Indoor garden - Day 8

I harvested half of the wheatgrass last night to make juice, and cut buckwheat and sunflower for sandwiches today. The wheatgrass was surprisingly sweet. Our broccoli and kale sprouts are under the lights for the first time today. We are still waiting for the parsley, cabbage and another variety of broccoli to appear. The "green" smoothie this morning was made with water, frozen blueberries, chard and a squirt of agave.

Indoor garden - Day 5

We will be harvesting soon...The wheatgrass will be juiced and used in smoothies. The sunflowers and buckwheat will likely end up in smoothies as well.

Peas planted

Yesterday, youngest daughter and I planted peas even though the soil was still frozen in spots. We also planted broccoli, kale, parsley and cabbage seeds in vermiculite. All of these seeds were soaked and sprouted for 12 hours before planting.

Sunflowers - Day 2

The sunflower roots are plainly visible at the beginning of day two in the trays.

Indoor garden trays

After soaking and sprouting in jars for 24 hours, we planted the seeds in small cafeteria trays (you can find them on Amazon). Here is a view of the seeds after being "planted". The extra tray that is leaning up behind the seeds will be used to cover them for the first three days as they take root. The seeds are spritzed with a spray bottle once or twice day until the root gets established.

Last night, I organized my garden seeds into five categories:
1) Start indoors in February/March (parsley, broccoli, cabbage, kale)
2) Sow outside as early as soil can be worked (peas)
3) Start indoors in late March/April (tomatoes, peppers, basil, lettuce)
4) Sow outside around last frost (carrots, beets, lettuce)
5) Sow outside when soil has warmed (squash, melon, beans, chard)

Indoor gardening and green smoothies

We continue to sprout alfalfa and mung beans in jars about once a week, but we have also been experimenting with green smoothies and this was the perfect impetus to start indoor garden trays to provide more low-cost greens. In case you haven't heard of green smoothies, they are composed of fresh fruit and greens like spinach, kale, or chard. The fruit causes the greens to become surprisingly palatable. I never thought that I would enjoy eating greens so much!

Pictured are jars of unhulled buckwheat, soft wheat berries, and unhulled sunflower seeds soaking for twelve hours. Once they are finished soaking, I will sprout them in the jars for another twelve hours, then plant them in 10" x 14" cafeteria trays filled with Mel's Mix (equal parts compost, peat moss, and vermiculite). I will post new pictures as the experiment continues.

This morning, I made a green smoothie with an apple, several strawberries, cranberry juice concentrate, a handful of soaked almonds, a banana, a bunch of spinach and a dash of agave nectar and vanilla. It was very good, both daughters considered it a hit.