Microgreens all winter long

When my outdoor harvest was completed late last fall and my last collard plant was composted, I felt a sense of loss--the cold winter was really on its way--and I immediately started missing all the fresh greens from my garden. Luckily I had discovered a fantastic resource called The Urban Farm Podcast. I love this podcast and have listened weekly all winter, storing ideas in my brain for how to improve and expand my urban farm.

One of the guests on the podcast around the darkest time of the winter was Peter Burke, who wrote a book called Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening on how to grow microgreens easily indoors all year long. I had seen local microgreens in the grocery store for around $5 for a pint. If I could grow my own, it would not only give us healthy winter food, it would be a way to keep my garden going, so it was worth a try. All I needed was a window sill, seeds, seed starting soil mix, newspaper, and some aluminum bread pans.



I found the seeds at my local garden store, and the brand I purchased has instructions inside the seed packets. They have a great selection of different varieties at this store, so I was able to try a lot of different options. My favorite turned out to be sunflower for general salad use, though the Savory Mix (a mix of radish, chard, mustard, cabbage, etc.) is very good on my Microgreen Caprese Salad:



The directions I follow are very simple. Mr. Burke's book and the seed packets gives additional information.

1) Soak seeds in a small cup of water for a few hours (I usually do this for just 2-4 hours). Start with two tablespoons of the smaller seeds or three tablespoons of sunflower seeds. Adjust for your next planting based on how dense your greens were.

2) Fill bread pan 2-3 inches deep with seed starting mix and water until it feels like a damp sponge.

3) After soaking, spread seeds over moist soil in a single layer. The seeds should be very crowded.

4) Cut a few sheets of newspaper to fit your pan. Get these wet and lay on top of the seeds. (I tried using a layer of dry soil over the seeds, and it creates very dirty microgreens, so this step is very important!).

5) You can then put the bread pan in the dark or in the window (though it will dry out faster in the window). Either way, keep the newspaper moist until the sprouts start to push the newspaper up.

6) Once the cotyledons have emerged, discard the newspaper, make sure the pan is in your sunniest location, and keep it moist.

7) To harvest, use scissors and cut the greens close to the soil. I let mine get 2-4 inches tall (6-10 days after planting), but I harvest them before they get their first true leaves. Bonus: you can then compost the soil and roots.

8) Microgreens can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days (don't wash them before storing, however).

Some money saving tips:

• I found the aluminum bread pans at the dollar store (3 for $1).
• Because my family eats so many sunflower microgreens (I start a new tray almost daily so we can have a salad for dinner) I bought organic sunflower birdseed instead of the more expensive packets of human seeds. I save a ton of money and then I can spend more on the non-sunflower microgreen seed mixes. Just don't tell your friends you're feeding them bird seed.
• Some of the instructions I've seen on the web mention using fertilizer. I don't use fertilizer.
• Also, many of the web instructions talk about "bright light" in your sunny window. In Wisconsin we don't have very sunny winters, and the sun is low in the sky even on the brightest days, and my microgreens do just fine.

I ran right out after the podcast and started microgreen farming that day, so don't be afraid to experiment first and learn the intricacies later!

My birdseed salad right before harvest: