Microgreens! Day Five

Here is what the original tray of peas looks like at the end of day five:

Some kind of furry mold has developed that I don't like the look of, and I imagine I would like the taste of even less.  Perhaps this experiment should be abandoned.  I'm sure the worms would be glad of a snack.
Trays of peas set up yesterday in my bedroom look altogether more healthy.  Most interesting to me is the effect that covering and weighing down seems to have had.  A tray of exposed peas looks like this:

While a tray of covered and weighted peas looks like this:

Noticeably more peas have sprouted in the two covered trays than in the two uncovered trays.  This is after only one day, note.
The mung beans, also sown yesterday, look like this:

Some shoots already.  This is marvellous.  Both trays were uncovered, but for the sake of science, I have now covered one, and will compare growth over the weekend.
Having an excess of dried peas, I'd left some in the pan, which I'd covered with a chopping board from the kitchen while I was away, and they now look like this:

About as much sprouting has occurred here, in almost total darkness, with a little water, as had occurred in the soil I had left covered and weighted.  I made up a few more smaller trays in some spare mushroom cartons before retiring to bed.

What's happened to the lentils from day three?  Nothing much.

This really is all very interesting.

Day Four / Days Six and Seven

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Thursday Linkdump

I'm away from home until late tonight, itching to know what may or may have not happened to my microgreens.  But that'll have to wait.  In the meantime, here are a few things to explore.

Tweaks

An uninteresting update.  Please feel free to ignore.

Microgreens! Day Four

Boo

Time to step things up a notch.  It's looking like covering the pea shoots with soil was the wrong idea.  We're four days in now, and there's been very little growth over the last 24 hours.  This might be down to other factors, such as growing medium, or whether I applied enough pressure to begin with, or my own needless tweaking and impatience, but in any case, it's time to start experimenting properly.


I've got myself some brand new seed trays and another few batches of peas.  I also noticed that Tesco sell dried mung beans almost as cheaply, so I grabbed a bag of those, too.  I soaked all of these overnight.  This morning, I set up like this:

Hooray

Four trays fit very nicely on top of my bedroom chest of drawers.  Out of curiosity, I've used Wilko's 'dehydrated' compost (it comes in a bag, to which you add water, and the compost then expands - much easier to carry home and cart upstairs) in two of the trays.  In another, I've used a mixture of my own compost and the Wilko stuff; and in the fourth, my own compost.  I tested my own compost the other day, and though it's still very nutrient rich, the pH is quite high too.  The Wilko stuff has tended to have a lower pH, even though it seems pretty light on other nutrients.  So it will might be interesting to observe how this effects growth, if at all.
I've also weighed down two of the trays, and left the other two exposed, to see how much of a difference that makes to germination.  Starting to feel very scientific about all this; it's nice.

A couple of pieces of A4 paper (blank side down - don't want ink leaking into the soil) weighed down by a book should do the trick.

As for the mung beans, these are new, so I've made up two trays and left them exposed for now.  I used a 'half-and-half' mixture of my own compost to the Wilko variety.  All very pleasant.

I'm away overnight, so might not be able to post an update until Friday morning.  Looking forward to it already.  Doesn't mean I won't be blogging about other things, though.  Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?

Day One / Day Two / Day Three / Day Five / Days Six and Seven




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Microgreens! Day Three

No strange dreams last night - and do you know what? I forgot to drink a lot of water before bed. This is further confirmation of my hypothesis: a hydrated brain fuels a healthy subconscious. Woke up this morning feeling average.

Limited activity to be seen in the tray of peas, to which I also gave a quick spray of water for good measure. A commenter on Facebook suggested that black bin bags are sometimes treated with chemicals to prevent molds and smells, which seems like the sort of thing that is probably true. This is my very first microgreens experiment, and there are a lot of helpful and friendly experts out there, from whom I have much to learn.

Here is what the peas look like on the morning of day three:

A few more sprouts, but nothing to really get excited about. After yesterday I was fantasising how they might have fully grown into harvestable shoots overnight. Here in reality, no such luck.

