Food Academy

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Dainty Greens

My name is Paul, I have been a Chef since I was 17 years old. It was in 2015 when, while working for an international hotel, we had a very important event and we couldn’t find Microgreens, and this had always been a problem for the restaurants that I worked with. That’s when I jokingly said to the Hotel Owner that if he gave me the balcony, I would design an operation to grow Microgreens as a centre piece for the restaurant and surprisingly he asked me to draw up the plans for it. But the plan never came to fruition.

Since then, it was an unfulfilled project that was on my mind, meanwhile I kept learning about all the different systems available to grow Microgreens.

It was in 2018 that through another Chef I met his friend, and I got the chance to visit his father’s family farm that he started to disassemble most of his farm giving up growing Strawberries due to imports being so cheap. So, he showed me round, and there it was, an unused green house in dire need of some TLC and upkeep as it was his father’s personal greenhouse. I just had to act quick before it was demolished.

I talked to my life partner, Carol, who I knew would complement the project with her enthusiasm and knowledge. She fell in love with the project, she started to research about Microgreens and was amazed by finding all about the nutritional benefits of Microgreens and without too much thinking we took the green house.

Since then and trough 4 years of work, we have managed to have a sustainable Microgreens operation. Our Microgreens are grown in Organic soil with organic seeds in a fusion of modern techniques and old school practices. We strive to reduce our carbon foot print, 95% of the water used is recycled and we only grow in Organic eco-friendly green compost to give you the most flavoursome Microgreens.

To be part of the Super Valu Food Academy programme has been a wonderful learning experience that gave us confidence and to our business the structure and the tools to develop what today is Dainty Greens.

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