Sproutside the Box

Today I'm talking with Deborah at Sproutside the Box. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Deborah at Sproutside the Box in North Carolina. Good morning, Deborah. How are you? Good morning. I'm great. How are you? How's the weather in North Carolina today? Actually, it's cooler than it has been. It's been staying right around 86.

00:27 And we're getting a cold front on Northeastern.  So  it's a little bit cooler today, probably mid seventies,  but the sun's out. So  no,  actually it's not supposed to start raining until I think late Friday  into Saturday. And then Saturday is supposed to be, you know, pretty heavy rain. oh My daughter lives in Florida and she's on the Miami side. So I think she's probably going to be okay.

00:57 but if she was on the other side, she'd probably be getting rain right now.  Okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself and Sproutside the Box. Well, my sister and I started the business um back in February  and our initial thought was to purchase a farm  and tower farm. So we purchased a tower  and started growing aeroponically and

01:26 It was just amazing the vegetables  that the tower produces. so  then I thought, well, you know, it only had like 28 ports.  So unless you purchase a quantity,  you really wouldn't have anything em much to say for like a business or a farm stand. And so  at that point, we decided we needed something a little bit.

01:54 faster with a faster turnaround time  and we came upon a website  for microgreens through Donnie DeLillo for  Donnie Greens microgreens.  Anyway, so we took that class  and we began growing microgreens  and it's evolved rapidly. um We deliver to homes, we do home subscriptions  and

02:24 So we deliver in a 30 mile radius and we also have,  we've branched out into salads. And so  now we have a big clientele for our salads  and it's just expanding from there. Right now we're actually looking for land so that we can put a tower farm and the microgreens  with a barn dominium on one spot. So that's where we're at today.

02:54 So much fun. Okay, so I have questions. The tower garden is the thing where it's a bunch of tubes and they have holes in them and you put a thing in and it has dirt and then you put those seeds in the dirt. Is that how that works? No. Okay, tell me. With this one it has a base that holds the water with a pump and it has one tube with

03:23 seven pots and each pot has four openings.  So  in our case, when we first got the tower, we didn't know how to grow seedlings. And so we purchased the seedlings with the tower.  And it came in one package one day, we put it together in a matter of 20 minutes, maybe tops.  And we have the seedlings in there in the pump going, you know, within

03:52 a couple hours  and you add nutrients to it and then it's on a timer. So it  waters itself. You don't have to do anything.  that's pretty neat. What kind of space footprint does it take up? Like how tall, how wide? um It's probably, I would say six feet tall with everything. We also have a caster, um like a little

04:21 bench that it sits on so that we can roll it around if we need to change positions for a better sun. And then it's probably about maybe two and a half feet around. So it doesn't take up much space. And you can have one in the house, they have a smaller version that goes in the house. But ours was out on our deck. And so we just grew from February to April.

04:51 We just watched it grow. We went out and sat down and watched it grow. We were growing microgreens in the meantime  in the house,  but not outside. Do you buy your towers exclusively from one company? Actually, we only have the one tower right now, oh but we did buy that from uh Tower Gardens.  They were out of Asheville, North Carolina.

05:20 and they're very, very nice people. They have  a  greenhouse that ah services two five-star restaurants and a golf course. And so  they have a huge farm. ah And that's really what I was looking to do. ah But microgreens were a faster turnaround time with pretty  decent profit margin.

05:48 Yeah, microgreens are like a 10 day turnaround, right? Yeah, some of them are even seven days, three days germination, four days to five days under the lights. So anywhere from seven to 10 days, depending on what you're growing.

06:03 Okay, that's what I thought.  The reason I'm asking is we're looking at starting some of our own in our heated greenhouse in Minnesota.  And we're no competition for you because you're in North Carolina and we're in Minnesota.  I don't know if there's a market for them here in the area that I live in. I live  about an hour southwest of Minneapolis. So  we're doing our research right now and deciding whether it's worth it. And even if it isn't worth it,

06:28 We're just going to start with a couple of trays and see how it goes. Cause it's a 10 day turnaround. If nobody buys them, we don't keep doing it. Right.  And the funny part is once you start and like when we started ours, anything that we had in the tray leftover, we made into samples. And then we handed samples out either to restaurants  or to the neighbors or anyone that would take one. We actually even gave one to an Uber driver.

06:58 Um, so  it's just, it's a matter of getting the information out there to the people to let them know how nutritious they are.  Um, you know, they're 40 times more nutritious than the actual full-size vegetable. And so one of our biggest sellers is sunflowers. And then the second one would be broccoli  and  very healthy for you. And I think once you start growing them and you see them popping up.

07:27 it's really exciting  to watch it. And I think you'll just go from there. ah Yeah, coming a huge, huge thing in the United States. I know Aero Farms has  built facilities in New York and Virginia.  And  these are all automated AI facilities.  And they're doing microgreens. So  the word is getting out.

07:55 and it's going to be very, very popular. uh I know we're having great success here.  So,  and we have quite a few that grow in our area, uh but they're not doing salads. So I think it's kind of one of those things where you have to find your niche and then go from there. Yeah, like any small business, you have to find your people. Once you find your people, you're off and running.  Right.

08:22 And it goes fast. It can start out with just a few people. then, you know, the next week, you have 20 customers, and then the following week, you have 60 customers. And so keeping up can be a challenge. But I'm up for it. So bring it on. Right. I keep saying on the podcast, I'm going to keep doing it until the economy gets better, which I don't know it's going to, but I'm hoping.

08:53 Anyone who can't grow their own veggies at home,  go find a local farmer. And it can be a farmer like Debra where she's farming in her house and buy from them because it's better to support your local grower than it is to support a big  factory. Absolutely.

09:14 So and uh we are just now putting our big outside garden to bed. Like this weekend is it whatever's left is getting picked and it's going it's getting tilled under so  We had our first heavy frost yesterday First  and probably only heavy frost because I think we're probably gonna get snow before it's gonna frost again, right? So I'm not looking forward to seeing snow at all I do have to go home uh to New York  where I'm from  one more visit

09:44 this fall before it snows. So hopefully I can get that in soon. You don't miss the snow at all? I only miss the first snow, you know, and then once that's over and you have to start shoveling it. We lived in the snow belt and so, you know, it wasn't unusual for us to have anywhere from three to six feet of snow. I'm sure you probably have the same issue and

10:13 When you're growing up in that, you get used to it. But once you move away from it, it's really hard to go back.  Yeah, I wouldn't know. I've always lived in a northern tier state. I grew up in Maine and I moved to Minnesota when I was 21 or 22.  I have no idea what it's like to live in the South where it's warm longer into the fall. So.

10:37 I was going to say I love the first snow as well. And it's so funny because I am like a five year old when the first flurries start flying. I'm just like, Oh, it's so pretty. And then the next, the last snowstorm, preferably in March, but usually in April, I'm like, is it ever going to end? I'm over it. And part of the reason I love living in a Northern tier state is that when you're sick of the season you're in, it's probably almost the next one. So you've got something to look forward to.

11:07 Right, exactly. Down here, it kind of blurs. So you have summer and then you have really hot summer and then you go into fall and then you only have a couple weeks, maybe six weeks of colder weather. And then you're back outside in shorts. I can't even imagine what that's like. It sounds amazing, but I think that I would really miss the seasons because that's my favorite thing is is

11:36 I mean, yesterday they, cut the corn down in the field around us. Right. That basically tells me that we better have our ducks in a row for the winter because we got about three weeks before that before it could snow. Right. Yeah, that can be really, really unnerving.  I actually love it because summer, the last two summers have been so not great here for growing stuff that I'm glad to get everything put to bed.

12:05 and start planning for next year and hopefully the weather will be better next year for us to grow more stuff. Well, if you need any assistance, you can always call us. We're open to all the new growers,  anybody trying anything, know, microgreens, veggies, aeroponics. uh We'd be happy to talk with you.  Oh, well, good, because I always need  a fellow farmer  on standby for my questions because we always have a lot. We've been doing this for

12:36 goodness, 20 years, but we were doing a very small scale on a tenth of an acre lot in town. And now we're doing a 50 by a hundred foot. See how that grows.  Yeah. Cause we moved, we moved with the purpose of doing that. And uh the first two summers were glorious. We were swimming in tomatoes and cucumbers. were selling them. Everybody was happy.  The last two summers, the weather's been terrible  and our cucumbers didn't even come up this year. They grew.

13:05 about  six inches tall and they got blight immediately and died. Well that's the nice thing about growing indoors  is you can grow your vegetables and you don't have to worry about that. It's all temperature controlled. Yes. You know so you might want to go that avenue try that even just to experiment because that's how we started out.  You know you have to  look at your

13:33 I guess your pros and your cons of  outside to inside. And then,  you know, we did a little of each.  We had the tower outside, we had the microgreens inside,  and now we're going to seedlings. So  hopefully maybe by next year we'll be  all hydroponic, aeroponic, and no soil at all.  So,  you know, with all the vitamins and everything depleting from the soil, it's really  beneficial to find.

