Are you suffering from some winter blues? I know I am right about now. It seems that my world has been whitewashed or someone put a Instagram filter labeled “miserable” on everything I see. If you feel the same way I may have a solution to put some green back into your life.
About this time during the northern hemispheres long winters my wallet starts feeling the pain when I see a slow increase in the price of fresh greens. By now I am getting sick of the canned vegetables that the wife and I put up for winter, hence the pain in the wallet. The solution to this of course is to grow your own veggies indoors, and this has become easier in the last couple of years due to an increase in states that have legalized marijuana. With so many people growing marijuana indoors, indoor growing supplies have become readily available and accessible. Enter the super sprouter propagation kit (https://www.amazon.com/Super-Sprouter-Premium-Propagation-Light). This kit is normally used for cloning plant cuttings but I use it to grow micro greens throughout the winter months.
Micro greens are the sprouts of vegetables that you would normally see in stores. Take for instance the package of micro greens that I just planted
Which contain beet, cabbage, pac choi, swiss chard, and kohlrabi. During the summer months it is easy to find these types of microgreens at your local farmers markets. They are delicious and crisp perfect for sautéing. Since they are just the sprouts of plants they are ready to harvest fast (10 to 14 days) which makes them well suited for an indoor kitchen garden.
Now for the directions:
First take any seed starter or garden soil that you can get your hands on. Wal-Mart, Feed stores, or Amazon.com all carry potting soil even in the off season. Fill the bottom tray with soil leaving about a ¼ inch space at the top.
Next sprinkle the seeds evenly onto the soil.
Moisten the soil with water and then cover the seeds with more soil. This should fill the bottom container with soil.
Place clear cover onto the bottom container.Place heat mat under the entire seed sprouter and plug in.
In 2 to 4 days you should see sprouts, once you do place the light that comes with the kit on top of the dome and switch on. Water sparingly every other day.
That’s it!
In 10 to 14 days you can harvest the greens by cutting them with a knife at the base. I will do a follow up blog showing you how I harvest my micro greens. In the meantime crack a beer sit back and relax, or go fishing so you can catch a trout or 2 to go with the wonderful greens you just planted.
The Crusty Trout 