Winter Gardening: Microgreen Seed Sprouts

I was killing some time on-line and typed in 'mason jar accessories'... Sprouting lids popped up and I thought that might be a fun little experiment, so I ordered them:@) Do you need a specialty lid? No. Folks have been sprouting seeds forever simply using cheesecloth, a coffee filter, or by cutting circles from a cheap $1 splatter screen that they sell for frying. The first thing I tried was a microgreens mix from Dollar Tree. The packet had about a half Tblsp of seeds in it. I used a quart jar, you could easily use a pint jar, or even a recycled peanut butter jar... Oh, btw, that gorgeous spinach wintered over in my raised bed garden-yep!

What I started with:

Observation: I'm not fond of the large openings in these lids. Seeds do fall out, all small would be best.

The process:

• Day 1: Add seeds to clean jar, fill jar 1/3 to 1/2 with cool water. Add lid, place in a cool, dark spot for 8 hours or overnight.
• Day 2: Pour off water. Add fresh water, gently swirl, drain. Do that twice, turning jar so the seeds 'stick' to the sides of the jar. Place jar inside bowl at about 45 degree angle. If you have sprouting lids, the jar can be turned upside down as the lid has bumps to raise it off plate for drainage. Add to cool, dark spot.
• Day 3-until big enough to eat: Repeat Day 2.
• When ready to eat: Rinse, drain, and this time put jar in a sunny window so the sprouts green-up before eating.
• Leftover sprouts: Store covered in refrigerator.

After soaking for 7-8 hours,

draining and sitting upside down 24 hours...

Little sprouts:@)

After another 24 hours:

I'll spare you from having to watch, well, sprouts grow:@) I started soaking my seeds at 11 AM Sunday, and the sprouts were put into the window 7 AM Friday morning to green up for a few hours, and eaten with lunch. When it comes to growing things, this is a satisfying project, and because it grows so quickly, a fun one to do with the kids. There are plenty of videos on-line and it's perfect as we're waiting for the weather to warm up enough to get outside and start working in the garden.

If this is something you'd like to try, I do suggest buying seeds on-line in bulk specifically for sprouting. And you should use 1-3 Tblsp per jar to get enough greens to make it worthwhile.

Let's try something new, and

Have a Happy Day:@)