14:03 other ways to farm to feed your family. So that's what we're looking at.  Yes. And I love that you're doing it inside because  I'm always telling people that they can grow things  in a small space. And  with the tower gardens, you absolutely can. You could grow a tower garden in a studio apartment if you wanted to. Absolutely. Now we have extra on top of ours because you can buy extra pots for them.

14:32 And we just thought it would be better to have an extra one say for herbs,  spices, that type of thing up on top. And so  we bought the extra pot for that. But you can, you know, keep it to a minimum, whatever size you want. And they do have a very nice system  that actually has lights.  And so you can grow without the sunlight, which is really, really nice.

15:02 Yeah, it's basically providing you with everything you need to grow food. And I think that's amazing. I have a question for you. How far up the tower do the plants start? Because we have a mini Australian shepherd who is about two feet tall and she loves lettuce. Our cat loves lettuce also. Actually, it's about two, two and a half feet, I believe.

15:31 She'd be able to eat the lowest row. know she would. She'd figure it out. She'd not walk in over. She'd probably put her paws up on there. But  if you have the lights on it, if you buy the system with the lights, no matter which tower garden you purchase, most of them come with lights. So  they'll hang down  towards the base and that may deter her. But um my cat just loves lettuce. And so  a lot of times we'll just

16:00 pick some off and let the cat have the lettuce. Yeah, probably don't want to grow catnip in the tower. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. There's certain things they recommend and certain things they don't. Any of the tomatoes, you can grow them, but you need a apparatus that's like a cage, like you would have outside in your normal garden. Sure. And that holds the vines and stuff. But we haven't grown those.

16:29 We grew bok choy, which was amazing. The plant was probably a foot and a half all the way around. It was just amazing. And it came out of this little tiny two inch pot, you know, that was in the side and the roots go right down  into the center. So you don't see any of that. All you see is the beautiful  vegetation  and it's just gorgeous. You definitely have to try that.

16:59 It's a living piece of art. Yes.  Yeah. Do you have a YouTube channel by any chance?  We do not have a YouTube channel. We  are on Facebook. We're on Instagram under Sproutside the Box. um But as far as a YouTube channel, we don't have that yet.  OK, I'm going to recommend that you start one because  you should be taking video of your plants from when you put the seeds in until they're ready to pick. Like timer.

17:29 I don't know what it's called, time-lapse? Time-lapse photos. Because that would be amazing as a video on YouTube. That would be great. We've been doing that the last few days with our seedlings. I was amazed at how fast these things popped out. um I think I planted them on Sunday and we already have like a quarter inch of vegetation popping up from  the top of the  little planter. It's just amazing.

17:58 So pretty soon we'll be able to just fill our tower ourselves and  not have to purchase seedlings at all. Yeah. Yeah. It'll cost you a lot less money.  Yes. Anyone who's never actually planted a seed and waited for the sprout is missing out because it is so amazing when those little leaves break the surface. And it sounds dumb, but it's not.  It's really not dumb. It's really exciting. thing. thought, well, I can't wait to

18:28 get the seedlings in the mail and put them in the tower garden. And then it  wasn't like more than three days and the seedlings I planted popped up and I thought, wow, this is so much easier than I thought. So yeah, you're right. It's  really incredible to watch them. Yeah, every February my husband starts planting seeds in the little seed trays on our kitchen table. We have a light that we hang.  So they get the  light to start growing. em

18:57 I lose my kitchen table for eight to 10 weeks  because  all the seedling trays are on there.  And when he gets it set up, I'm like, m kitchen table's gone for eight to 10 weeks.  And then the minute stuff starts growing, I get up in the morning, I get my coffee and I turn the light on and I'm like, oh, they're so pretty. I don't care if I lose my table for eight to 10 weeks, it's okay. Yeah, I have like 5,000 pictures on my phone of seedlings and plants  and we've only been doing this since February.

19:27 I used to have a garden when I was in New York  and it was beautiful. But when I moved down here, it's mostly sand.  so unless you have like a raised garden, it's really difficult to, you know, to do any kind of like outside farming unless you have a farm.  even flowers are difficult, you know, down here with all the sand, because we're pretty close to the shore here.  And

19:57 You know, so growing inside has been really a blessing for us here.  Yeah. And it would be a blessing for someone who lives in the middle of a big city. Yes.  Actually, I saw a couple  gardens that were oh on rooftops  and in the inner cities, they're starting tower garden farms for the inner cities to feed everybody. So  I think that's just amazing.

20:25 Yeah, isn't it, isn't it astounding that everybody is jumping on board with this and we could have been doing this all along. Right. I, I'm not sure why we were so behind on this  because, you know, our grandparents farmed and then our parents farmed and then  we kind of urbanized everything.  So,  you know, it's like with technology, everything moves really fast now. So, um, I think.

