Sprouts and Microgreens: Two Easy Ways to Grow Food Indoors

I've written a bit on this blog about how much I enjoy growing sprouts. It gives me something besides houseplants to grow indoors while I'm waiting for seed starting time,? and there is no easier way to grow fresh food indoors.

A close second to sprouts is growing microgreens. You know how you always hear advice to toss your thinnings from the vegetable garden into salads? Well, this is taking that to a whole new level: you're basically growing greens, herbs, and lettuces to harvest when they are still tiny (but bigger than sprouts). They look beautiful on a plate, and you get a quick harvest for very little work: usually ten to fourteen days.

In the article I wrote about growing microgreens, I mention several greens and lettuces that might be added to a microgreens mix. The easiest way, however, is to buy a prepackaged seed mix of microgreen or mesclun. Usually, they are labeled as "spicy," "sweet," or "mild." By trying them out this way, it's easy to learn what you like, and you can eventually start making your own custom mixes based on your tastes. A few seed mixes I like that you may want to try for growing microgreens:

Botanical Interests Chef's Gourmet Spicy Mix, which contains several colorful lettuces, mizuna, endive, and arugula.Renee's Garden Seeds Asian Baby Leaf Mix combines mizuna, mustard, tatsoi, Chinese cabbage, and komatsuna. It has a fairly mild overall flavor, with a bit of kick from the mustard.High Mowing Organic Seed's mesclun mix is a pretty mild combination of lettuces, good for those who don't like spicy or bitter greens.

Do you grow microgreens? What are your favorite greens and lettuces to grow as microgreens?

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Reader Question: Growing Sprouts Indoors

This week's question:

"I've heard that growing sprouts indoors is easy, but then I read about E. coli in sprouts and I wasn't sure if it was safe to try. Can I grow my own sprouts? And how would I do it?"

Growing Sprouts Safely

Any food that you consume raw carries a risk for food-borne illness, and that includes fruits and vegetables. There have been about 30 cases of outbreaks of illnesses due to raw sprouts. Most commonly, the problem is Salmonella or E.coli bacteria. I've been growing and eating raw sprouts for over ten years, and haven't had a single problem. There are many things you can do to help ensure a healthy batch of sprouts:

Look for seeds specifically labeled as "sprouting seeds." These seeds are guaranteed to be pathogen-free.Keep everything clean, clean, clean. Start with a very clean jar, soak the seeds in fresh, clean water, and rinse with clean water. When they've finished sprouting, rinse and dry your sprouts and store them in a clean plastic or glass container in the refrigerator.During the soaking process, keep your sprouts in a cool, dark place. Don't soak your seeds too long. It should take one to three days, tops, for most sprouts. Soaking and rinsing longer than that will increase the likelihood of encountering harmful bacteria.

Sprouts are a tasty, nutritious addition to the diet. If you follow a few simple precautions, there's no need to worry about E. coli or other bacteria. It's very easy to do -- here are simple instructions for growing sprouts in a jar.

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