the scheme of things, Bonnie is a born-again nutritionist; a staunch advocate for this brave new world of buying living food and taking it home, so it is there whenever you want to partake.
The tricky part is physiotherapist partner Jason Brammall, part of the farm workforce but also someone with agricultural aspirations.
Which explains why you rarely see the partners at the same farmers’ market stall — that way they each get to tell their story of whose idea it all was, who does all the hard work and who the real farmer is in the family (apparently it is both of them, just don’t let them know that).
Either way — individually or combined — team Micro is also pioneering in its positioning as Bonnie has no doubt they are slightly ahead of the curve of awareness when it comes to selling living food.
“We have to grow things carefully (pun definitely unintended) because the market just really isn’t there yet, we still have people stop and look and think we are selling plants for the garden,” Bonnie said.
“The concept of a micro vegetable, growing on a hemp mat, sitting on your kitchen bench until you are ready to eat it, is a little out there for a lot of people.
“Coles has now ventured into the space — but then sells everything in plastic. From our perspective we want the whole thing to be a beneficial experience for our customers and for the environment.”
Bonnie’s vegetables are grown on a biodegradable hemp mat and they are also trialling a coconut coir product. Anything sold at markets goes home in a biodegradable cardboard tray and everything growing on the hemp is either edible or compostable.
And there’s no GMOs behind the scenes to make these little vegies so small. Bonnie said they were grown from the standard seeds but planted so densely on the hemp that the competition for light, water and nutrients ensured the plants remained uniformly small and took just 10 to 21 days from planting to plate — and that’s a lot quicker than vegies traditionally grown in the paddock.
“The primary reason we sell them as a growing concern is as soon as micro-greens, or any other vegetable or fruit, are harvested they start to oxidise and lose nutrients,” Bonnie said.
“Having the live plant means it can be cut just before use, which means you eat them at their freshest and healthiest — for example, there are up to 40 times the nutrients packed into a micro broccoli cut fresh and eaten immediately after, than you get from full-grown broccoli out of cold storage,” she said.
“And by cutting just what you need for a meal, you are also reducing the amount of food you waste by reducing spoilage.
“Finally, but just as importantly, it means we don’t have to use any single-use-plastics to package the products. It does mean a little more effort on your end to keep it alive — but we promise, you’ll manage.”
It was two years in December since Bonnie and Jason opened their first farmers’ market stall, and Bonnie can still laugh about picking such a great time to launch a new small business.
Just in time to run into COVID-19, but, in many ways, she said it provided them with a social outlet as much as its financial potential.
“It was lovely to be a producer, to go to farmers’ markets and interact with people, meet new people and talk about what we are doing; it was such a fabulous outlet during the on-again, off-again lockdowns,” Bonnie said.
“We think if we have been able to get through that, we can be positive about making it go further.”
They supply a small number of restaurants and cafés. But from a nutritionist’s perspective, their usage dose not compare with a domestic setting, as they encourage consumers to eat a generous amount rather than a sprinkle on your café-bought smashed avocado.
Bonnie also sees a certain synergy in their micro business; a nutritionist selling products to people for their better health and nutrition.
“We care deeply about sustainability and ensuring our business has a low environmental impact and we grow organically, using just light and water, non-GMO (organic wherever possible) seeds and an organic grow mat,” she said.
“Melbourne Micro Veg are grown indoors in a vertical farm, away from pests and the elements.
“We keep it as simple as possible, which means our micros aren’t just good for you, they’re also good for the planet.
“Micro-greens are very young versions of the vegetables we eat regularly. They are harvested soon after the seed germinates, which means they have all the nutrients they need to grow into larger vegetables.
“Tests have shown some of the nutrients are up to 40 times more concentrated compared to the mature vegetable. This means you only need to eat a small number of micros to consume the equivalent vitamins, minerals and beneficial nutrients. You would need 1kg of mature broccoli to match one to two of our broccoli pieces.
“They are also perfect for fussy children as they can be easily hidden in meals. However most of our younger customers love them, so there is no need to hide them.”
If you do drop into Altona, just over the Westgate Bridge from Melbourne’s CBD, for a farm door visit, your most immediate reaction would have to be the simplicity of the process.
The prototype was a single bed in the lounge room of Bonnie’s mother’s home, but once they all agreed they were onto something and it would grow, Bonnie and Jason’s spare room finally had its own raison d’être.
A trip to Bunnings for some off-the-shelf racks got the ball rolling, then it was tinkering with layout, the height of the vertical hydroponic system and where to set up fans, lights and trays.
Their only minor hiccup throughout the set-up was a few lights purchased directly from China, which seem to be on a very, very slow boat. More than a year later, Bonnie quietly assumes Jason may have been scammed with that purchase.
There was a bit of trial and error — and absolutely no chemicals — but they sent a lot into their compost, so decided they would stick to hand-watering instead of drip feed, allowing each rack and every tray to be treated with lots of TLC.
“We have found you do need to treat each tray individually, depending on what it is growing, and how much — or little — water it gets. We have not had any disease issues but one of the keys is really being on top of the water, because if you overdo it you risk mould issues,” Bonnie said.
The other reason their nascent project started so small is because there are very few hydroponic operations like theirs to cross-compare with or seek advice from. Bonnie said one or two popped up after they launched, but had since gone.
She said most helpful had been a Canadian couple doing similar things and posting a lot on YouTube.
Along with her new role as a micro farmer, Bonnie is well on her way to a PhD — but now much of that is out of the way, she has stepped up her hands-on involvement in the enterprise.
Previously, she said Jason had been the grower and she was more into the marketing, but now sees herself as a Jill-of-all-trades — which is contributing to their little bit of proprietorial problems.
While they are still building up production — the next step would possibly be a two-bedroom farm — they target around eight trays per market. Their market squares are 8cm x 11cm and that fits 15 per tray for a total of 120 squares per market and it’s $7 per square regardless of variety (or three for $20).
It might sound small potatoes still (and no, they don’t grow those) but the market is taking off in the United States and United Kingdom, and Bonnie and Jason are developing a subscriber/online market for their tasty tidbits — and that’s where any unsold offerings from the latest farmers’ market go.
“If we still have more than we need, they end up on our plates, they go into smoothies, our chickens love them — and we also dehydrate some into a powder, which gets mixed in with our food as the process does not lose any nutrients,” Bonnie said.
“Our dog Yuri also thinks they’re pretty good and has become pretty healthy as a result,” she said with a laugh.
Bonnie also sounds just a tad remorseful when she mentions the state being released from the threat of more lockdowns.
“While we were in COVID mode, so many people seemed to be health motivated — but since restrictions have eased, the number of people spending their weekend at farmers’ markets has certainly dropped, and too many have shifted back to plastic wrapped, pre-cut foods — which is sad for them as much as us,” Bonnie said.
The main lines at the micro business are broccoli, kale, red/green cabbages, radishes, sunflowers, peas, coriander and grains.
Amaranth is one of those grains, an unusual choice for this innovative and modern mini business. This pseudo-cereal stretches back thousands of years to the Aztecs. Today it, like many other heritage/ancient grains and seeds, is often reclassified as a superfood. While it isn’t, it remains a seed with some serious positives — from its nutritional profile to its use as a source for fibre, vitamin A, folate, thiamine, iron, zinc, calcium, copper, manganese and potassium. Amaranth oil has been shown to benefit the heart while the seeds themselves have a huge 15 per cent protein content and deliver 10 essential amino acids.
Add it all up, then measure the height of the micro vegies, and tell yourself that while you have always known good things come in small packages the maths here is overwhelming — these little vegies you take home to harvest are a miniature miracle.
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