Monday, January 17, 2011

Starting Micro Greens

It's snowing, the middle of January, and here in Zone 5a there's nothing happening outdoors in the garden remotely resembling green growth. Not for several months anyway.

With that in mind, there is no need to wait to start some new life, new life that will be delicious!

Mico greens differ from sprouts in that sprouts can be done without any soil and are harvested before the second set of leaves (after the cotyledon) form.

Personally I'm not big on sprouts though I know many people love them. They do add crunch to salads, stir fry,s and sandwiches.  Enjoy them in good health!

Micro greens typically are harvested at 10-14 days after germination, grown in shallow soil, and kept moist. They have the flavor of the adult plant in a more subtle fashion.

Let's get started, shall we?




I'll keep them moist and covered with paper towel until they start pushing it up, at which point I'll remove it.

This is a quick project to get started and a super way to teach children about plants and introduce them to gardening!



Until next time, Keep Digging & Eat Well!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
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6 comments:

  1. Great idea! I like sprouts in stir fry, and like them less raw. Sprouting, microgreens, and also growing wheatgrass for juicing are all great indoor gardening projects that are child-friendly and wonderful for health too. Nice job.

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  2. Thanks Garden Girl! I look forward to using someof these in the kitchen!

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  3. David, this is a technique I use a lot. I find it a good way of using up half packets of salad seeds from a previous year (so 100% germination is not likely or even desirable). I haven't tried the idea of covering the seeds with moist paper, but I might now. Do you think the seeds would be strong enough to pierce the paper if you didn't remove it? If you left it in place it might make harvesting easier, helping to avoid getting any of the compost caught up in the microgreens.

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  4. Mark, I've never tried this before. I don't think it would pierce the paper, just push it up. I could leave a small patch of paper to see.

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  5. or...what about placing the damp paper on the damp compost and sowing the seeds on top of the damp paper...the roots might be strong enough to pierce the paper! I might get the kids at school to try a number of trays with different variations...interesting!

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  6. Sounds like a cool experiment Helena! Let us know how it works out.

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