Kids Go Gardening - space food!
Imagine if you went to Mars or the Moon in a spaceship. What would you eat to stay healthy? Astronauts are discovering all sorts of ways to grow food so they don’t have to go without fresh leafy greens in outer space.
Microgreens are especially good for growing in spaceship (or on your kitchen bench) because they grow fast and they don’t take much room. The best thing is that these tiny wee plants are packed full of nutrients.
So what’s a microgreen? Basically it’s a baby vege plant just one stage bigger than a sprout. It might be the beginnings of a carrot, a radish or a cabbage - pretty much any vege or herb plant can be a microgreen.
Microgreens are cute, crunchy and fun to grow!
How to grow microgreens
You will need:
- A shallow container with drainage holes and a plate underneath to catch the drips
- Seed raising mix
- Seeds of carrots, broccoli, radish and lettuce, or whatever you'd like to try
- A mist spray bottle (an old bathroom cleaner spray bottle is fine but be sure to clean it out first)
- Fill your container with seed raising mix 2-4cm deep.
- Water gently then leave it to drain for a few minutes.
- Sprinkle seeds over top of the mix.
- Place them in a warm, sheltered spot with plenty of light.
- Check each morning and afternoon and use a mist spray bottle to water when the seed raising mix starts to look a little dry, keeping it moist but not soaking wet.
- Eat your microgreens when they are 3-5cm tall. Snip them with sharp scissors.
TIP: Sow some seed every week so you will never run out of microgreens!
Science Pro
What happens to seedlings that don’t get enough light? Find two small shallow containers and line them with layers of paper towel. Water enough to wet the paper towel and then sow some seeds. Put your seeds in a warm place until they are growing and then cover one lot of seeds to block out the light. Keep the other in bright light. Leave them both in the warm place to grow. See what happens.
TIP: Add microgreens to your favourite pizza or burger.
1-Jul-2021
Easy to grow micorgreens are delicious on pizza and in sandwiches
In the Garden
