A pocket-sized bit of land, a small shed, a few trays and lots of health-conscious customers - that is all it took to get Mama Kali's microgreens farm sprouting.After starting out selling their produce at farmers' markets two years ago, Yu Kali and Yu Jiang are now also sending out 2000 packs of the nutrient-dense seedlings every week to the veggie aisles of 30-odd supermarkets in Aotearoa.
The mother and daughter duo started out in a small greenhouse on a rural block on the outskirts of Te Puke in Bay of Plenty. "Traditional farming, it's just not realistic. We don't have machinery, we don't have that much land. "It's easy. It's not a lot of investment. We just bought some trays. We did a bit of research as well. And we're quite lucky in the Bay of Plenty. There's no other microgreen growers in this area."
They now have a purpose-built 72sqm greenhouse with a packing shed alongside, providing room for hand harvesting and sorting. It is a far cry from Kali's days selling shoes in China. She married a Kiwi and arrived in New Zealand in 2007. Jiang followed two years later, completing her schooling at Te Puke High. Jiang said her mother had always had a passion for nature and growing thing.
"She always wanted to have lots of garden, but, being in the city is really hard. We have very small apartments [in China] and it's hard to have a garden," Jiang told Country Life. "When she came to New Zealand it's like a dream come true for Mum." Kali's transformation from "city girl" to "farmer girl" was a bit of a "shock" for family in China, her daughter said.
Read the entire article at RNZ