
How to Grow Micro Greens in 7 Days
I want to grow my own vegetables. I live in a cute apartment with a little communal back patio that doesn’t get much sunlight. Word on the street: sunshine is the magic elixir to growing your own produce so it seem’s I’m outta luck. When I visit Seattle Urban Farm Company one (cloudy) afternoon, Colin McCrate, co-founder of SUFCo, takes me on a tour of the urban farming grounds. He showed this city-fied foodie the accessibility of urban gardening, but you really need sunlight.
I was there to get set up with a micro green growing system (read: 4 trays, seeds and dirt) and I was feeling nervous about the whole endeavor. See, I wasn’t born with the greenest thumb or an excess of patients. I’m more of a big picture kinda gal, so remembering to water plants regularly doesn’t always make the to-do list.
Colin asked if I had a windowsill with lots of sunlight and that I did! He recommended I keep the seeded dirt very moist, which I vowed to do. Although their new home would be indoors, I figured what the heck, let’s see if we can give these micro greens a shot at life. Besides, I had an urban farmer a phone call away.
To my surprise, growing micro greens indoors was a breeze, as long as they got enough water. In seven days I had a prairie of edible greens only seen in this abundance at the farmers market! My friends came over and I snipped greens with the greatest of care, placing a stems in their palms.
“Try it!”
They were understandably impressed and so was I. This foodie’s thumb just got a little green.

Two trays act as the growing system for my micro greens. The top tray has holes for irrigation while the bottom is solid to keep the moisture contained.

I grew two different types of micro greens, Curly Cress (aka Peppergrass) and Scarlet Frills (a mini version of a mustard green). Both were packed with flavor and but the Curly Cress had more of a crunchy texture while the Scarlet Frills were more delicate. Day 1: We spread 2 inches of good quality Cedar Grove dirt in the bottom of the slotted tray, sprinkled 1 1/2 teaspoons of seeds evenly and doused in water. We labeled the seeds so I could taste test different varieties. The trays were then placed next to a window.

Now that I’m flush with sprouts, how to use them? Micro green breakfast tacos of course!