Written by Marianne Graff, Published November 20,2024
Category:Stories of Resourcefulness.
This young man’s vision and practical approach to starting to grow food in his dorm room might inspire you to try growing Microgreens yourself.
photo credit: Joanna Hoang
If you think you don’t have the room to grow Microgreens, consider the example set by Owen Chase. It may just change your mind.
Owen, is a very enterprising and resourceful young man.
He wanted to grow his own food, so he thought of a great way to grow Microgreens in his college dorm room: he used the space under his bed.
He raised his bed frame up as high as it could go, and added lights from an indoor greenhouse kit he had been given. He also used the salad mix seeds that came with the kit to start growing food for himself and others.
He decided to try growing his own Microgreens because there wasn’t much happening with the campus garden over the winter term.
He used what he had learned growing up and during High School to start this mice-business.
“My Mom used to drag me out to the garden with her to plant carrots and vegetables” he explained.
During his High School years he had joined a leadership development program that happened to focus on growing food, which gave him the perfect foundation for this venture.
“I just want to grow food to help feed people” Owen explained.
He gave away a significant amount of what he grew at first, donating trays of Microgreens to a local ‘food bank’ type of program, called “free fridges”.
How Owen Scaled His Hobby into a Full Scale Business
Owen continued to build his skills and knowledge by taking courses in entrepreneurship. One of the courses he took included how to make a pitch deck and pitch to potential clients. At the end of the semester he entered a pitching competition at his college and won $3000.
He then competed in a larger pitch fest with contestants from four other colleges and won again,earning another $3000.
With the money he earned, he expanded his operations, buying more shelves, trays, seeds, soil and containers.
Summer Success
How Own Scaled His Hobby into a Full Scale Business
Owen’s prize earnings set his up to sell Microgreens full time over the summer.
He sold at weekly Farmers’ Markets with success.
By the end of the summer he started selling to local restaurants.
He also launched a home delivery service using an online subscription model.
Entrepreneur with a Big Heart
For every 100 trays Owen sells, he gives another 50 to local food programs, both on campus and in the community.
He still stays in touch with the organization that taught him gardening and entrepreneur skills during high school, and continuously donated greens to the local community food programs and to those in need of healthy food on campus.
Helping Others Achieve Food Security
Last year he also started teaching online to help others learn about healthy food and how to grow it for themselves.
He says most of the people interested in his content are young families looking for healthy and economical alternatives.
I find Owen’s story inspirational because he was so resourceful in taking advantage of what was available around him. He used what he had learned growing up, and took advantage of the programs available to him, and turned this into something that supports himself and hundreds of others in his community.
Then he took it one step further, turning his expertise into empowerment, by helping others learn how to grow food themselves. He is now giving people a hand up, instead of just a hand out.
His farm, Just for Fun Farms has made an incredibly positive impact on his community as well as provided income and food for himself.
What an excellent example demonstrating how Microgreens can be started as a micro business, and how tiny greens can make a huge impact on a community.
His story also proves the value of programs that incubate and support the business enterprises of our youth, and how beneficial funding young entrepreneurs can be, both for individuals and the community as a whole.
Owen’s Top Tip for New Microgreen Start Ups
If selling at Farmer’s Markets, be sure to collect the email and contact details from those who buy your greens. This is useful because it allows you to roll out a home delivery service that can continue all winter, after the summer Farmer’s Markets close down.
He didn’t think to ask for email and offer to continue delivering greens to people’s homes until the last week of two of the Farmer’s Market he was selling at, and as a result lost contact with some of the people who used to buy quite regularly from him over the summer.
Key Takeaways
This story proves that you don’t need fancy greenhouses or special growing rooms to start growing your own food.
- It’s quite easy to grow micro greens, which are tasty and very healthy. Some Microgreens, such as broccoli, are 40 times more nutritious than the full grown plants.
- Growing Microgreens in your home allows you to eat greens that you can trust are fresh, free of chemicals, and truly healthy for you.
- Growing under bed frames and furniture opens up new possibilities for becoming more self sufficient for those living tin small apartment spaces and homes.
- You can start with just a few trays, for a very low cost, and find many educational resources for free – talk about an easy, low barrier to entry micro business!
- It is super eco- friendly since you can grow microgreeens to order, through subscriptions, instead of guessing how much to grow.
- it’s a valuable -and lucrative- life skill to teach kids how to garden and grow their own food when they are young
- Programs that teach youth how to grow their own food and how to start businesses are worth creating and supporting