The weather up here has been finicky: the daffodils are blooming, there was a brief week of 70 degree weather, and suddenly it is cold enough to break out the winter (spring) coats again. We figured why wait on the weather to start planting some greens? This means Alfalfa Sprouts! These plants are magical: 5 days, a little water, and some sunlight later, we’ve seen these guys go from a thin layer of seeds to a jar full of sprouts. 
And all of this within the confines of our dorm room/ kitchen window. Here’s how!
1. Fill the bottom of a jar with alfalfa seeds, maybe a centimeter deep, depending on the size of the jar. (seeds from the wonderful Gardening Store in North Benn.)
2. Fit a mesh screen (Maintenance kindly donated some old window screen to our sprout-efforts) over the lid of the jar, fine enough so that the seeds don’t fall out but wide enough to drain out the water well and avoid mold.
3. Rinse and drain twice a day! For the first couple days keep in the dark but then okay to put in a sunny window.
4. 5 or 6 days later, when the sprouts are 4 or 5 cm long they are ready! Eat. In sandwiches. Or wraps, or salads. Or straight from the jar. They are delicious. If spring and sunlight had a taste, this would be the one. Repeat!
Sprout Jars in our window, soaking up some sun
Rinsing out the sprouts
Kale seedlings in the window as well? Oui Oui!
1. Fish a couple of cans out of the recycling bin
2. Punch holes in the bottom of the can, cut off the tops of the cans and fold over.
3. Soil, Kale, Sunlight, Water 2X a day
4. 3 or 4 days later, Kale Seedlings!
So here’s to sunny days and widow side gardens! Love (and sprout sandwiches), The Bennington Sustainable Food Project
0 comments:
Post a Comment