This article appears in the Winter 2021 Nantucket Today magazine.

“People ask me what I do in the winter, when there is no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” – Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby

Winter can be a time of despair for gardeners. To the uninitiated, it is hard to describe how a gardener feels perusing the produce aisles of Stop & Shop in the winter months. California-farmed greens are no substitute for a fresh salad from your own garden. Luckily, there is a way to move your garden indoors during these dark and cold months.

Microgreens are a relatively new culinary trend. You have probably seen them accentuating plates at high-end restaurants, used for both visual appeal and to pack flavor into a dish. Originally, I was reluctant to try growing microgreens because I saw them as impractical and nothing more than an ornamental garnish.

Since that time, however, I have come to appreciate them as food. Fresh microgreens have an exquisite texture that is crisp yet delicate, and the best way I can describe their flavor is supercharged.

Microgreens are similar to sprouts, which most people are familiar with already. The difference between the two is that microgreens are grown in soil and sprouts are germinated in water without the use of soil or a potting mix.

The fact that microgreens are grown in soil opens up a lot more possibilities for crop selection. With sprouts, you need to grow fast-germinating crops, otherwise the seeds will rot in the water. With microgreens, there is a learning curve with each type of crop and some are much harder to grow than others, but with that said, people grow a wide variety of crops as a microgreen, including corn, cilantro, amaranth, nasturtium and any other vegetable you can think of.

Growing your own microgreens, whether in the winter or the summer, gives you access to fresh, nutritious greens all year long. They require very little space and a modest investment of time and money. In the summer months, they can be grown on your deck. In the winter they can be planted and germinated anywhere indoors, and once they’re germinated, all they need is a sunny window.

What you need to grow microgreens

For varieties, I like to grow China Rose from Truleaf and Confetti Mix from Johnny’s. Both are colorful varieties with a lot of red, pink and purple on the leaves and stems.

To prepare your tray, fill it with potting mix and tamp the soil down until you have a smooth and flat surface to work with. This can be done by stacking trays on top of one another or by using a piece of plywood cut out to fit your trays.

Once the soil is tamped down and flat, water the potting mix thoroughly but gently as to not disturb the soil. This will ensure adequate moisture to germinate your seeds. Next, sprinkle the radish seed evenly across the top. This works best if you work methodically from side to side.

I use a small cup and gently shake the seeds out onto the soil. You want to cover your tray with seeds, but not so heavily that seeds are piled onto one another. I weigh out two ounces of seed for this.

If seeding multiple trays, you can stack them three high to ensure even germination. Good soil contact speeds up the germination process and helps you grow a uniform tray. If growing a single tray, you can cover it with a wet paper towel or simply an empty tray with some weight in it. If all goes well, the seeds should be germinated three to four days later and your tray should be ready to harvest about seven days after seeding.

One worthwhile trick for peas is soaking your seed in water prior to planting. This will make the crop germinate faster and more evenly and shorten the time to harvest. I weigh out about 10 ounces of dry seed per tray and soak it in water for eight to 12 hours.

After soaking the seed, strain the water, re-weigh your seed if seeding more than one tray and divide the new weight by the amount of trays to be seeded and plant the same way as described for the radish.

Stack the trays no more than three high. Peas typically take three to five days to fully germinate, at which point un-stack/uncover your trays. Peas normally take seven to nine days from seeding to harvest.

Truth be told, I am still a relative novice when it comes to growing microgreens. The great thing about them, though, is that they grow so fast they provide you with many opportunities to learn from mistakes and make improvements. What other vegetable crop allows 50 opportunities for improvement in a single year? This will help you fine-tune your system until you are growing more greens than you can eat. Best of luck.

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