20:54 It won't be long before you don't even see farms,  traditional farms. I think you'll see just vertical farms.

21:03 Well, the thing that's great about that is that growing up means more room. Absolutely. And I will tell you,  grew butternut squashes one year when we lived at the old house and we grew them up instead of out. had trellises that could support them  and we had the most beautiful, gorgeous, humongous butternut squashes that fall. And my husband has grown the squashes out across the grass here.

21:33 And we haven't had nearly the luck with the squashes doing it that way. So I think I have him convinced to put trellises up next year to grow them up instead of out again. think you can do almost anything like that. Anything that's vining, you can do it on a trellis or an archway. You can. And people think that the weight of the fruit will break the stem, but it doesn't. The plant will grow a stem thick enough to support the weight of the fruit. That's interesting. Yep.

22:02 My dad thought we were crazy growing butternut squashes up instead of out. And he said, you let me know how that goes. And my dad's a gardener. He's been, he's had a garden forever. And I'd sent him pictures of these a foot and a half tall and six to seven inch wide at the base butternut squashes off those plants. And he was like, I will be damned. It worked. Absolutely. And I said, well, what was the, the other option? They fell off.

22:31 I mean, even if it didn't work, at least we learned doesn't work. Right, exactly. And I've seen some beautiful, beautiful gardens  online where they put lights in them and people come at night and just sit. You know, they see all the lights and the plants and the vegetation and the archways and it's just beautiful. And they get to breathe all that wonderful oxygen that the plants are off. Yes. Yes, it's amazing. I love it.

23:02 Okay, so you said you want to move to a bigger land  plot. I'm saying this terribly, I'm sorry.  So that you can have more of the  towers, is that right?  More of the towers, but we want them inside. We want the towers and the microgreens inside. uh we were thinking on the lines of maybe a barn dominium  or finding a farm that has a barn.

23:31 so that  we can have it all temperature controlled and then no matter what happens,  cold, frost, we're inside. So  that's where we're at right now, but it really only takes  some of the biggest micro green farms are like  1200 square feet because they're all vertical. So  it's just amazing what you can do in a small space.

24:01 to feed thousands of people.  that's  what we're looking forward to.  So do you sell your microgreens and your salad mixes at farmers markets or do you just do where people... You do? Okay. We do.  We started out with the clamshells. We had two different sized clamshells and we were doing subscriptions and that went okay. But

24:28 it really took off when we took the live trays to the show. ah People were amazed. We  actually harvested them right there with a chef's knife, ah packaged them for them. They could pick what they wanted. ah They weren't just having to pick like a sample that had four or five different kinds in it that they may not like or they may not want to try. So we just allowed them.

24:54 to decide what they wanted and they could either sample it or they could purchase it and it went very well. That's amazing. I love that. And they saw how it works. Yes, we had one gentleman that was quite a ways away. He was from another state. He was visiting with his girlfriend  and he said, will these keep? And I said, yes. You know, when you cut them with a knife,  they last like

25:23 three times as long as if you cut them with scissors  or  a sprout or anything like that.  And so  we cut them, we put them in the clamshell, we just told them to keep them cool and try to keep the moisture off them.  If it was hot, don't leave them in the car. um And he said he would put them in his cooler  and he sent us a message and said they made it just fine. And he had them for approximately a week after he got home  and he loved them.

25:51 And so now he's looking to grow his own also. Awesome.  Awesome.  I am so glad I found you on Facebook. This has been so educational and enlightening for us, for me, for us, so that we can start thinking about this more and doing more research.  And  I lost what I was going to say. um The sprouts.

26:17 They can be for smoothies, can be for salads, they can be for a stir fry, right?  Right, they're actually microgreens. Yes, that, sorry.  No, that's okay. These are basically, yes,  these are basically just uh microgreens from seeds. And um we purchased the actual organic microgreens seeds. And then sprouts  are... um

26:44 just the seed and they're grown in water. And so that's the first step. Okay. There they go to microgreens and then baby greens and then the full vegetable. Those are the four different stages. See, I'm learning new things all the time. Thank you. All right, Deborah, I try to keep these to half an hour. We got about a minute and a half left. What is your website, please? It is www.sproutsidethebox.com.

27:15 Okay, and you're Sprout Side the Box on Facebook and Instagram, yes? Correct. All right, awesome. As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com and please go check out my Patreon. It's patreon.com slash Atiny Homestead. Debra, I am so tickled that you had time to talk with me today. This was so much fun. It was fun. Thank you. I hope you have a great day. You too. All right, bye. Bye-bye.