Anyway, as I was eating I had a little brain wave (thanks again, water, or maybe it was the coffee) that I thought I'd share with you here.

I've had a stash of these plastic containers for a while, the kind that mushrooms are sold in at the supermarket, wrapped in more plastic and which I am, therefore, trying to avoid.  One I've already used for my first little succulent landscape but there's ten or so others that could use a good upcycling.  I noticed among the lentils and kale I was munching upon (1000 vegan points) that some of the lentils had started to sprout.

This might indicate that a little moisture has made its was into the sack - probably something I should keep an eye on, but it reminded me at just the right time, thank Providence that lentils are legumes, and that legumes are basically seeds, and that seeds, as we already know, grow.  Surely there is microgreen potential here?

Well, there is.  A quick hop over to YouTube to make sure; and of course, people are sprouting lentils all over the place.  This video completed the idea.

I took a shallower tray and poked some holes in it, and placed it inside a deeper one.  Then I took a cup of lentils, and poured some water over them.  The water drained through the lentils and into container below.  Presto: a handy little hydroponic lentil sprouter.  I've covered it with an old pillow case and left it in my bedroom.  Looking forward to seeing what comes of that.  Another update tomorrow.  (Day one is here, and day two is here).

UPDATE: Day Four is here.

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Composting Your Own Hair

I cut my own hair the other day.  True story.  What's a budding zero-waster to do?  

Well, throw it on the compost, of course.  It turns out this is a completely normal thing to do.  There's pages on this very subject in all the places you might expect: Mother Earth News, Treehugger, Science Daily, GardenWeb and so on.  Doing a bit of googling brought threw up this curious case from 2010, of a barber in Blackburn who had been composting his customers' hair for 40 years, being told to stop it, and required to pay £100 for the privilege of having it dumped in a landfill instead.  Such is the world we live in.

Fact is, hair is full of nutrients and as basically a waste product as far as your body is concerned, however much money you may spend on shaping and styling it (my advice: don't bother).  There's really no such thing as waste, though, scientifically speaking.  Hair is made mostly of keratin, which is full of all kinds of nutritious molecules.  You may want to consider before adding any to your compost whether you're using any less "natural" chemical products on your hair on a regular basis, the sort of things you might not want seeping into the roots of your cabbages a year from now, but apart from that, there's nothing standing in your way of returning it to soil.

Maybe if you do, one day you'll look as good as me.

Shithead.

Related posts

Making Bonemeal While Vegan
My #ZeroWaste 2019 (so far)
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Water and Brains

Perhaps it's just a coincidence but for the past two nights, following days when I've made a conscious effort to drink a lot more water, I've had some extremely vivid dreams. Last night's dream involved having to have a kitten's front leg and paw reattached by Andi Peters, a children's TV presenter from my youth, who was in Newcastle when I called him, while I was in Manchester.  For some dreamy reason Andi Peters was the only qualified veterinary surgeon in the country at the time.  Meanwhile, I was having a massive mental breakdown as I was about to perform in the debut of a Shakespeare play.  A previously unperformed Shakespeare play, so there was a lot riding on it.  In my distress, I forgot all of my lines and had to be replaced by an understudy.  Thankfully, the operation went well, and then John MacDonnell very kindly took me back to his house for spaghetti bolognese.  Then I woke up.

Get out of my head, Andi Peters

I don't remember my dream from the night before that, but it was just as strange.  I woke up feeling...refreshed.  As if my brain had defragmented overnight, freeing up space for the processing and joy of new experience. I wonder if this isn't coincidence because you always hear at this time of year well-meaning so-and-so's reminding you how important it is to drink more water.  Annoying though such people may be (I'm one of them) they are of course right (as annoying people often are.  Especially me).  I can't find any statistics for the UK but a few years ago it was widely reported that 75% of Americans are "chronically dehydrated".  Americans are human beings, despite whatever impression you may have been given, so it's likely that a similar majority of humans elsewhere are dehydrated too.  Recent NHS guidance advises that 35% of people admitted to care homes (i.e. the elderly and otherwise vulnerable) are malnourished, and that a whopping 95% of those living "in the community" (that is, independently) are the same.  "Dehydration is also common although the numbers affected are less clear".

