Kitchen Geeks

Have you ever noticed how vegetables in the Winter time don't taste all that great? They're not vibrant, they have no zing, they're often pale and flavorless imitations of the same veggies that you can get in the Summer. They're just plain not fresh and definitely Out Of Season.

Craving those fresh Summer flavors? Well you can get a taste of them very simply and relatively cheaply. All you need is a vaguely sunny window, some sort of container, some dirt, and a packet of microgreen seeds.

What are microgreens? Very simply, they're a lot of the same veggies and herbs that you'd be eating in the Summer but they're picked when they've only just sprouted and grown for a few days.

But Cat, I HATE sprouts! Well, these aren't quite sprouts. Sprouts are grown by soaking the seeds and letting them grow in a damp environment and you eat the entire sprout including the roots. Microgreens are actually grown in soil and you don't eat the stringy roots. Instead, you snip off the leaves and stems of the growing plant at a young age but past sprout stage. And you're also not limited to beans.

Okay, then what do you DO with them? Well, personally I like them as a mini-salad with some snipped fresh chives and some home-made Italian Dressing. But that's just me. You can add them to a regular salad or you can add them to your favorite sandwich as additional crunch. Anything you'd use lettuce in, you can add microgreens to. However, I'd avoid cooking them as you'll lose the delicate flavors.

Winter blahs often originate from the lack of good nutrition we were getting when the food we were eating was fresh and in season. Microgreens are extremely high in those nutrients we're lacking and thus can help combat the Winter blahs. I find they help me perk up a bit in the dog days of January when the temperatures are in the negatives and there's nothing good at the grocery store but onions and potatoes.

What You Need

First you'll need a container. You can use an actual pot if you like, but yogurt containers, margarine tubs, babyfood jars, cat food cans, top halves of plastic or styrofoam egg cartons, or anything that won't disintegrate when it's wet and will fit in your available windowspace is fine. Just make sure your whatever-it-is has been washed and is clean.

You'll need to buy dirt or some similar medium. You CAN use garden soil IF you can get to it. I don't know about you, but my garden is frozen solid just now. Easier to buy a small bag of potting soil for $1.79.

You'll also need to buy microgreen seeds. Now you can buy a pre-mixed packet OR you can mix your own. Since I garden anyway, I start with a pre-mix and add my own seeds. You'd be surprised what can go in a microgreen mix. In addition to lettuces, cabbages, and other greens, you can also add broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, sunflowers (crunchy!), beets, onions, leeks, celery, snow peas and pretty much any herb you can consume whole. I personally like to use licorice mint in my mixes as it adds the most unusual (but tasty!) flavor. The entire mint family will work as will parsley, fennel, fenugreek (methi), basil, oregano, dill, cilantro, and anise. Use your favorites!

If you know a veteran gardener, ask him/her for his/her discards. I go through my seeds every year and toss some into the microgreen collection because they didn't do well in the garden or because they're getting old and I need to buy new seed. Most of us are happy to see our discards getting used by somebody.

How to Grow

Okay, so now you have all your necessary implements. Fill your container with your soil, leaving about 1/2 inch of space at the top. Tamp it down lightly so that it's a solid mass without being a brick.

Sprinkle your microgreen seeds fairly thickly over the top of your soil. When you look down onto the surface of your soil, you want to be able to see about 1/2 soil and 1/2 seed. It's not necessary to make sure the seeds are spread apart and not touching, they'll take care of this for you.

Water your seeds in. You can drench them with a mister bottle if you have one, you can lightly dribble water out of your kitchen sink sprayer, whatever works. Just make sure you're reasonably gentle so the seeds stay put and don't wash away in a river of water. Use only enough so that the seeds and soil are obviously wet.

Cover your container(s) with something to keep the moisture in. Plastic wrap is the easiest, but you can use any sort of cover that works for you. The cover is there to keep moisture in so you don't need to water constantly.

Put your container in a window. Any window that's not completely shaded will do. Microgreens require a minimum of sunlight since they'll only be growing for a few days anyway.

Check your microgreens every day. When you start to see sprouting, remove the cover.

Within a few days, you'll find the soil drying out and you'll want to water. Water gently, to avoid disturbing the unsprouted seeds.

Harvest Time

Harvest your microgreens after they've gotten their first true leaves. The first set of leaves you see is actually the pair of seed cotyledons. They'll get a second set of leaves within a few days--these are the true leaves. Microgreens will all sprout at different rates, so your trimmings will contain different flavors at different times.

The easiest way to harvest is to take a pair of scissors, line them up with the top edge of your container, grasp a handful of microgreens, and snip straight across the top of the container. You might get a few immature microgreens this way, but they're still perfectly edible.

You CAN fertilize your microgreens for better growth, but I recommend adding your fertilizer directly to the soil before you add your seeds. This way, you will be able to harvest your microgreens without needing to wash them, which can make them limp. They're best used immediately without washing.

What Next?

Once your microgreens are exhausted, you can dump out about half of your old soil (into the garden, please!), mix in some new, and start the process all over again. You'll have new edibles every two weeks or so. You can also start multiple containers every five days or so to keep you in microgreens continuously.

Good Luck and Good Eating!