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​BLOG Posts

Producer Spotlight: Grateful Greens

4/24/2023

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Grateful Greens grows microgreens using creative, low-impact, indoor farming technology in Brattleboro, VT. They’re one of the local producers selling delicious, nutritious mixed greens to school cafeterias in Vermont during the Harvest of the Month this May. We talked to Grateful Greens Farm Manager, Ross Orsucci, to learn more about their model of growing greens, their recommendations for school cafeterias featuring their products, and why participating in Vermont Harvest of the Month is meaningful to them.
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How was Grateful Greens started? What was its inspiration?

Grateful Greens emerged as a collaborative effort between several local farmers, businesses, and entrepreneurs in the Southern VT area with the goal of establishing greener, more sustainable, more locally-focused farming practices in order to prepare for the long-term effects climate instability will have on our food production system. The idea originated in 2017 when our current Farm Manager and facility designer Ross Orsucci began growing, researching, and selling microgreens as a way to produce a superior amount of nutrition as compared to a conventional farm, but without burning fossil fuels, wasting water, depleting natural land resources, or employing harmful pesticides or fertilizers. Grateful Greens was inspired by the beautiful people of Vermont and their unmet need for fresh, nutritionally dense local produce grown organically year-round, and we continue to find inspiration in the unmet nutritional needs of adults and children in schools, institutions, food deserts, and low-income communities across New England.

Can you tell us about your approach to growing greens?

Our philosophy when it comes to farming has two core tenets: keep it simple, and keep it green! Many indoor vertical farms employ complex hydroponic, aquaponic, or aeroponic systems, which often require chemical fertilizer inputs and deprive their crops of the natural beneficial stressors that exist in nature. These stressors, which come in the form of natural environmental conditions as well as from the balance of microorganisms in the soil, lead to increased phytochemical production. The term phytochemicals refers to many bioavailable chemicals that plants produce in order to protect themselves from stress—these include antioxidants that reduce inflammation and help ward off illness and infection—and many other powerfully therapeutic compounds, some of which can even kill cancer cells (like sulforaphane and glucosinolates.) By growing in natural soil and limiting the life cycle of the plant to one week, we are able to eliminate complexity and waste while producing a tastier, more nutrient-dense product.

What recommendations do you have for schools to feature Grateful Greens in their menus?

Microgreens are sixteen times as nutritionally dense on average compared to their mature vegetable counterparts, so a little bit goes a long way, and they are best eaten raw. They take any salad up a notch in flavor and texture, are excellent on sandwiches or in wraps, and make great toppings for pizza, soups, or other dishes as well. If your school offers smoothies, microgreens are an excellent way to supercharge them with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein, fiber, and more! Microgreens are guaranteed to improve virtually any dish they are a part of, both in quality and taste!

Why is getting your food into Vermont schools important to you?

Although the United States leads the world in waste at an astonishing 350 million pounds of food wasted every single day, one in six US children are still malnourished or undernourished—about ten million children in total. Childhood is the most formative stage of a person’s life, and access to adequate nutrition is vital to our physical and mental growth as we age into adulthood. Studies show that children with consistent access to nutritious meals can increase academic performance by up to 15%¹¹ (source, source, source, source). Feeding the next generation, building up their connections to their diets and bodies and educating them about where their food comes from, and giving them the resources they need to flourish and grow into competent, productive citizens is imperative to the long-term success of any community.

What excites you about being a part of Vermont Harvest of the Month pre-orders for schools through local distributors like Food Connects Food Hub?

Any opportunity to increase children’s access to nutritious food is cause for celebration, but Vermont Harvest of the Month (as well as Food Connects Food Hub) represent the exact type of organizations we hope to build relationships with throughout our community—locally oriented, down to Earth, collaborative efforts to increase the wellbeing of the people and the world around us. We are very excited to participate in the program and are always looking for more opportunities to reach out and engage with Vermonters.

​Anything else you would like us to feature?