If most of us are dehydrated, that means that most of us may have poorer cognitive functioning (including short term memory loss, decreased concentration and poorer decision-making) worse overall psychological health and a range of physical deficiencies from headaches to kidney problems.  Or possibly not, it's not 100% certain: but such is the nature of science.  And, indeed, of everything else.  Concerns of popular scaremongering have also been raised. As for me, when I drink water in the morning, I feel good.  When I drink water before I go to bed, I wake up feeling good.  I am also a human, and so are you.  Therefore drink more water. Some other thoughts on the subject of water: Water has existed on this planet for 4.6 billion years.  It is a fundamental prerequisite of all life.  For an inconceivably long stretch of time, all of the water that exists on earth has been the same water, endlessly recycled by the biosphere.  This is something worth meditating on. Many of us are dehydrated, the population of the earth continues to grow, and fresh water shortages are of serious global concern.  Plausibly, they are triggering new incidents of human misery even now. Drinking only water could be an act of minimalist rebellion.  Water is free, or sort of anyway; though rest un-assured if they could privatise altogether, they would. There are 333 million cubic miles of water on earth.  I haven't done all the requisite sums, but it seems like that should be enough to go around.  A human who lives for 80 years should drink 86,700 litres of water.  1 cubic mile = 4,168,182,000,000 litres.  As with money, the reason for poverty isn't because there isn't enough of it.  The reason for dehydration isn't that there isn't enough water.  There's plenty of it, it's just in the wrong place.  A little more of it should be inside your body, fuelling it.  Fuelling your mind.  How else could you ever hope to dream of eating spaghetti with the Shadow Chancellor while a TV presenter you haven't thought about consciously for 25 years repairs the severed paw of a beloved pet?



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Plant Trees by Searching

I'm a furious Googler, but not so long ago I came across another search engine that's actually worth using.  No, it isn't Bing.  Don't be silly.

Microgreens! Day Two

Delighted to discover this morning that, after not even 24 hours in the soil, the peas have already started to sprout.  Look:

Sunday in the Park, and Then Soup

We've had the classic British summer this week: a few days of glorious sunshine, which everyone pretends to enjoy while also complaining about, followed by a half-arsed thunderstorm and as many days of dreary damp, which everyone pretends not to be relieved about, while complaining about.  This is as it should be.

This morning was damp but warm enough for a refreshing walk in the park, so that was what I did.  I was wondering how the herbs in the sensory garden were getting on.  Very well indeed, as it turns out.  The sage has been flowering...

...and as you can see, its leaves are healthy, abundant and enormous.  I didn't even know sage flowered.  Since the last batch I took has dried off and crumbled into usefulness, it was obviously the perfect time to nab some more.  The same for mint:

I've hung the sage to dry:

I may see if I can propagate some of the mint.  Only one sprig from previous forages has taken:

It looks lonely.

Before my walk, I'd started off a soup with the rest of the dried peas, and left it to simmer.  It occurred to me I might use a few as well to grow another few pea shoots in the space between the kitten wire and the edge of the container of my bean farm.  Thus:

The kittens have gone, but the wire remains.  I've been doing a little research on 'companion planting' - how plants can mutually support one another when grown together - beans and peas are two such plants.  So it will be interesting to see what effect this has, if any.

I nabbed a few chives from the park as well.  I forgot to take a picture of those, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  They were thick and spicy.  Along with a few of the sage leaves, these have gone straight into the soup.

Related posts

A Walk in the Park
Another Walk in Another Park
A Bit More Foraging
A Soup Made of Scraps
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Microgreens!

Today I begin experimenting with indoor microgreen growing.  Microgreens are just the shoots of edible plants, grown tightly packed together so as to be harvested at that stage.  They are extremely nutritious.  There's all kinds of things you can grow as microgreens, too.  You can even grow things as microgreens that you wouldn't think to eat otherwise.  Sunflower shoots, for example.

