KinderGreens are as back-to-the-drawing board as Girl & Dug Farm staples can go. Eight blink-of-an-eye years ago I knocked on the doors of a handful of influential SoCal restaurants and pitched a smorgasbord of flavorful, "Functional Garnish." Our babies were just young & delicate enough to finish plates with, but just mature enough to express distinctive flavors. It simultaneously simplified and challenged the chef to design dishes whose garnishes went beyond eye candy to how that visual element would impact the taste.
We recently took a giant risk to move the cultivation of our quintessential Girl & Dug crops from tabletop to in-ground, another back-to-the-drawing board of sorts in the hopes of critically needed cost reduction w/o layoffs, simplifying operations to become less dependent on individuals, growing more robust root systems resulting in perkier, punchier, longer-lasting greens, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, all of these culminating into eliminating product shortages.
Some of those risks: 1) if we didn't command control over the weeds from the get-go and maintain it through the entire cycle, 24/7/365, the cost and time to weed the crop beds would break us--it is in fact the primary reason we began in the early days growing on tabletops after having failed in-ground production during pre-Girl & Dug trials. 2) We could potentially end up using MORE water than our current drip and hose delivery systems, undoing our core water conservation efforts. 3) We compromise quality via increased growing density emitting less light reaching each plant, causing spindly, weak growth.
Thankfully, this is a post about a much needed and timely win--it's a success story whose preceding 18+ months of a small business's struggles turns a corner. Excess yields of the healthiest KinderGreens ever through higher-density fields; simultaneously increasing shelf-life from 12-15 days to 19-24 days; and using LESS water through finely-tuned intermittent irrigation.
This is the evolution of finishing greens that can double-duty as composed dishes on their own. Look for complimentary samples included in every order beginning this week as we share in the fruits of our labor, and featured posts of each KinderGreen.