Photo Story: A New Approach to Vegetables in Outer Space

Founder of Radical Shoots and recent Vanderbilt graduate James Valencia chops fresh microgreens grown hydroponically to package in a reusable container.

Vegetables and outer space may not seem to have much in common, but one local Nashville business strives to connect the two. 

Radical Shoots, a small microgreens business founded by recent Vanderbilt University graduate James Valencia, was accepted to the Space-Edge Accelerator program on Sept. 14 and will spend the next four months doing a deep dive into space science, biomedicine and technology. 

“We just got accepted to the Space-Edge Accelerator for Blue Origin with the goal of providing different types of microgreens, and especially crops like mushrooms for astronauts, to help increase the tastiness of the food they’re eating and provide some of the micronutrients that a lot of times they're deficient in,” Valencia said. 

Science and art meet in this local Nashville greenhouse

The greens are sprouted using the hydroponic method, meaning the plants are grown in a water solution without soil, which saves time and allows for more growth in a smaller area. 

Working in tandem with Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, Radical Shoots aims to optimize the growth and production processes for their microgreens to succeed in space.  

“Hopefully we can establish on the Blue Origin base, a research and production facility for everybody on that campus, then do experiments on how they grow,” said Valencia. 

The final goal is to refine the process enough to where Radical shoots could send the growth system up to the space station. 

Valencia showcases Amaranth microgreens, one of the plants he hopes to optimize for space, due to its unusually high nutrient content.

Microgreens are more nutrient packed, the shoots containing up to 40 times the vitamin content of a full-grown vegetable, which is why it’s a viable option to provide deficient astronauts with the vitamins and minerals they may be lacking after spending months in zero gravity, eating freeze dried foods.

Radical Shoots products, baked by Theodore Washington III, an executive pastry chef in Nashville, incorporate microgreens such as Red Veined Sorrel and Sunflower into the pastries.

Executive pastry chef Theodore Washington III has been responsible for incorporating microgreens into the various baked goods sold by Radical Shoots, including various microgreen infused hummuses, focaccia bread, muffins, and bagels. 

“When we're children, we're born with all the nutrients and vitamins that we need to sustain us for life, and as we get older, they start to deplete," Washington said. "The same can be said for miniature versions of fruits and vegetables, That's what microgreens are."

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This Photo Story was done by Kaya Fagerstrom