My imagination is running wild already.  Imagine a world where every home had its own vertical microgreen farm, perhaps automated to be on a constant rotation of sowing and reaping (and eating).  There'd be no more need for supermarkets.

In the meantime, I decided to begin with pea shoots, since they're supposedly one of the easiest to grow.  I've taken my lead from a number of articles, such as this and this and proceeded as follows.

One bag of dried peas, soaked overnight:

They will expand to about double their original size, so you need to use enough water to allow for this.  I've just used my saucepan because it's big, and it's clean.

As providence would have it, on my way home I came across a discarded fruit tray, which I nabbed, placed a black bag on the bottom, and filled with about an inch of nice, smelly compost:

This morning I took the soaked peas and spread a layer over the compost.  There's some discussion on what are the 'best' peas to use (organic, non-GMO, specially prepared for microgreen growing, etc) but it's perfectly possible to use standard dried peas you can get in any supermarket.  I found 500g in Tesco for 70p.  That was more than enough to cover the tray, leaving some I might make into soup later.

You need a single layer of peas, and it's quite alright to have them packed this closely together.  They aren't going to grow into full plants, remember, so normal considerations of spacing are no required.

Finally, I've covered the peas with a thin layer of compost, like so:

Again, there's some discussion of best, most productive methods - whether to cover with compost at all, whether to cover the tray and leave in semi-darkness, and so on - but I'm keeping it simple for now, taking copious notes as I go.  There's a Facebook group, Growing and Selling Microgreens and plenty of blogs, pages and articles on this interesting subject out there.  Here's a few:

Easy Guide to Growing Microgreens at themicrogardener.com
46 Best Veggies, Herbs & Microgreens for Vertical Planting at naturallivingideas.com
Step Up Your Garden Game By Growing Microgreens Indoors at Better Homes and Gardens

Explore and enjoy - and most of all, grow your own.  The world needs a lot more plants in it.  Without plants we'd all be dead.  Think about that, and enjoy your Sunday.

Day Two is here.










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Growing a succulent in a tea pot

I briefly enthused about succulents a few weeks ago, and today I'd like to do so again.

On Not Gawping At Your Phone All The Time

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was not reach for my phone.  I draw your attention to this because, of all the infinite number of things I also didn't do, this was a break from habit.  The first thing I do almost every morning, often before I even urinate, is reach for my phone.

My phone is with me everywhere I go.  We used to call them "mobile phones".  Now we mostly just call them "phones".  It's worth thinking about how - and how quickly - these devices have become such an integral part of our ordinary lives.

I am certainly no Luddite.  I love technology and all it has done for us.  I am excited about the future that could still be real if we find a way not to render our only planet uninhabitable this century: but the subtler, more insidious ways that tech has weaved its webs is worthy of our consideration.  It is usually commented that technologies are simply tools: neither good nor evil of themselves, but only becoming so in the hands of those who use them.  This is a reasonable place to start.

Making a conscious decision not to reach for my phone affected the way I experienced the morning in innumerable ways.  I left my phone where it was on the windowsill above my bed (always at arm's reach) and wandering into the bathroom for a piss.  Then I had a piss, then I made a cup of coffee.  Then I took my medication and my inhaler.  As the coffee cooled, I had a shower.  These are of course completely normal things, as much a part of my routine as reaching for my phone: but somehow, not having reached for my phone coloured the first banalities of the day in surprising ways.  My consciousness as yet not stirred by tweets and updates, news and alerts, notifications, likes, and the like, the physicality of drying myself, hanging up my towels, and getting dressed felt a little richer, a little bit more now.

"Now" is very much the thing, I feel.  The key to happiness, to joy, to peace of mind, is found in an enriched awareness of the now.  We all know that this is, to some extent, true.  But it can be hard for us to admit how easy it is to be happy.  We prefer a struggle, a challenge.  We prefer to be led by others than to trust ourselves.  

Which is fine, because there's an app for that.

Related posts

Sidegrading


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