Microgreens! Vegetables In 7 Days!

The vegetable du jour.  Foodie craze.  High-end garnish.  Very flavorful and easy to grow nutrition: Microgreens.
If you haven't heard about them, let's get you caught up!
A few years ago, 1997 to be exact, Johns Hopkins researchers found that 3-4 day old broccoli sprouts are very nutritious.  How about that?
People who labeled sprouts as hippy food began to eat them.    
Things get fuzzy after that.  We'll skip the lengthy history of dirt and whittle it down to this: Both camps agree sprouts are tasty and nutritious! 
In comes a new trend: Microgreens.  Eating sprouts without their roots.  Let's face it, the roots were always kinda hairy and hard to eat anyway.  Turns out they are also a natural host for germs and the center of the sprout-eating controversy.  Be gone roots!
The older the sprouts get, the more special nutritious chemicals they lose.  But not much.  Even full-grown vegetables have been known to be, dare I say it: nutritious.
Microgreens are sprouts, a few days older than the stringy ones, grown in soil and sunshine so they have vibrant colors and sturdy textures.  Then they are cut and eaten in the seedling stage.  They won't grow again - just like other types of sprouts.  
They grow in just a few days and can be grown almost anywhere.  Like wheatgrass, they are a great windowsill crop.  The health benefits of growing plants, fresh vegetables, meeting a goal successfully are all stirred together with immediate gratification. 
First: Fill a container with soil.  Mix in a little fertilizer so they will still be green and usable a few days after you forget about them.
Second: Sprinkle a loose layer of seeds over the soil.  I like radish and tatsoi best, but almost any lettuce or root crop will work.  Most seed catalogs have a section dedicated to microgreens.  Get those or just choose from there and then hit the seed store. 
Third (or fourth): Tamp them - that means to pat them down gently so they make good contact with the soil but don't compact the soil.
Fourth (or third): Cover the seeds with a thin layer of something.  I use vermiculite. You can use sand.  Soil will take a day or two longer.  I read of one grower that uses paper towel.
Last: Water them and put them someplace warm. At this point I cover them additionally with something solid like a cookie sheet or plastic wrap, but that's not necessary.  It just makes germination a little more consistent.  
They are going to germinate in a day or two.  Three if you skip the cookie sheet.  Four if you covered with soil.  A week if they are cold. 
Put them in as much sun as you have.  They should be ready to cut in a week-10 days.
Think of them like sprouts.  They won't grow back. 
My mother thinks it is extremely important to suggest you cut them into a salad spinner and spin them in the wash water.  She was stunned when she saw me use this method.  It does save tons of time washing them.
I know there are a lot of questions about this and I'm happy to answer them!  Just leave them in the comments below.
Thanks for finding me, plant junkies!  And wanna-bees!  Great to see your page views! I'd love to see your microgreens! 

Here is the video tutorial as well:

 

Those Arugula Seeds I Gave You...

If you were lucky enough to run into one of us at a plant show this year, or the dermatologist, or the kids' school or gymnastics...
You are probably in possession of some arugula seeds.

Thank you for following the directions to get here!  Now what do you do?

The arugula seeds don't have to be buried, but a thin layer to cover the seeds will make the germination more consistent.  They can go in the garden or in a container.  This plant has a tap root, so they can stay close.  You will want o transplant or thin them to one plant every 3-4 inches if you are going to grow them to head size.

Arugula seeds will germinate in as little as half a day.  If it's cold they could take as long as a couple weeks, but the average is 3 days.  They have kidney-shaped seedling leaves and then form their long oval leaves with the deeply serrated sides that look similar to pansy leaves.

According to the Georgia Organics planting calendar, arugula can be grown in Georgia all year: 
http://georgiaorga.web707.discountasp.net/plantingcalendar.pdf

You can eat them raw or cooked or substitute them for spinach in any recipe.  They have a mildly nutty flavor with a little spicy bite at the end.  This is diminished considerably when arugula is cooked.

The favorite recipe at our house is "Arugula Noodles."  Another invention of mine, it's really just a variation on a theme:
Saute` chopped onion in butter
Throw in coarsly chopped arugula
Toss quickly in pan.  Arugula should turn bright green but not wilt.
Toss with noodles.  YUM!

I had a report back today that some of the seeds have been planted and are growing already!  Everybody post a picture of your arugula and what you did with it!!

Secret to Cilantro

Takes a special touch to grow cilantro.  Not a talent, just a touch, so anyone can learn it!  The farther you read, the more you will learn!

Cute wittle baby cilantro.

It starts with an understanding of the plant, where it came from and how it grows.  Plants will grow better for you if you listen to their stories and then care for them when they are screaming and let them alone if they need time to themselves.

Cilantro is in the carrot family.  This tells you that it has a tap root - like a carrot.  If I hadn't told you, you could still identify it as a tap root because all the leaves come out of the center like a dandelion.  It won't need a huge container or wide spacing, but maybe some depth.  Since it is a carrot, butterflies might lay eggs on it, but they like parsley and fennel batter. 

Ready to eat!

Cilantro is soft and vibrant green.  This almost always means it grows quickly and needs medium water and medium light conditions.  

Don't worry about what it says on the tag unless you live in Michigan.  The big tag printers are in Michigan.  Michigan is so far North and the summers are so short, everything needs full sun there.  I live in the Southeast.  It's hot and humid in the summer and we have hurricanes.  Everything's a trade-off.

Quick, eat it! Starting to bolt!

It is an annual.  It has one life cycle and dies.  That life cycle ends when it reproduces. Thank goodness humans aren't annuals!!

Those are some regular plant things you should be able to figure out about any plant.  Here are the secrets to cilantro:

In the South, cilantro is a cold-weather annual.  I made that term up but I think it explains a lot.  It won't make it through the hot Southern summer.  It won't.  No, not even in the shade.  No, it won't grow in the house.  If you want to get enough cilantro to cook with, it will have to be done outside and timing is crucial.  

One of my customers was a chef.  He told me once that when he is in a hurry at the restaurant and he opens the refrigerator, he can tell the cilantro from the flat parsley in an instant because the cilantro bundle has roots.  Another clue.  

Here come the flowers!

Commercial growers don't try to harvest and regrow cilantro.  To get a lot of it, they grow it to full size and pull it up.  I don't expect you to do that at home and if you did you would find out really quickly that you don't use as much cilantro as you thought!  It's just something to keep in mind as you think of your growing conditions, when and where to plant the cilantro.

Here's the final test:  Are you getting flowers and seeds?  Since this plant is an annual, if you are keeping it alive and healthy through it's entire life cycle, it should die after it has made seeds.  If you never get as far as the big stalk in the center and the pretty, lacy white flowers, then you need to self-examine. However, all the pictures on this page were taken the same day, so obviously age has something to do with bolting too.

If you are getting flowers and seeds then you are doing it right!! :)

A few things will make it bolt (go to seed) more quickly:

If it is too crowded, it will bolt sooner.  That won't be an issue if you buy plants or pull them and use them.

Heat will make it bolt sooner.  Bummer eh?  If you plant cilantro in the fall, it will often grow all winter. Cut the outside leaves and use them.  Freeze it.  Dry it.  From about mid-September until Mid-May, it should continue to grow.

You can use the leaves even after it has sent up the stalk.  The seeds can also be used and are often called corriander.  In some areas the two names are interchangeable.  The common names of many plants change with geography.

If you want to grow gobs of it, start from seeds and read my posts about starting seeds and growing cilantro from seeds.  ;)

I think most of you will see yourselves in this cycle someplace and you will have better luck this time!

Any questions? 

Timing Your Garden Plants

It is NEVER too late!

I have heard so many people lately worried that they have missed the season.  "It's too late for...(fill in this blank.)"  It's not.  It's not too late to go back to college, start saving for retirement or to get in shape either.  You may not have the first tomato on the block, but it's no too late!  

Gardening should be fun and rewarding, not a race.  Truth is, if you get those tomato plants started in December and transplanted in February and spend twice what they would cost you to buy protecting them with every imaginable contraption to stave off the cold, you wouldn't be that far ahead!  Unless you have buried a soil heater in your garden, they are not going to grow much when it is cold.

At my garden center the gold standard of success was (and is) basil.  We would struggle with it all winter to have some in stock.  One of the die-hard rules for our system was to write the planting or most recent transplant date on the back of the tag when they are handled.  We would plant it in December and work hard to get some size on it by February.  Basil planted in March took three weeks from seed to finish in the hot greenhouse. Don't expect this at home unless you have a greenhouse and keep it hot.  My point is: early doesn't give you much of an edge.  When the sun gets at the right angle and the heat comes, things just click.

