Microgreens have been a fashionable feature of modern kitchens over the last few years. Although they're sometimes dismissed as "tweezer food," popular with chefs who value finicky presentation over taste, that's a grossly unfair generalization
These baby shoots of ordinary herbs and vegetables are harvested well before maturity and pack a huge amount of flavor into a tiny product. Here are five excellent reasons why any green-thumbed food lover should consider growing microgreens and shoots at home.
1) Easy to Grow
It's hard to think of an easier way of growing something edible. Simply scatter the seeds into a little seed compost, dampen the surface, and keep in a sunny spot until the seeds sprout and baby plants form. There's no particular skill or experience required to achieve delicious results.
2) Food from Tiny Spaces
With microgreens, you can grow a worthwhile harvest in a tiny space. A small container on any sunny windowsill or countertop will be fine. Your harvest won't feed the world, but you can get an interesting plateful no matter how little space you have available.
3) Speedy Results
Depending on the type of seed you choose, you'll get harvestable results within a week or two of sowing. It's easy to keep a rotation going so you always have a crop on hand, ready to perk up your salads or sandwiches.
4) Variety and Interest
Microgreens are ultra-trendy at the moment, so you may see them for sale in more adventurous grocery stores. However, even if you can find them, the range is usually limited. When you grow your own microgreens you can experiment with a whole world of edible shoots, each with their own unique qualities. So long as a plant is edible from root to tip when grown to maturity, you can use its seeds for microgreens.
5) Delicious Tastes
Lastly, microgreens have a wonderfully delicate flavor you won't find in many mature plants. Imagine the essence of a pod of peas concentrated into a couple of leaves, or the aroma of a sprig of basil condensed into a teaspoon or two of greenery. With microgreens, a very little goes a long, long way.
You don't need to be a dedicated vegetable gardener with lots of space to enjoy eating your own produce. Microgreens let you turn an old container, a few leftover seeds, and a sunny windowsill into a tiny but productive source of delicious home-grown food.
