I have decided that this is not only the Winter of Soups, but also the Winter of Salads. But how do you eat salad all winter in Saskatchewan? There are basically two options. I could buy lettuce in plastic bags that come from Arizona or Mexico, or I could tweak my definition of salad. The only salads I’ve ever really known have contained lettuce . . . but what if they didn’t have to contain lettuce? That opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
Enter sprouts and micro greens.
Will has been sprout farming in the kitchen for a few years now, but I never really wanted anything to do with them. Until now. I have found they make a delicious bed for my salads of cucumbers, tomatoes, leeks, and bocconcini. I drizzle them with olive oil and white wine vinegar, then I add a touch of ground pepper and a dash of salt, and let them marinate for about 10 minutes. Delicious.
The micro greens are a bloody miracle. They barely need any light to grow, they’re ready in about ten days, and they’re delicious fresh or sautéed. So far we’ve tried pea shoots, beets, broccoli, and black oil sunflower. The pea shoots are my fave. I sauté them with garlic, butter and a bit of fresh ginger. Amaze-balls.
Under the category of “other things,” I’m pleased as punch to let y’all know that Will and I are currently in the process of becoming foster parents! I haven’t mentioned this before on the blog because, well, there’s this fear in the back of my mind that we won’t get approved or something, and then I’ll have to tell everyone that I officially would make a bad parent. But we are now half way through the process, and it looks like we’ll have our home open by mid-February, if everything goes according to plan (which it may not; anything goes when dealing with the government). Anyway, just wanted to make the announcement because I’ll probably be blogging a lot about foster parenting in the coming months.
That’s all for now, folks! Have a great week!
It’s exactly people like you two that these children need, caring, fun, and open-minded, and clever. I hope all goes well getting started.
Thanks, Dan! We’re about halfway through all the official training and home studies. It’s a pretty long process to get licensed – we started this in April!
Do you grow the micro greens in soil? I grow sprouts, but I’ve never done the greens.
Right now, we are growing them in soil. There are other mediums to grow in, but soil is the cheapest. There’s really no way to re-use the soil after we harvest them, so we just end up tossing it in the compost. It becomes very root bound and full of seed shells. We tried giving the trays to the chickens, thinking they would clean them up, but the weren’t interested. Lazy girls.
Congrats on the foster parenting!
Thank you! We are very excited about it 🙂