Meet Cleveland’s Premiere ‘Fresh Food People’
January 20, 2025 When they established Wild Patch Microgreens, an indoor vertical farm in Chesterland, Ohio, two years ago, Tom and Mary Poplar’s mission was clear: to raise awareness about where food comes from and what’s really in it.
“Today’s food lacks nutrient density. When we started Wild Patch, we wanted to combat that while doing something for ourselves and our local community,” Mary says. “Our food travels from thousands of miles away and no one talks about how unnecessary that is.”
Getting Started in Ag
It took about a year for Tom and Mary Poplar to master the growing process for microgreens and edible flowers. | Photo: Wild Patch Microgreens
In 2021, after a hiatus traveling around the country during COVID-19, Tom and Mary started living and working on a Christmas tree farm. Chesterland is an agricultural city, and their new lifestyle caused them to ask bigger questions about our food system. They knew pursuing a life in agriculture was inevitable, but it took some time and patience before they could both be supported by it.
“Mary and I don’t come from agriculture, but we’ve always liked growing on a hobby level,” Tom says. Snowed in the winter of 2021, they took the time to learn about growing microgreens. “We didn’t intend to sell them commercially. It took us a year to figure out the growing process, and then we quickly realized there’s a need in the space.”
This realization fueled the couple’s desire to provide fresh, nutritious greens for the local community and restaurants.
According to their chefs and farmers market customers, microgreens typically have a short shelf life, averaging between two and three days. Wild Patch has been able to extend that average for their customers. “Microgreens are delicate, so you have to treat them that way,” Tom says. “It all comes down to the inputs you’re putting in. High–quality soil and high-quality nutrients go a long way.”
Focusing on Nutrition
Microgreens are often used as a garnish for dishes in upscale restaurants. Tom and Mary grow their greens with a focus on nutrition, flavor, and texture while still keeping visual appeal in mind. This makes their microgreens an essential ingredient in a dish rather than just a visual element.
“We offer varieties of microgreens that other growers don’t,” Mary said. “In a way we’ve become ‘custom growers’ for our chefs, because they’ll ask us to grow certain microgreens for them to a specific size or to achieve a particular flavor.”
The Push for Sustainability
Aside from the label, all of Wild Patch Microgreens’ packaging is commercially compostable. | Photo: Wild Patch Microgreens
Along with nutrition, Wild Patch Microgreens puts sustainability at the forefront of their operation, as they work with companies that share similar values and sell their greens in compostable containers.
“Our packaging is commercially compostable, and we work with people who want to keep plastic out of landfills,” said Mary. “The label is the only thing on our containers that isn’t compostable, and we want to change that soon. Leaving minimal waste and environmental impact was the only way we felt good about putting more packaging out into the world.”
Forming Strategic Partnerships
The Poplars sell their microgreens at six local markets throughout the year and at two farmers markets in the Chesterland area every season, including the winter.
“We sell at local farm stores in the Chesterland area,” Tom says. “We don’t offer shipping because we value the local food scene. We sell our products from Chardon to Lakewood, Ohio, to keep our greens fresh and in locally produced soil.”
Adds Mary, “We sell our greens in a certain radius. Our greens stay in the Cleveland area – we want to be synonymous with freshness and keeping it local allows for that.”
Setting Goals for the Year Ahead
Now growing more than 40 kinds of microgreens (and counting), Wild Patch has plans to expand their offerings and establish more partnerships with local restaurants. While they can’t reveal all their plans for 2025 just yet, they look forward to seeing what the future has in store for them.
“We have a lot of goals,” Tom says. “We’re continuing to learn from the market and make strategic decisions based on that.”