Sit down for coffee with Tuul Sukhbaatar and she might shrug and wonder aloud if starting a farm business is the right move. But if small business success has something to do with how quickly a business takes off, you’d know right away that her venture, Wild Chives, was meant to be.

Tuul first came to Keene, New Hampshire to work on her master’s degree and ultimately ended up pursuing a PhD at Antioch University. “I could have had a bigger ambition to work at a university. But I was not really feeling that,” she describes.

In 2022, Tuul hadn’t been to her home country of Mongolia in nearly five years because of the pandemic. She flew back to see her family, but she recalls that even before leaving, “I was just feeling that kind of itch. Right? I want to run a business.”

Deciding Her Next Move

She mulled it over at home while kicking around in the kitchen, a place she loves to be. “I find myself in kitchens all the time and even when I apply for a job, it would always be cooking,” she explains. With that in mind, starting a restaurant might have been one idea. But it seemed like too big a move without any past business experience. 

Tuul says she wondered: “I can be a good cook, but maybe I’m not a good business person.” Instead, she began to dream about starting a farm—a tiny one. Tuul’s idea was to grow microgreens, nutrient-packed seedlings of vegetables and herbs. While the full plants take an extended time to grow, microgreens can be harvested much faster and still provide a range of beneficial vitamins and minerals all year round.

She remembered a friend had mentioned Business Lab classes at Hannah Grimes, right in town. So, she decided to call and share her idea. After talking with the program director, she was excited to find out she could even get a scholarship to participate in the lab.

But then the procrastination set in and looking at the application, she kept thinking, “I’ll get to it.” Finally, one day, she was lying down watching a movie and remembered the deadline. Later that night, it felt like a win to hit submit on her application, and Hannah Grimes responded immediately that she would be a great fit.

Starting to Dig In

Her Business Lab cohort kicked off not long after and she says, “Attending that class was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.” There were seven people in her cohort, and tackling her business vision early on was a little daunting. But Tuul was surprised that even by the end of that first class, she was feeling really good about starting a farm to fork operation.

From the initial session, she had a name in mind for her tiny, beautiful business: Wild Chives. And that ended up being the one that stuck. “I got my LLC certificate one day earlier than the final pitch,” Tuul remembers. “It was pretty funny; I graduated with a business.”

Soon after, she met up with a former colleague who was impressed by the idea she had developed and placed the first big order, enough microgreens for a local school’s fresh fruits and vegetables program. “I just had a couple of sample batches and that pushed me to learn very quickly,” she describes. Not long after, she applied to be part of the Farmer’s Market of Keene and was selected as a new vendor.  

Time to Grow

As things sped up, Tuul rose to the occasion, applying to sell her products at the Monadnock Food Co-op and connecting with other local venues, like Country Life Store. “They’ve been very friendly and helpful to me,” she says. Additional local spots to find her greens include the Keene International Market and Archway Farm, as well as popular area eateries like Granita Enoteca and The Stage.

“Having a lot of orders is awesome, but that comes with responsibility,” she notes. And as a small business owner, she’s responsible for it all, from growing the microgreens and figuring out the subscription model to packaging and labeling. 

The challenge now is balance—maintaining enough subscribers, especially in winter when the farmer’s market is on hiatus, to sustain the business. But she doesn’t want to grow too big too fast because there’s one little catch. “My living room is a farm. That is my sacrifice,” she chuckles.

Branching Out

Fortunately, Tuul has moved from Business Lab into the HGC Incubator program, where she is hatching plans for business growth in the coming year. This includes a goal to secure a large space, especially for tasks like washing and sanitizing the large trays for growing, which become more difficult in the colder months. 

Eventually, she’d like her business to evolve into a catering outfit with food from her own garden. With support from HGC, she’s looking forward to making it happen.

Written by Caroline Tremblay. Images by Little Pond Digital.