Furthermore, IT IS ALWAYS TIME TO PLANT SOMETHING.  Georgia Organics has a neat calendar that will help if you want to know which plants will thrive if planted now: 

http://gostaging.digitaltoolfactory.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/plantingcalendar.pdf

I love this chart!  I have it laminated in the kitchen of the farmhouse!

Keep in mind, if we have a cold Winter and Spring, the cold weather section would stretch out farther.  If we skip Spring and jump straight to Summer, the hot weather section will start a little earlier.  That is the gambling game of Spring that makes some gardeners and farmers feel inadequate.  

Let. It. Go.

On big commercial farms they do plant things before the frost date and try to cover them when they are wrong.  But they don't linger over mistakes.  They buy new plants and replant if the stuff gets killed.  They have to.  You need to do the same.

And remember: if the greenhouse gardener is ahead of you on tomatoes, it doesn't matter.  When the soil temperature gets over 65, the tomatoes are all going to grow!

Feel better; Eat Real, Recognizable, Whole Food!

Eating food in the form it was created.  Enough can't be said about how important this is.  Your Chi can't be centered, your work/family life balanced, your stress leveled while you are eating Cheetos. Doritos are tasty and remain in my diet, but they are not a life-sustaining food.  You won't wake up feeling better the next day.  

To feel better, you need real, unprocessed, recognizable food.

An old farmer was having breakfast at our house when I young.  I looked at his plate and immediately grew concerned.  "That's an awful lot of cholesterol.  You shouldn't eat that."  He explained when he was a kid, doctors told pregnant women to avoid calcium.  They said it would cause elephant-man disease.  And he assured me that before he died, the doctors would change their recommendations about cholesterol.  He was old in 1987, but just died in 2010.  Long before he died, the recommendations changed.

I keep that advice handy.  It is my litmus test when my friends start espousing vegetarian, vegan, no-fat, no salt, gluten-free, all-kinds-of-other diets.  There is a season and a time for everything.

One of those friends clued me into this Facebook page that I love:
Nutrition on a Budget
https://www.facebook.com/NutritionOnaBudget
Great recipes and practical money-saving, food-preserving ideas.

Another resource to get you rolling is 100 Days of Real Food:
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
Great links to meal planning and recipes to get more vegetables into your diet.

My idea of healthy food is primitive.  In my food world, wheat grows from the ground and is therefore allowed in my diet.  Dairy is naturally occurring and I use it.   
As a farmer, I believe in locally grown produce, grown by least-harmful practices (not necessarily organic) and processed minimally.  Since I am not interested in boiling jars AND cooking the contents, that produce is usually frozen.  A bumper crop of pumpkins led to a new food staple for our family! There are cheers when the pumpkin cookies or pumpkin pancakes are ready.  That never would have happened if I wasn't forced out of my grocery comfort zone by eating local, seasonal produce. 

When I was a nanny, I packed the girls' lunches.  We called out each food group to be sure we had them all.  Then we got to the Cheetos.  I thought maybe a cheese, but a look at the ingredients set me straight.  Cheetos are a bread.  Remember that old adage about price?  If you have to ask...
If you can't recognize what your food is...

Fast forward 20 years and my, how things have changed!  

Technology is creating a new world order.  I believe the computer models for economics will soon show a hot spot of unsustainability.  It will revolve around preventable diseases like anemia and diabetes.  It will show up in the economic models because as a country and a world, we can't afford these excesses.  The scientists will work on studies for years and come to the conclusion that the food we eat must be in the form it was intended.  No more egg replacers and fake sour cream. 

Just eat the eggs.  That is the form they were made in.  That is the way they should be eaten.

Growing Plants Cheaply

You can use grocery money on plants if you buy vegetables!  It saves money in the end.  The garden produce is a level of delicious rarely found in stores.  You haven't lived fully until you've eaten a vine-ripe garden tomato.  Few things reduce stress like lettuce seeds that sprout in two days.

I want to live fully.  I appreciate wonderful food, great architecture, beautiful landscapes and skylines and captivating aromas.  

I want to live life fully, but cheaply.   

Gardening has the perfect balance.  It provides a healthy outdoor activity, exercise, sunshine and the high-end food ingredients that have become my unforgiving standard.  Without the massive amounts of basil we grow each summer, we would have to sacrifice a lot or not keep my son in fresh pesto!  Life would be hard.

