With outdoor farmers markets now closed, community supported agriculture (CSA) wrapped up for the season and backyard gardens having long withered, the thought of consuming fresh, local produce on a blustery winter day might seem like a dream. That’s why Patrick Darrough and his partners at Milwaukee Microgreens formed Milwaukee Farmers United to help people eat fresh year-round.
Milwaukee Farmers United and Milwaukee Microgreens both operate in the mixed-use building that was once the Louis Allis factory (427 E. Stewart St.) in the Bay View neighborhood. Darrough formed the businesses with his girlfriend, Shannon Dunne, and friend Erik Bergstrom, in early 2019.
Darrough, whose background is in sales, says his interest in farming was a confluence of being a CSA member of LotFotL (Live off the Fat of the Land), growing his own food and knowing where food comes from. He started growing microgreens—plants between the stages of sprouts and baby greens, full of flavor and nutrients—in a spare bedroom and handing them out to family and friends.
“Microgreens aren’t hard to grow. They’re just more crop specific as to what each one likes,” he says. “From there, I thought we could start a microgreens business. It’s a low-barrier entry because they’re easy to grow, it’s a viable food source ready within days and they’re extremely nutrient-dense.”
Urban Farm to Local Tables
Milwaukee Microgreens grows and sells microgreens and micro herbs to local chefs and restaurants, as well as dozens residential customers. Yet Darrough and his partners still felt that something was missing. To help deliver a better experience for consumers seeking local foods, they formed Milwaukee Farmers United as a local food aggregator that operates as a year-round online farmers market. The model is similar to a CSA. “It takes all the best parts of farmers markets, CSAs and shopping online,” he notes.
Customers enter basic information to create an account, but one can still browse the store front without an account. Once an account is created, customers can begin purchasing. There’s a $20 minimum for free delivery within Milwaukee County; $50 minimum for areas beyond. The delivery area extends south to Kenosha; west to Oconomowoc; and north to Grafton and Thiensville. Darrough, Dunne and Bergstrom deliver from their own vehicles every Wednesday and Sunday.
Food options include Milwaukee Microgreens such as arugula, pea, cabbage, radish, amaranth, rainbow or spicy mix, or whatever else they choose to experiment with. “There are so many microgreens that you could grow,” Darrough enthuses. The pandemic forced them to pivot their business more toward consumer demand and less for chef’s specific needs, so they’re trying new and challenging microgreens like cinnamon basil, their December Microgreen of the Month.
“We’ve got a few new things like mustards, which is an amazing plant. There are dozens and dozens of mustard varieties out there, and all of them make for wonderful combinations and textures. We’ve stumbled upon a couple of gems, like cantaloupe. That’s something I’ve never seen offered as a microgreen.”
In addition, Milwaukee Farmers United offers a cornucopia of local foods like Brightonwoods Orchard apples; USDA-certified beets from Gwenyn Hill Farm; Angelic Bakehouse sprouted grain breads and wraps; USDA-certified organic cabbage from Springdale Farm; mushrooms; local butter, cheese, tofu, sauces, bakery and more.
Food such as microgreens or mushrooms that can be grown indoors year-round can be an enormous boost to address food shortages in our nation, Darrough believes. “But we don’t see ourselves on the front lines of fighting those social justice battles like food sovereignty or eliminating food desserts. But we are moving the needle a little bit in that direction,” he concludes. “We’re solving a very specific problem. If you want to get local food from more than one farm, or if CSA is cost-prohibitive because you have to have all this money up front, we just want to make it incredibly easy to access nutritious local food.”
For more information, visit milwaukeefarmersunited.com or milwaukeemicrogreens.com.
