Sprouts & Microgreens

I am craving green.  It happens this time of year when the world around me has turned every shade of brown.  The tasteless lettuce stacked enticingly in grocery coolers deceives customers, not worth a penny of the steep asking price.  The cilantro and parsley are equally lacking in flavor.  I cannot buy kale when for the other three quarters of the year I have more than I could ever eat.  Last night I devoured a bowl of green cabbage, celery and avocado salad.  It was crunchy and fresh with just lemon juice, olive oil and salt for dressing.  Celery and cabbage hold their flavor at this bleak time of year better than their tender shelf neighbors and avocado, being in season in unimaginable parts of the world here in the cold north, are cheap.  I splurge on them.

My other green source is sprouts and new this year I am giving microgreens a go.  For sprouts I cover the bottom of a canning jar with seeds- radish, alfalfa, broccoli.  Then add about an inch of water.  I cover the jar with a couple of layers of cheese cloth, hold it in place with a canning ring and let soak over night.  In the morning I drain the water and leave it upside down on a plate with the edge of the jar on the rim of the plate so that any extra water can drain out.  The smell of rotting sprouts can turn me off of them for a whole year until the green craving returns, so I like to make sure they are not sitting in water.  I rinse them everyday and within a few days I have sprouts for my sandwiches and salads.  I store them in a cloth produce bag in the fridge.

Growing microgreens is new to me, but as my tiny seeds are just poking out of the soil I am getting excited about it.  I took a plastic growing tray with holes, set it in a tray without holes (to allow for drainage), filled it half way with potting soil (adding some compost would have been nice, but I did not have any).  Then my little helpers dumped (and I do mean dumped) the remnants of all of my greens seed packets onto the soil. We used lettuce, kale, chard, radicchio, arugula and watercress.  I tried to spread them out a little and covered with a sprinkling more of potting soil.  I set them on a heat mat (I am not sure this is necessary) and now that they have germinated I will put them under lights, but a sunny window would work just as well.  When their true leaves appear- snip, snip!  What a beautiful green salad I will have!

And what else is going on in my garden of the mind….  Seed catalogs of course.  I have had some lovely moments browsing and dreaming huddled in my warm home while winter swirls around me.  I have lots of ideas I want to share from noodle beans to cherry bombs, but time is running short right now and that is a lengthy discussion for later.  And of course compost.  We are filling a bucket in the garage with coffee grounds, tea bags and chopped grapefruit rinds- the pigs’ rejects, but a lovely start to getting my ComposTumbler going in the spring.