In November, 2020 I started growing microgreens. It’s been hit or miss – mostly because I didn’t have a great place to do it. The sun room works great when the weather is mild. In the summer, it’s too hot. In the winter it’s too cold. I can also use the greenhouse at certain times of the year but, for the most part, I’ve been doing it in front of a sunny window and it’s been one or two 10 x 10″ trays at a time. Now, I have room for about 20 – 10″ x 20″ trays. I won’t be doing that much at one time because we can’t eat them that fast.
I had not even been asking for a better setup. Vince was watching a video the other day and he saw something that caught his attention. To make a long story short (which I’ve never done in the past so why am I doing it now?), we bought another shelf unit, cleaned out the large pantry downstairs, set the shelf unit up in there, Vince installed two grow lights under each shelf and changed out the florescent lights in the pantry for high intensity LED lights that are about the same as grow lights.
The inquisitive puppies had to check it out as soon as we got it all set up.
I’ll be able to get better pictures once I have all the shelves loaded and once things are growing.
There are five shelves that are maybe 10″ apart and the bottom shelf (where Oscar is looking) is taller from the shelf to the light. Each shelf has two grow light tubes above it and each light has it’s own on/off switch so if I have something on only one shelf, I don’t have to have all the lights on.
This is a dream setup for me for microgreens. It’s a fairly tight space with that shelf in there. That room is maybe 12′ x 12′ and it has built in heavy duty thick wood shelves around three sides. The folks who built the house put all those in there and they are spaced for large Rubbermaid totes. You can see my storage rack for store bought cans of food and the freeze dryer.
This is also going to be great for starting seeds for the garden. We have two small shelves in the downstairs garage where I have grow lights but this time of year when there are at least 100 seeds started, I’m putting them in the greenhouse every morning and bringing them inside the garage every night. I’ll be able to do most of this on this shelf in the pantry next year. I’ll still probably take some of the bigger plants up to the sun room once the nights start staying above 50 degrees.
For the microgreens, I’ve started the following:
- Basic Salad Mix
- Basil (Anise)
- Broccoli
- Cantaloupe
- Dun Peas
I have not grown the Dun Peas before and I think, next to the basil, I’m most excited about the peas.
Most all of my seeds and supplies were purchased from True Leaf Market. I have purchased from them, along with a couple other places, for several years and always been happy with them.
I’m really excited about this new setup and will keep you posted.
Sheryl says
..Uuum…I haven’t gotten on that band wagon yet. I bought some a few weeks ago at our local farmers market and just didn’t care for them. I know they’re good for me but I’d have to figure out how to make myself eat them first. 🙂
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Oh, goodness . . some of them I could eat more than I could ever grow. I love the basil in tomato soup and on sandwiches. I eat the cilantro sprouts on everything – eggs, omelettes, sandwiches. I don’t think I’ve had any that I didn’t like but there are a whole lot of them I haven’t tried yet.
Pat Anderson says
I think I can honestly say that you are the only person I know who eats microgreens, let alone grows them. It does sound like something my father would have called “rabbit food.” Of course, it would be gourmet rabbit food!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I think you’d be surprised how many people eat them. There’s a boot at our farmers’ market that sells them and they always sell out. I love them but I’m also the one eating raw peas, asparagus and okra out of the garden. Even Oscar has learned to love raw asparagus and as soon as I give him one piece, he’ll start looking for them when we go out and I have to pay attention or he’ll eat all of them and we’ll get none. I’ll have to see if he likes microgreens too.
Rebecca L says
The ways you use them sound very good! Basil and cilantro are so delicate, I’ve always thought that if you grew them, you’d need them ready at the right time!
I may have had microgreens in an upscale restaurant, but can’t remember. I was going to remark on the price of broccoli micros in a store, but remembered it was sprouts…which reminds me: are you growing any sprouts these days?
Microgreens, sprouts…they sound like things that would not freeze-dry nor can well, so you want to have a fresh supply whenever possible. Bon apetit!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We do grow sprouts. We always have four or five jars of sprouts growing. I do not try to freeze dry them but I think if I did, I would put them through the blender and make a powder to use in smoothies, soups and gravies. I believe at least some of the nutritional benefit would still be there and they might be good to munch on as a snack but I just haven’t done it yet.
Rebecca L says
p.s. One of the ads that came up in the middle of the post was for Closet World. How appropriate that!