Final Week of Rotation and First Week of Concentration

Last week, I completed my rotation period by working in the microgreens room under Megan’s supervision. The day's tasks were similar to the previous week, involving seeding, maintenance, harvesting, and packaging of the microgreens. I organized the packaged produce in the farm store, located in the kitchen/restaurant, for sale. This task of packaging and organizing microgreens in the store is crucial to FBF’s mission of providing nutritious foods to customers in a sustainable way.

In addition to the daily microgreen tasks, I also engaged in an activity where I created a fictional microgreens startup company. The goal of this exercise was to estimate the monetary requirements for starting a small microgreens business. I researched and included the costs of specific materials in my estimate, which consisted of one type of microgreen seed, drainage and non-drainage trays, a growing medium, grow lights, a rack structure, and packaging containers.

For my fictional company, I selected red garnet amaranth seeds due to their rich nutritional content, including vitamins, minerals, fiber, and vital amino acids. Additionally, their quick time to harvest, typically ranging from 8-12 days after a 2–3-day germination period, made them an ideal choice. The vibrant red and magenta tones are also visually appealing, which I believe could be beneficial for sales.

Selecting the grow lights and packaging containers required careful consideration. I opted for LED Prism Lens grow strip lights instead of more traditional options like LED, CFL, or fluorescent lamps. While the LED strips had a higher upfront cost, I believe they offer long-term benefits in terms of energy efficiency, mobility, minimal heat emission, and light intensity adjustment features.

Regarding packaging, I made the decision not to provide containers to customers and instead adopted a sell-to-order approach where customers specify the desired weight of microgreens, which will be trimmed in front of them. This approach encourages customers to bring their own containers, silverware, etc., to minimize single-use plastics. While unconventional in our current societal mindset, I believe retailers can drive this shift in social behavior. In my initial submission, I considered providing Ziploc bags to customers without their own containers, but upon further thought, I believe it would be best to offer a more environmentally friendly option, such as biodegradable containers made of Polylactic acid (PLA) and apply an upcharge for customers requesting a container.

Microgreen Business Start Up.pdf

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The total cost for my startup, excluding the PLA containers, comes to just over $600

Today marked my first day in my designated internship concentration within the aquaponics program. The day's tasks comprised transplanting plant cells onto foam boards and into the creeks, packaging and transporting aquaponics produce for retail sale, seeding new cells, and maintaining the young plants while ensuring accountability. These activities were similar to my previous experience during the rotation period in aquaponics. However, today, I had the opportunity to gain insights into a wider variety of retail product offerings.

Among these, the aquaponics lettuce mix stood out. It features seven distinct lettuce varieties and is in high demand, being supplied to the kitchen for their culinary creations and also directly to customers in individual bags. The antioxidant blend contains sturdier leafy greens, including chard and cranberry hibiscus leaves. My personal favorites were the mixes that incorporated edible flowers, such as the 'flower power mix' and the 'live' butterhead lettuce garnished with edible flowers. These delightful edible flowers are cultivated on-site in Jen's Garden and include marigolds and nasturtium. The 'live' butterhead lettuce is packaged with its aquaponic cell, allowing customers to take the entire plant home, including the root system. This unique approach ensures that the lettuce remains fresh for up to a month when refrigerated.

The smaller plants on the left were transplanted into the boards and positioned in the creek today. You can track the various lettuce growth stages as we progress further along the creek.

I mentioned the need of maintaining accountability in my daily tasks, and I achieved this by tagging my work products with my name, date, and time. Furthermore, FBF has implemented a

software tool called Jolt, common in restaurants, to enhance control and accountability across various aspects, such as labeling, work lists, and record-keeping.

For instance, the pH water sampling data is now recorded within the software's library. Most significantly, this tool is employed in the biodigester program, where it tracks the nutrient quantities based on the type of food supplied to the biodigester. This helps in estimating the nutrient levels in the farm's fertigation system.

In a business context, accountability is crucial to prevent wastage of money and resources. The same principle applies to sustainability as a whole, where tracking of details provides a comprehensive view of the entire system, ensuring that resources are not wasted or damaged. It's remarkable how technology can support us in this endeavor.