WEDNESDAY
September 16, 2015 • 75¢
GOLF INSIDER
K ANE COUNTY
St. Charles East’s girls golf team builds confidence after quality wins, consistent play / 14
CHRONICLE MIGHTY GREENS By BRENDA SCHORY
bschory@shawmedia.com ELBURN – The greenhouse was long, its growing pans divided by a narrow passage. Its air was suffused with the rich smell of damp dirt mixed with thousands of tiny leaves. “So we have kale here. We have broccoli, cauliflower,” Carlos Palomares said, gently touching the greenery. At a year old this month, the greenhouse of Mighty Greens Farm on Hughes Road near Elburn is anything but ordinary. It grows microgreens and petite greens all year that owner Palomares, 30, of Batavia, supplies to local restaurants, the tiny leaves destined for salads and garnishes. He sells the rest at the Geneva Green Market on Thursdays and the St. Charles Farmer’s Market on Fridays. “We sell out of our greens at the St. Charles Farmer’s Market every week,” Palomares said. “They
SPORTS
love the petite mix; they love the micro mix. … I bring as much as I can, and we sell out almost every time. People buy the microgreens for their salads, but mostly just to eat them by themselves. And they don’t even have a preference. If there’s greens on the table, they will take those greens.” A microgreen is when the plant sends up its first two leaves, called cotyledons. A petite green is when the second set of leaves form. A petite green is a little bigger – such as tiny lettuces that are harvested by cutting them off at the soil line with scissors. Palomares said the growing tray is dumped to compost for the farm’s outside garden, and a new soil mix is used for the next set of microgreens or petite greens to begin. He buys certified organic soil from a company in Wisconsin, mixes it with vermiculite and waters everything from a hose onsite. “That’s it,” Palomares said.
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Sandy Bressner – sbressner@shawmedia.com
Carlos Palomares shows some of the microgreens he grows in his greenhouse at Mighty Greens Farm near Elburn. Palomares grows 25 varieties of microgreens and petite greens to sell at farmer’s markets and local restaurants. Visit KCChronicle.com to view a video associated with this story. Microgreens and petite greens are different from sprouts – which are germinated seeds – that most people are more familiar with, Palomares said. Chefs seek the micro basil, red streaked mizuna, shungiku, dill, celery, fennel, chervil, lemon basil, Persian cress, red-veined sorrel, bok choy, hon tsai tai, kohlrabi, beets, cilantro and arugula for garnishes, various dishes, salads
and appetizers, he said. Roberto Abila, owner of Altiro Latin Fusion in Geneva, said he buys petite arugula, cilantro, romaine and radishes from Mighty Greens. “It’s very important to buy from local people; it’s important that it be fresh, organic produce,” Abila said. “I’ve been to his farm twice. He’s got really, really good stuff.”
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Palomares uses a small roller to create furrows in which to plant the seeds and marks what it is with a plastic fork. But the real magic, he said, happens in his homemade germination chamber, where warmth and humidity speed up the germination process from a week or more down to one to three days.
See GREENS, page 6
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