We grow and harvest about a pound of basil a week, from to containers on the patio alone! 

Of coarse, I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on gardening supplies either.

It would be money well spent - like paying for a gym membership but you get exercise AND great food.  I still don't want spend much.  Cheap.  I do spend money on other things that I could be cheaper about:  I don't change my own oil. 

But gardening is an affordable hobby.  With a little planning, you can replace a big part of your purchased groceries with garden produce.  Here's how:

- Make a list of the foods you cook most.  Are there any ingredients you could grow?  Even if you don't have experience, there are tons of resources to walk you through your gardening experience.  Don't be afraid to branch out. (HA! I'm funny.)  Successful gardeners didn't learn at Hogwarts.  Get in touch with your caveman side and do what seems right!

- What vegetables will your family eat?  Since they won't all have the same growing  season,  you don't have to fit them all in at once.  Smaller garden; Less work.

 - Some things can be stored easily, like garlic or carrots.  Fresh, ripe tomatoes are a gourmet treat, but I don't can tomatoes.  They tip the scale.  Good, affordable ones are easily available in cans.  But canning has it's place!  My standard Xmas list is cayenne, garlic, dill-pickled beans.  Realistically decide what you will have time for and concentrate on that.

Some plants have a higher weighted average than others.  Seize growing and propagation traits to optimize your wallet.  Lettuce for  instance has a tap root.  The roots don't need to spread so it can be grown more thickly than other veggies.  This approach backfires if you don't harvest it regularly.  Plants that are crowded rot.

Tomatoes root along the stem.  Plant any broken pieces in a warm, sheltered place and they will become more plants!  Look for bedding plants with more than one in the container.  Because they root so well, they can be pulled apart and planted separately.

Leftover basil or rosemary that didn't make it into the meal will often root if you put it in water in a clear glass in a bright window.

Starting plants form seeds is the ultimate money saver.  See my two previous posts on tips to make it fast and successful:  
6 Steps to Starting Seeds and Tips From a Pro
Tips From a Pro for Hard To Start Seeds (or untalented gardeners)

Once the ground warms up, seedlings usually catch up with purchased bedding plants.

Soil amendments are vital to the success of your garden.  Buy them if you have to, but don't overlook your immediate area.  As long as your yard is not treated with weed killer and pesticide, use the grass clippings!  Fallen leaves are like super-food to plants!  If your neighbor has a big tree, offer to rake the leaves and use those.
 
If you are going to spend money on the garden, soil amendments are your best investment!

This blog is one of the resources you can use to navigate through your gardening experience!  Please post your questions in the comments below.  I will answer every one of them!

How to Plant a Tomato Plant for Crazy Fast Growth!

If you don't know how to plant a tomato, you are not alone.  If I had a dollar for every person I've explained it to...I'd have a party!

Tomatoes root along their stems.  This makes planting them a little different from most plants.  It won't hurt them to plant them the same way you plant peppers or even trees, but you will get crazy fast results if you plant the tomatoes in the special tomato way.

The biggest difference is to bury them deep.  I've seen recommendations to bury 80-90% of the plant.  I can't bring myself to do that.  I'm a 75%er.

You can dig a deep hole and fill it with compost, or you can dig a trench and lay the plant's trunk in it.  I dig the hole.  It is more time consuming, but when I have used the trench method, my plants dried out too often.  I am also a low-maintenance gardener.

If you are a low maintenance reader and would rather watch this:
  
After you dig the hole and put some tasty plant treat in the bottom, set your plant in.  Measure and tinker with the depth until you have enough soil under it to bring it to the level you are comfortable burying.

Take it out of the pot and pinch off any leaves that will be below the soil line.  A healthy plant will have white roots.  Tomato leaves are toxic so you can save them to use as a pesticide or just toss them on the ground.

Set the tomato plant into the hole and fill it 1/3 way with soil.  Sprinkle some granular fertilizer and fill another third.  Add some crushed egg shells or some type of calcium to prevent blossom-end rot.  Sprinkle fertilizer and fill to the top!

If you live in the hot zone, in sandy soil or just don't want to spend your summer weeding your garden, lay 5 layers of newspaper around the base and cover it with grass clippings.  USE UNTREATED GRASS CLIPPINGS!  Just sayin'

Thanks for making it to the sight!
If your plant turns yellow, it needs fertilizer.  Water it when it wilts.  Post any questions and I will answer them!