Archive for the ‘Light Gardens’ Category

Mar 25
2008

Grow Your Own Teeny Tiny Salad Greens

I am just crazy for anything I can grow and eat here at home…

…particularly in the winter, when the weather is inhospitable for gardening or even venturing out to a favorite restaurant. I keep herbs on the kitchen counter. That’s also why I sprout everything from wheat berries to mung beans to adzukis to alfalfa to add to breads, salads or other dishes. Sprouts boost the taste AND the nutrition in one fell swoop. So when I saw the recent proliferation in seed catalogs for microgreens, the cartoon light bulb over my head lit right up.

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KA-PING!!! I bet I can grow these in my light garden! Then I can have gourmet greens in my own kitchen 12 months out of the year. Why didn’t I think of this before?

To get started, I ordered a set of microgreens seeds from Cook’s Garden, which included Beet Bull’s Blood, Broadleaf Cress, Kohlrabi Chancellor, Cutting Celery, Pea Green Arrow and Spinach Rembrandt. Each seed was packaged separately. Cost: $13.95 for six typical packets of seeds–.4 grams to 2 oz each. I also ordered the spicy microgreens mix from the Sprout People, which included Daikon Radish, Cress and Arugula. These seeds were mixed together. Cost: $9.95 for a one-pound bag of organic seeds.

Clearly, the Cook’s Garden quantities were minuscule compared with the Sprout People seeds, especially when you consider that the plants aren’t going to mature to big plants, but will be hacked off at the roots and eaten as baby plants. You will need quite a lot of seeds for microgreens.

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I planted one box of soilless potting mix with the Cutting Celery and Broadleaf Cress from Cook’s Garden and one with the seed mix from the Sprout People. All of the seeds sprouted and grew beautifully in the light garden in just a few days. I was able to clip off just what I wanted to add to salads or to add atop sandwiches. The sprouts have stayed crisp, fresh and zingy for several weeks while I continue to clip them. Fabulous!

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If you want to try your own microgreens, you can plant them in traditional plastic sprouting trays on a windowsill or under grow lights. The Sprout People also offer a hemp bag sprouter that looks quite handy and can be used for microgreens.

So now I can have teeny tiny salad greens year round. Now that’s a fabulous find!

Robin
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Filed in: Fabulous Finds, Gardening, Indoor Gardening, Light Gardens, Vegetables

Right Now at Bumblebee

February 3rd, 2012

If you’re in the neighborhood and just happen to have your paintbrush and paint clothes with you, stop on by. Harry and I are taking the day off from work to start painting the master bedroom. We figure it’ll take until Sunday. Harry does most of the rolling—no small chore with high ceilings—and I do all the tedious detail work. You, of course, can pitch in wherever you like.

We’re painting it a dove grey. So if you see some grey in my hair in the next few days, it’s paint. Got it? The grey is paint.

Robin

February 2nd, 2012

Happy Groundhog Day! What are you doing to celebrate?

We’ll have a special dinner of NOT groundhog. Dinner will be a special pasta (TBD) and some yummy homemade yeast rolls. Then we’ll pull out the photo album of past Groundhog Days and reminisce. We will toast Puxatawny Phil by opening the first bottle of my homemade apfelwein, which I hope is sparkly by now. If it’s any good, you’ll hear more about it.

Cheers!

Robin

February 1st, 2012

Working from a home office is not always what it’s cracked up to be. I have a lousy IT department (me). Interruptions range from barking dogs to crowing roosters. I hear my business phone ring during non-business hours.

But there is a lot good about a 15 step commute. Such as today. It’s cloudy and a bit drizzly, but the temps will climb into the mid 60s for the second day in a row. I will turn off the heat, throw open the windows and give the house—and office—a good airing. Ahhh!

Robin

January 22nd, 2012

It’s cold here with a bit of ice and snow on the ground. The hens hate it.

There was a huge, chicken-y traffic jam at their window/door this morning. As I opened it three hens bolted outside. But they beat a hasty retreat back into the coop while other hens were still trying to get out. There was an impasse and much chicken shoving. There were no injuries—unless you count my sore sides from laughing so hard.

Robin

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