How to Grow Microgreens at Home
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Microgreens are easy to grow, full of nutrients and taste really fresh and yummy. Grow microgreens at home and snip some off for a snack.
During the winter when our garden is no longer producing, I get a hankering for something fresh and tasty. We juice a lot of produce in winter to make up for the nutrition we are used to getting from the garden and we grow sprouts or microgreens in the kitchen window.
I LOVE sprouts! They are so flavorful and easy to grow. When I was a kid, my mom grew some sprouts but we always got them at the grocery store and we tore them up!
Growing microgreens at home
I have been growing superfood sprouts off and on for the past 15 years or so, but according to our USDA regulations for daycare, we cannot serve them to the kids. Sprouts are easily contaminated with Salmonella and Escherichia.
Sprouts are grown in water only, and take just a few days. You are just eating the germinated seed. They are grown without sunlight which helps them harbor bacteria as well.
A couple of years ago, I started buying microgreens at the farmer’s market and they are fantastic. They don’t run the risk of contamination that sprouts do because they are grown in the sun, they are grown in fertile soil, and get plenty of air circulation.
Microgreens are the young plants with several sets of leaves and are harvested or cut along the soil surface to remove the roots.
Microgreens have a stronger flavor than sprouts, develop more nutrition due to photosynthesis, and have slightly more fiber than sprouts. Many kinds can be grown and harvested such as kale, arugula, beets, onions, radishes, watercress, bok choy, cilantro, basil, parsley, chives and so many more. The flavor of the greens depends on the type of seed.
The best combo I’ve tasted with microgreens was some garden fresh farmer’s market cherry tomatoes with a sprinkling of basil microgreens. DELISH! Broccoli microgreens are delicious as well as sunflower microgreens. This balsamic chopped salad is my favorite recipe to use them in.
Microgreens are as easy to grow as sprouts. They take a little longer, but they deliver a fresh burst of summer flavor that floods your taste buds with delight. All you need is a little flat of dirt, less than an inch deep.
I use one of the Pampered Chef dredging station trays I have. Just add some dirt, sprinkle some seeds on top, sprinkle more dirt on top of that and give them a heavy mist of water. Continue to keep them moist by misting daily and watch them sprout.
Make sure they are in a south facing window for optimum sunlight or you could grow them under a grow light. Do not let them dry out! When you see the second set of leaves come out, your microgreens are ready. Just get a pair of scissors and harvest your crop!
I love the flavor of sunflower microgreens, I think, more than any other. They are so good. I also enjoy alfalfa, basil, mung bean and especially broccoli microgreens.
This is after about one week
This is at a week and a half. The alfalfa microgreens are ready to harvest already!
Microgreen kit
I used some sprouting seeds I had I purchased from sprout people. These microgreens are alfalfa and mung bean. You can eat them straight from the window, or use them in salads, either way they are amazing.
I recommend you try growing some microgreens at home today. Tell me about microgreens you have tried or would like to.
