The Cairns Microgreens Team

Left to Right: Richard, Lochy, Amanda and Steve

Cairns Microgreens is owned and managed by Steve and Amanda Grist on their property in Koah on the Atherton Tablelands. They purchased the 20 acre property in 2012 as a hobby farm and quickly applied their knowledge of permaculture design to develop the farm. Initially the aim was to grow as much of their food as possible but it wasn’t long before Steve decided he wanted to work the property full-time. Both Steve and Amanda are considered “first generation farmers” with Steve having a background in the defence force and mining and Amanda being a pharmacist. In 2016 after research, trials and careful planning Cairns Microgreens was born.

Within a year Cairns Microgreens had outgrown its tunnels and a new greenhouse and packing area was built. We expanded our range of products to include seasonal edible flowers, pea tendrils and sunflower shoots. We are currently looking at expanding our range further so watch this space.

At Cairns Microgreens we pride ourselves on producing a highly nutritious, high quality, organically grown product free from any chemical inputs. Our processes ensure we minimise water usage and the water we do use is reused many times before eventually ending up on our fruit trees. We encourage all our customers to return any pots once used and in the next 12 months we are aiming to make our whole operation run completely on solar to further reduce our environmental footprint.

In 2017 Steve was awarded a Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship. He is being sponsored by Horticulture Innovation Australia to travel overseas during 2018 to learn innovative bio-intensive farming practices. We look forward to seeing how this experience will expand our product range and evolve our farm in the future.