Introduction

Blends can be a game changer for farm sales and the perfect solution to mitigate an overproduction of microgreens. Blends usually consist of 2-6 individual crops mixed post-harvest. Certain varieties can be co-planted, but I wrote a blog about why it’s a bad strategy - Should You Co-Plant Microgreen Varieties? Blends bring in more sales because they thematically address a customer’s problem. Let me explain. High-end chefs, like those at fine dining and Michelin-starred restaurants, know exactly what they want. Those customers are often looking for a specific crop with a specific color, shape, taste, and texture. Those customers, though, represent a super small class of buyers. Most chefs and home consumers are looking to solve a generic problem. Common issues usually fit into clear categories, such as, “I want to eat healthier,” “I want more color on my plate,” and “I want something spicy." These buckets or pain points tend to be (i) health, (ii) aesthetics, or (iii) a particular class of flavors. For flavors, it’s usually mild, spicy, or herby. Herb flavors can be wider ranging because herbs can be much more unique. For example, the licorice flavor of anise hyssop, the earthy flavor of carrots, and the sweet flavor of popcorn shoots. Regardless, blends tend to be top sellers because they’re more exciting than individual crops, and they address one or more of the three pain points.

Benefits of Blends

Before we share a few of the most popular blends, let’s discuss why they can be great for mitigating farm waste. If you use software like Microgreen Manager, your crop production should be well-planned with minimal waste. However, excess volume can stem from canceled orders and crop safety margins. Canceled orders are an unavoidable part of doing business. Even with a strict cancellation policy, you’re bound to end up with unsold product. Surplus can also come from your crops' safety margin. The safety margin is a buffer you set in Microgreen Manager to ensure you always have enough for your orders. Excess product from canceled orders and crop safety margins will end up in your surplus dashboard, where you can upsell it to other customers. You can upsell these crops as is, or you can mix them into unique blends for restaurants or the farmers’ market. I can tell you from personal experience that people love to see unique blends because they’ll never find them in supermarkets.

The other huge benefit of blends is that they create massive sales flexibility. For example, we offer broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi microgreens, as well as our Nutrition Mix, which is a combination of all three. Our goal when creating the blend is to add equal amounts of all three varieties, but it also doesn’t need to be perfect. As long as we stay within reasonable bounds for each component of each blend, the blend will still look and taste the same. Why is this important? Let’s say a customer reaches out and wants a large last-minute order of broccoli. Since it’s last minute, the only way to fulfill the order is to pull that volume from what’s already in production. We know broccoli is needed in our Nutrition Mix, but we have a small excess of all three crops. Instead of telling the customer we can’t fulfill their order, we sell them some of the broccoli that was otherwise meant for the blend. The gap from using less broccoli is filled by adding more cabbage and kohlrabi.

Battled Tested Blends

We suggest everyone start by offering one mild blend and one spicy blend. The varieties that feed into these blends are usually easy to grow, which makes them beginner-friendly. It’s hard to offer something like our Taco Mix if you’re a beginner grower. The Taco Mix has cilantro in it, and cilantro is a tough crop when you’re just getting started. Your spicy and mild blends will likely be comprised of Brassica crops, which are easy to grow and wide-ranging. The Brassicas include crops like broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, radish, cauliflower, arugula, and mustard. Keep things simple in the beginning by restricting your blends to 3-4 varieties. More than four and you’ll overwhelm yourself. Fewer than three and it won’t feel like a proper blend. We started with the Spicy Salad Mix, which is arugula, Triton radish, Rambo radish, and mustard. We also started with the Nutrition Mix, which is broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi. We plant these crops individually, and then mix them after harvesting. However, you can buy pre-mixed seed for blends from companies like True Leaf Market. Radish Trio was another great early-stage blend because it’s just three types of radish with different colors.

These three blends target different pain points for different customers. For home consumers, the Nutrition Mix adds a boost of healthy nutrients to their meals without introducing too much flavor. The Spicy Salad Mix also adds a boost of nutrients, but a good kick of flavor for those that want it. For chefs, all three are highly versatile and add a pop of color.

Unique Blends

As a beginner, it’s tough to make unique blends. They usually have herbs or specialty crops, and these can be tricky to master. For example, our Taco Mix has cilantro and our Breakfast Blend has onion. Our Bright Lights Blend is a mix of three different colored chards, which are also tougher to grow. The great part about unique blends, though, is that they make you standout in a crowded marketplace. How so? We tried for a year to get into local retail stores. However, they all had local microgreen providers already. We couldn’t displace them based on being a low-cost provider or a local grower. We were stuck. When we made our Taco Mix and Breakfast Blend, retailers began asking for them. They found these blends unique compared to the usual spicy and mild mixes they typically purchased. For chefs, the Bright Lights Blend is helpful in adding an intense pop of color. The Breakfast Blend is great for restaurants with menu items like avocado toast or eggs. The Taco Mix is great for taco joints. The Breakfast Blend and Taco Mix highlight another great way to create blends. Think of blends as solving a unique problem or as a unique pairing for a specific dish. The Taco Mix is a perfect example of this principle in action; it’s perfect for topping tacos. Another great example would be a Mirepoix Blend, comprised of carrot, onion, and celery microgreens. Mirepoix is a mix of mature diced carrots, onion, and celery. It’s slow-cooked to create a base for French dishes. You can create a microgreen version and target French restaurants.

Conclusion

You should start considering blends for your menu early in your farming journey. Once you master a few basic crops, such as sunflower, pea, broccoli, and radish, you can begin creating blends. Start with a simple three-ingredient spicy and mild blend. See how customers like those, and then get more creative as you master other crops. Remember that each blend should fit into one of three categories - mild, spicy, or herby. A great way to think of new blend ideas is to solve one of three problems - adding nutrients, adding flavors, or adding colors or texture. Draw inspiration from your favorite dishes and cuisines, like tacos, avocado toast, pesto, French cooking, or sushi.

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