Grow your own microgreens
Grow your own microgreens
Gett ing started
- Most seeds, especially bigger seeds like peas, benefit from soaking for 24 hours before sowing, as this can speed up germination by as much as 3 days.
- Use seed trays or old margarine tubs and plastic fruit punnets to grow your microgreens, as long as they have holes for drainage.
Sow & go
- Fill your container almost to the top with multipurpose compost – or as Mark does, mix old spent compost from tomato bags or flower pots with new compost and a little worm humus/manure.
- Water thoroughly and scatter your seeds thickly on top, leaving roughly one seed width between each one (ignore what the packet says, you can sow much closer as the plants won’t fully mature).
- Sprinkle a thin layer of compost on top, or vermiculite, or even kitchen paper (when the seedlings appear you can remove the paper).
- Pop your container on to a shallow tray or saucer so you can water into the tray rather than from above (to avoid ‘damping off’), and check daily to ensure the soil doesn’t dry out.
Ready to eat
Your microgreens should sprout within a few days, and be ready to eat within 1–3 weeks once the ‘true leaves’ appear above the seed leaves. Snip off above the seed leaves, and you may get a second flush, or pull out root and all to eat.
Five to try
Mix and match your microgreens and experiment with Mark’s favourite five:
1 Pea shoots
Although not officially a microveg (due to the fact you snip them after the first three or four true leaves, rather than the first set), pea tendrils are packed with vitamins and protein, and are intensely pea flavoured. Taste: Drop into soups or stir-fries.
2 Sunflowers
With a slightly nutty taste and crunch, be sure to harvest sunflower
greens before the second set of leaves because these can be bitter. Taste: Add them to salads with slices of avocado.
3 Broad beans
Not just great for sprouting, broad bean tops make nutritious greens too.
Taste: Use like basil leaves in pesto by blending with plenty of Parmesanstyle cheese, garlic and pine nuts.
4 Mixed mustard
Think colourful and spicy mizuna and mibuna.
Taste: Stir through a risotto for added zing.
5 Radish
One of the fastest-growing microgreens – ready in 2 weeks.
Taste: Spice up salads with the leaves.
Gett ing started
- Most seeds, especially bigger seeds like peas, benefit from soaking for 24 hours before sowing, as this can speed up germination by as much as 3 days.
- Use seed trays or old margarine tubs and plastic fruit punnets to grow your microgreens, as long as they have holes for drainage.
Sow & go
- Fill your container almost to the top with multipurpose compost – or as Mark does, mix old spent compost from tomato bags or flower pots with new compost and a little worm humus/manure.
- Water thoroughly and scatter your seeds thickly on top, leaving roughly one seed width between each one (ignore what the packet says, you can sow much closer as the plants won’t fully mature).
- Sprinkle a thin layer of compost on top, or vermiculite, or even kitchen paper (when the seedlings appear you can remove the paper).
- Pop your container on to a shallow tray or saucer so you can water into the tray rather than from above (to avoid ‘damping off’), and check daily to ensure the soil doesn’t dry out.
Ready to eat
Your microgreens should sprout within a few days, and be ready to eat within 1–3 weeks once the ‘true leaves’ appear above the seed leaves. Snip off above the seed leaves, and you may get a second flush, or pull out root and all to eat.
Five to try
Mix and match your microgreens and experiment with Mark’s favourite five:
1 Pea shoots
Although not officially a microveg (due to the fact you snip them after the first three or four true leaves, rather than the first set), pea tendrils are packed with vitamins and protein, and are intensely pea flavoured. Taste: Drop into soups or stir-fries.
2 Sunflowers
With a slightly nutty taste and crunch, be sure to harvest sunflower
greens before the second set of leaves because these can be bitter. Taste: Add them to salads with slices of avocado.
3 Broad beans
Not just great for sprouting, broad bean tops make nutritious greens too.
Taste: Use like basil leaves in pesto by blending with plenty of Parmesanstyle cheese, garlic and pine nuts.
4 Mixed mustard
Think colourful and spicy mizuna and mibuna.
Taste: Stir through a risotto for added zing.
5 Radish
One of the fastest-growing microgreens – ready in 2 weeks.
Taste: Spice up salads with the leaves.
Grow your own microgreens
Reviewed by Unknown
on
2/06/2020
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
2/06/2020
Rating:
