Pandemic offers an opportunity for new Fife urban farming business to grow

Infinite Spring, based in Cardenden, is focused on producing quality premium microgreens products to deliver direct to restaurants, cafes and customers’ homes.

Microgreens, like micro carrots and crunchy sunflower, are tiny seedlings grown from various vegetables and herbs.

They are used by chefs in fine dining to provide enhanced flavours and they contain extraordinarily high levels of nutrients and are packed full of vitamins.

Infinite Spring is run by husband and wife Joleen and Leon Carrington along with Joleen’s cousin Kris Mcaleese.

Kris said: “We officially started the company in September, but the idea began to develop earlier after I discussed microgreens with Joleen having seen some videos online about their health benefits.

“Having suffered from poor health due to type 1 diabetes, Joleen has always looked for natural ways to improve her overall well-being, and has grown her own vegetables in her allotment for over a decade.

"The idea that these little greens could provide more nutritional value than their mature namesakes really appealed, so she began growing them right away.

"I then suggested she look into selling them.

"After growing them for family and friends and receiving great feedback, we decided to start growing the micros as a business.”

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He said the pandemic has been tough for all businesses including theirs: “We had to rethink how to approach bringing our product to market as we had initially assumed the restaurant and hospitality sector would be our biggest space for growth, only to see most restaurants close.

"However, we have been encouraged to see many local food businesses move towards a home delivery or click and collect service and we feel this is a great opportunity for us that we may not have explored without the pandemic.”

Joleen added: “It is still early days for our business, with many people not understanding what microgreens are, or how they can be used. We want to educate as wide an audience as possible, not only on the health benefits of eating them, but the extraordinary flavour and versatility of them as ingredients in almost any dish.

"We are confident when people taste our greens they will come back for more.”

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