Microgreens Farm
The shortcut: Cottage food laws don't cover fresh produce — not in any state. Skip the farmers market grind and build the business as restaurant B2B from day one. Chefs pay weekly, on time, without haggling.
Industry: Agriculture | Investment level: Small — $2,000-$8,000 | Time to launch: 6-10 weeks (first grow cycle + chef tastings before paid orders)
Best for: People who can keep a 10-tray rack alive for three weeks without forgetting to water it, and who'd rather sell to one chef every week than 30 strangers on a Saturday. What you'll likely make: ~$800-$1,500/month by month 3 with 4-6 chef accounts, $2,500-$4,000/month by month 6 with 10-12 accounts, $4,500-$7,000/month by month 12 with a meal-kit or grocery line added. Math is in Section 4.
Market Opportunity
The chef opens the walk-in at 5pm Tuesday and the basil is limp again. Sysco doesn't come until Thursday. Service starts in two hours. What he wants is one phone number that picks up, one person who shows up Tuesday at 8am with the same six clamshells, week after week. That person, in most mid-size cities, doesn't exist yet.
A 60-restaurant city has maybe two reliable microgreens suppliers, and both are at capacity. The farmers market path every YouTube video pushes is wrong — ten Saturdays a quarter, $25-$75/booth (USDA AMS), customers who buy once and don't come back. Restaurants pay $1.60-$3.20/oz on a weekly recurring schedule.
- Restaurant B2B pricing runs $25-$50/lb by variety — sunflower $25-$35/lb, pea shoots $20-$30/lb, radish $30-$45/lb, broccoli $35-$50/lb — per Johnny's Selected Seeds.
- Specialty-vegetable demand is one of the faster-growing slices of fresh produce — USDA Economic Research Service.
- Indoor crop cycles run 7-21 days by variety, with no seasonality and no weather risk.
Target customer: Independent restaurants and small chef-driven hotel kitchens at $2M-$8M revenue — big enough to spend $200-$600/month on garnish, small enough that the chef takes the call. Skip the Cheesecake Factory tier (locked Sysco contracts) and food-truck tier (no spend).
Why this is a good time to start: Restaurant produce buyers spent the last two years getting burned by big-distributor stockouts. They're actively looking for backup suppliers, and they'll pay a 10-15% premium for someone who shows up same-day, every week.
Start with this idea — free signup, no card required.
