I would like to dedicate this post to a delicious and healthy food trend that's generating a lot of buzz these days, sprouts! After sampling the microgreens I brought home from my work at Kind Organics, my family and I were hooked. So for Christmas I set my parents up with their very own sprout growing operation (well it's really more my operation, but they get to eat the product).
Today I want to share with you the current outcome of my microgreens experiment. This is definitely an ongoing project so I will try to post updates every once and a while.
If you are not familiar with sprouts, they are basically the baby version of edible plants. There are dozens of different types. Pea shoots, sunflower, radish, kale, broccoli... The list is quite long. They are great in salads or as a topper for almost any dish. They taste good and they are very healthy.
Go try them. You can probably find them at a farmer's market or a health food store.
In order to grow them, I started off with a UV light. Fortunately I already had one since last year I started my seeds for the garden indoors. Then I ordered pea and sunflower microgreen seeds online (I got mine from Mumms Seeds but there are many different companies). I used potting soil from my local garden centre and trays from the dollar store (you can also buy trays from your garden centre).
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| Pea shoots |
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| Sunflower sprouts almost ready to cut |
Right now I am growing pea shoots and sunflower sprouts. I am not exaggerating when I say we eat them with everything. Just throw some pea shoots on your meal and you are good to go.
They are very simple to grow. Fill the tray with dirt then scatter on some seeds (it might take a few tries to figure out the proper seed density). Water them everyday and make sure they don't dry out too much. Once you see leaves on the sprouts then it is time to turn on the UV light (only have it on during the day). It takes about 10 days for them to grow, then cut and refrigerate. I could go into more detail but it's more fun to experiment on your own.
Future goals: add radish sprouts and spice things up a little (literally).
I am really excited about this project. Already we have enjoyed several trays of sprouts. I wonder if there is such a thing as too many pea shoots... hopefully not. If you have any questions, ask away.
Bye for now!
