Eating local, healthy produce is sometimes difficult in urban environments and growing it yourself can prove to be even more of a challenge, but a new community-minded project aims to change this with a self-sustaining, self-contained micro-gardening tool.

Swedish design studio Tomorrow Machine partnered with Berlin start-up INFARM for the Micrograrden growing kit. Using a transparent, seaweed-based agar-agar gel as a growing medium, the Microgarden is self-contained - meaning you'll never have to water the microgreens within. The plant roots absorb moisture from the gel and the transparent plastic walls allow the home grower to see and experience the entire process, from sprouting seeds to the end product.

The kit itself, as displayed on INFARM's Indiegogo campaign, comes as a flatpack and consists of three items, a foldable greenhouse, organic seeds, and the agar-agar powder. To use the kit, start by folding the greenhouse. Next, boil water, mix in the powder, then pour the mix into the open greenhouse. Sprinkle the seeds, close the Microgarden and wait. After 5-14 days your microgreens are ready to be enjoyed.

Tomorrow Machine's Hanna Billqvist told Protein that, so long as your greens fit the kit, there's no limit to what can be grown.

"Our vision is that the Microgarden makes indoor farming available and easy for everyone,"  Billqvist explained. "Where you can have delicious greens without pesticides or long transportation, by growing it in your own home. It does not get more local and organic than that."

Reminiscent of Sealeaf, the kit aims to provide urban communities the freedom to grow fresh, organic produce, no matter the season. Considering many foods travel up to 1,500 kilometres, passing through 28 different pairs of hands and wasting enormous amounts of energy before they even reach our plates, this product highlights a thoughtful trend that's in favour of decentralising food supplies, promoting hyper-localism instead.