We’re excited to announce that our beloved radish microgreens are now certified organic. This marks a huge achievement for the farm, with big gratitude to Market Garden manager Cam, and trusty sidekick Tyler for seeding and nurturing this certification process.
The microgreens are certified through Organic Farm NZ, grown to BioGro standards, which is one of the benchmarks for organics in Aotearoa. The certificate is just a single piece of paper, but what sits behind it is a year-round discipline that touches every part of the process.
While our microgreens are the smallest thing to come out of the garden, this cert is a big step in our journey towards full certification. While we’ve been growing with organic principles across the whole garden, it’s taken a while to get this milestone over the line. Next, alongside working towards our Hua Parakore Māori organics verification, our focus is transitioning the outdoor garden beds to be fully certified too.
Meet the greens
The stars of the operation are radish microgreens, in two varieties: sangria radish for the red, daikon radish for the green. The mighty radish has earned its place. It’s the most consistent, highest-yielding microgreen we grow, with good weights for our mesclun mix and enough left over to sell on their own.
The turnaround is where it gets fun. In the depths of winter it’s fourteen days from seed to harvest, where trays sown on a Wednesday are cut two Wednesdays later. As the days lengthen, that window shrinks and shrinks, until in the heart of summer it’s just six days from seed to shelf.
The certification process
Our process starts with clean, residue-tested soil from our whenua and on-site compost managed for optimal beneficial bacteria. Any supplemental compost is certified organic. We use untreated seeds free from coatings or fungicides. Strict food safety procedures and chemical-free cleaning products align with our organic standards. Annual audits, fees, meetings, and meticulous record-keeping ensure our “organic” label truly means something.
A life in thirds
Tyler breaks down a microgreen’s cycle into thirds. First, fresh seeds are pressed into soil trays, stacked, and weighed down with concrete. This dark, pressurized environment triggers germination; the sprouting force is strong enough to topple the stack if left unchecked.
Next, the trays move to the shaded lower bench shelf. Reaching for unseen light, the seedlings stretch and grow tall and determined.
Finally, at the right height, they are moved to the top shelf into full sun. Photosynthesis takes over as leaves open, vibrant colour emerges, the greens fatten up, and a lush tray of radish microgreens becomes ready for harvest.
A lot of people are fascinated by how the microgreens are harvested. Our unique harvesting tool operates using a battery-powered drill and features a reciprocating blade. As the blade slices through the greens, a spinning rope simultaneously pulls them toward the cutter and guides them into the harvest bag.
A love-hate relationship
Tyler is honest: microgreens are hard work — the most labour-intensive crop in the market garden. The process demands constant attention: prepping soil, filling and seeding trays, watering, stacking, unstacking, lifting, and hand-watering multiple times daily. Finally, there is harvesting, washing, drying, and bagging.
“Much more so than putting some carrots in the ground and harvesting them months later,” Tyler notes. Yet, because they are delicious and bountiful, the love keeps winning.
What to actually do with them
Microgreens have a reputation as a chef’s garnish — that little flourish on a fancy plate. They’re much better than that.
Radish microgreens bring a proper peppery kick, like the grown-up radish but brighter and more tender. Pile them onto anything that wants freshness and bite:
- Sandwiches and burgers where you’d use sprouts or lettuce, but with actual flavour
- Eggs — a handful over scrambled eggs or an omelette
- Salads — through our mesclun mix or as the base themselves
- Soups, curries and stir-fries — thrown on at the end, off the heat
- Tacos, poke bowls, avo toast — anywhere a plate needs a lift
And because they’re harvested as seedlings (the plant at its most concentrated), you’re getting a lot of goodness in a small handful. Dense in flavour, dense in nutrients, grown in living certified-organic soil, cut days (sometimes hours) before they reach you.
Come and get some
The microgreens and the mesclun mix are in the Mangaroa Farm Shop / Kete Kai — grown and harvested just across paddock in the market garden, certified organic from soil to seed to shelf.
Shop hours
- Tue – Fri: 11am – 5pm
- Sat & Sunday: 9am – 5pm
#alwaysbeplanting