By Kelly Allsup
Keeping with the spirit of inside gardening, growing microgreens can be just as tasty as herbs but can be even easier to grow, with added benefits. Microgreens (micro-vegetables or micro-herbs or tiny greens) refers to the stage of growth between baby greens and sprouts. These tiny greens are normally harvested 10-14 days after planting and have fully spread leaves ready to add color, crunch and nutrients to your winter meals. The most popular varieties used by cooks add a sweet or spicy crunch include vegetable like cabbage, radish, beet, kale, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, popcorn, carrot, pea, broccoli, onion, arugula, celery, and, of course, herbs.
Microgreens are safer to grow than infamous sprouts. Starting in the 2000s, all raw sprouts became infamous for posing a risk of becoming a source of food-borne illnesses like salmonella or E. coli. This causes nutrition specialists like University of Illinois Extension adviser Jenna Smith to strongly discourage eating sprouts raw because of the potential health risks and horticulturists like me to adopt different growing practices to increase food safety. Rather than growing sprouts, grow these tiny greens; they do not pose the same risks. They are harvested when these risks are not present.
Another factor making microgreens safer than sprouts is the tiny greens use soil and sunlight to produce a plant rather than germinated seeds rinsed in water. It is always best to use good agricultural practices in food gardening to prevent contamination, like using seeds from reputable company and sterilizing pots with a 10 percent bleach solution. Many past contaminations of sprouts can be linked to seed sources or poor sterilization practices.