Meet Our Farmers: Moms Micro Garden

Moms Micro Garden grows over 20 varieties of microgreens.

Mother knows best. Or at least Patrick Brown’s mother did when she pushed him to start his own microgreen farm.  

Farmer Pat wasn’t always a farmer. He started his career in restaurant management and ran several high-volume, up-scale, casual restaurants before making the decision to switch to microgreens.  

Pat got into microgreens after his mother got E. Coli from a bad batch of romaine lettuce and decided to start growing her own produce. She told Pat about all of the benefits of growing her own microgreens and encouraged him to start a farm of his own. After some extra encouragement from his wife, Rachel, he eventually gave in and started with one tray of greens under a grow light in his garage about three years ago. 

Today, Pat and his urban farm grow their greens vertically in a 2,200 square foot greenhouse and produce 500+ trays per week. All of his years of experience in the restaurant industry continue to influence the way he works, and he says he runs the business more like a restaurant than a farm.  

He continues to work closely with the restaurant industry, with about 60 restaurants and home cooks in the area ordering microgreens from their farm directly. Most of Moms Micro Garden staff are former restaurant workers like Pat who were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Pat started selling microgreens at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market in November of 2020, and now sells at the Magnolia and University District markets as well. Although Pat sometimes misses the high adrenaline day-to-day of the restaurant industry, he is grateful to be able to spend more time with his family and have the opportunity to watch his daughter grow up. “I wake up in the morning and I am my own person,” he said.  

Moms Micro Garden grows over 20 varieties of microgreens, doing everything from simple broccoli and mustard greens to more complicated blends and custom grows for their restaurant customers. The greens are grown without pesticides using only seeds, soil, water, and grow lights.  

For such tiny plants, they are packed full of nutrients, like vitamin K found in red cabbage, or protein and fatty acids found in sunflower shoots. Pat and other microgreen enthusiasts refer to them as “natural superfoods.”