MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · MIDWOOD, NY

Start a microgreen business in Midwood, NY.

Most Midwood kitchens serving microgreens are split between out-of-town distributors and a handful of Brooklyn-based growers stretched thin. The kosher restaurants and bakeries along Avenue J and Avenue M plate and pack with greens cut days before they arrive. The grower in Midwood who fixes that, with reliable certified-supply delivery, gets paid first.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in Midwood with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $2,500 to $6,500 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at Midwood wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

How many of the kosher restaurants and caterers along Avenue J right now are buying microgreens from a grower within walking distance of their kitchen?

What Midwood buys today

Midwood is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn and runs a deep restaurant, catering, and bakery economy along Avenue J, Avenue M, Coney Island Avenue, and the side streets between them. The weekly catering volume, simcha events, and standing kosher restaurant orders give Midwood a microgreen demand profile that most U.S. cities cannot touch.

The buyer culture here is loyal and long term, with restaurants and caterers that hold accounts for years once the supply is reliable, certified, and consistent week to week. At least half of those kitchens are settling for sub-par quality today because professional-grade local supply is still scarce. Nearly every U.S. city has microgreen farms. Brooklyn has the demand to support several more.

For indoor growing, the brick rowhouses, multi-family homes, and detached homes typical of Midwood hold the 65 to 75 degree window microgreens want with normal central heat. The footprint a Midwood grower can work with, particularly with a finished basement or attic, is larger than what most central Brooklyn growers ever have.

Every month you wait, another Midwood caterer locks in a standing weekly order with a non-local distributor truck. What is the cost of letting the largest catering economy in south Brooklyn buy from someone else?

The math, in Midwood prices

Midwood sits in a mid Brooklyn pricing tier with unusually deep catering and kosher restaurant account density. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative Midwood numbers.

Startup cost

$400

Trays, soil, seed, lights. Used gear cuts this in half.

Per-tray net

$20-$30

After seed, soil, packaging, delivery.

Trays per week

100

Target for $3K-$5K/mo at Midwood pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in Midwood square footage

A 10 by 10 foot room with two vertical shelving units holds 60 to 80 active trays. That is enough to produce $3,000 to $5,000 per month in Midwood at standard wholesale prices. A two-car garage doubles it. A basement triples it.

Imagine the version of your week where Sunday is planting day, Tuesday is restaurant delivery along Avenue J and Avenue M, Thursday is the Friday catering supply run, and the app tells you exactly which trays to cut. What changes about how you spend the rest of your week?

Three things every working microgreen farm in Midwood runs on

  1. A seed density and watering plan you trust. The number one cause of failed trays for new growers is over- or under-seeding. The cheat sheet inside Grown Like A Pro gives you grams per 10x20, soak hours, blackout days, harvest day, and watering for sixty-one varieties.
  2. A rotation tracker. Once you are running thirty-plus trays per week, you cannot remember what is in blackout, what is in light growth, what harvests Tuesday. A spreadsheet works for the first month. After that you need a system that pings you the day before each harvest and reorders seed before you run out.
  3. A customer + invoice layer. Restaurants in Midwood want predictable weekly invoices and net-15 terms. Farmers market customers want clamshell tracking. Both want consistency. The app handles both.

The IKEA test

If you can follow an IKEA instruction sheet without screaming at the family, you can grow microgreens at a commercial level in Midwood. The steps are about that difficulty: open the box, lay out the parts, follow the picture, repeat. Trays are the bookcase. Seed is the dowels.

If you ever did struggle with the IKEA bookshelf, that is exactly why Glappy lives inside the app. Glappy is the in-app coach that breaks every step down barney style, in your own language, from "how do I plant my first tray" to "why is this tray going leggy at day five and what do I do about it tonight." Type the question, get a step-by-step answer. There is no question too basic. The whole point is that a Midwood grower starting today is not on their own.

What you are not buying

You are not buying a course. You are not buying a hype product. You are not buying seed from us, and you are not buying trays from us. We do not sell either. Grown Like A Pro is the operating system you run your Midwood farm on. The growing happens in your basement.

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Midwood microgreen FAQ

How much can I make growing microgreens in Midwood?
A working microgreen farm in Midwood produces $3,000 to $8,000 per month within 90 days of starting. The math: 100 trays per week, $20 to $30 net revenue per tray, harvested in a basement, garage, or spare room. The ceiling is set by how many restaurants and farmers market customers you can serve, not by the growing setup.
Is it legal to sell microgreens in NY?
Yes. In most of New York, microgreens fall under the state's cottage food law for direct-to-consumer retail at farmers markets and to private customers. Restaurant wholesale typically requires a basic food handler permit. Verify with the New York Department of Agriculture before you sign a wholesale contract.
What microgreens sell best in Midwood?
Sunflower, pea shoots, and radish are the three highest-volume sellers in nearly every U.S. city, including Midwood. Broccoli is the highest-margin variety because of its sulforaphane reputation with health-focused buyers. Specialty varieties like amaranth and shiso command premium pricing from chef-driven restaurants.
How much space do I need to grow microgreens in Midwood?
A 10 by 10 foot room with two shelving units holds 60 to 80 active trays, which is enough to produce $3,000 to $5,000 per month. A basement, garage corner, spare bedroom, or sunroom all work in Midwood's climate. Vertical shelving is the fastest path to higher revenue per square foot.
What is the best app for tracking microgreen production in Midwood?
Grown Like A Pro is the operating system used by working microgreen farms in Midwood. It handles seed density math, watering schedules, harvest timing, inventory, customer orders, and the financial side. Free 30-day trial with no credit card.
How long does it take to learn to grow microgreens commercially?
Most growers in Midwood are selling their first trays within 30 days of starting. Commercial proficiency, meaning you can run 50-plus trays per week without losing crops to mold or under-seeding, takes 60 to 90 days. The seed density and watering math is the single biggest predictor of how fast you get there.
Do I need a license to sell microgreens in Midwood?
For farmers market and direct-to-consumer sales in Midwood, most growers operate under New York's cottage food law with no special license. For wholesale to restaurants and grocery stores, you typically need a basic food handler permit, a sales tax permit, and depending on volume, an inspection from your county health department.
How do I price microgreens to restaurants in Midwood?
Restaurant wholesale in Midwood runs $1.50 to $2.50 per ounce for standard varieties, $3 to $5 per ounce for specialty varieties like shiso, micro basil, or amaranth. Sell by the pound for repeat accounts. Local fresh commands a premium over the shipped-in product that most Midwood restaurants currently buy.

Related guides

Once you have the Midwood math in your head, the next read is the density chart that drives every tray you plant.

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