Here at Grateful Greens, we strive to maximize our community impact and minimize our resource consumption and waste. We use 99% less water compared to a conventional farm, and we do not require heavy fossil fuel-powered farm equipment. Because microgreens are, on average, about sixteen times as nutritionally dense as mature vegetables, we are able to produce the nutritional equivalent of fifty thousand pounds of conventional vegetable produce every single week, year-round, all while using only 4,600 square feet of operating space located in the old Cotton Mill here in Brattleboro. By utilizing an existing structure rather than constructing a new one, we help reduce our carbon footprint even further. Do you feel something is missing in your diet? Do you have trouble finding fresh, highly nutritious, locally sourced produce during the cold Vermont winters? Are you passionate about taking care of your community and your planet alongside your health and well-being? If you answered yes to any of these questions, our delicious microgreens belong on YOUR plate, and we would be truly grateful if you’d give them a try.
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Vermont Harvest of the Month and Early Childhood Education: Stories of Success at Newport Head Start

6/16/2021

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Vermont Harvest of the Month (VTHOM) is a statewide marketing campaign and resource guide widely utilized in K-12 schools across the state, but educators in Early Care and Education (ECE) facilities are also using the program to introduce children ages birth to 5 to new foods and to encourage seasonal, local eating. At the Heat Start and Early Start Center in Newport, staff have found great success in implementing VTHOM into their curriculum and cafeteria. The Newport Head Start Center received a VT Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets Child Nutrition Grant in January 2020. This grant was made possible by the Rozo McLaughlin Farm to School Act of 2006 (6 V.S.A. § 4721), and helps Vermont-based early care providers and schools create or expand Farm to School programs that are integrated throughout the classroom, the cafeteria, and the community (the 3 C’s of Farm to School).

As part of the grant, Heather Baraw-Sargent, the Newport Head Start Center’s Manager, attended trainings with Green Mountain Farm-to-School to begin developing a framework for expanding farm to school in their ECE center. One idea that came out of these training was to utilize VTHOM to promote healthy eating and the trying of new foods for the children in their care. Sharon Roy joined the Newport Head Start as a Food Service Aid in October 2020, and took this challenge very seriously. She began incorporating harvest of the month recipes into their monthly menus and in newsletters sent home to parents. Sharon also helps lead weekly nutrition activities with the children based on the featured harvest of the month crop. 

In October, for kale month, Sharon made kale chips, purchased kale baby food, made kale smoothies with yogurt and banana, and made a kale slaw. The kids were given a plate divided into 5 sections with a sample of each kale recipe. After trying multiple different kale recipes, the kids began to understand that just because they didn't like it in one recipe, didn't mean that they didn't like kale at all, it just meant they liked it in another form.

The kale recipes were a hit, and afterwards Heather said “We even had a mom write to us on our school Facebook page asking what kind of wizardry it is that we do, because her two sons asked if they could have Kale Smoothies for dinner. The mom was blown away as she has picky eaters, and she was so happy that they were trying and enjoying a variety of healthy foods!”

In June, for dairy month, Head Start staff were able to get a days-old calf from a local farm to come to the center so that the kids could see a baby cow and learn where milk comes from. The calf was one of a pair of twins, and the kids will be voting on what to name them. Starting in the fall, each classroom will follow the first year of the cow's life. After the visit, the kids made their own butter by shaking jars, and got to taste it by adding the homemade butter to pieces of bread.

Heather remarked that VTHOM has “allowed us to introduce kids to foods they may not otherwise try. It has allowed them to try foods in different forms to see that foods taste different based on their preparation. It has also allowed us to bring nutrition activities into the classroom during COVID where otherwise we would be at a standstill.”
Learn more about Vermont Harvest of the Month and all of the resources it has to offer at vermontharvestofthemonth.org

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Kale chips for October made using the Harvest of the Month recipe
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In March, maple month, Leah tries maple yogurt and maple cream on a cracker.
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Sophia and Jude enjoy Butternut squash soup for December, winter squash’s month.
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Jude and Ezra make Kale Smoothies at home
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