CHAPTER 13

Harvest and Storage

Your greens are ready to harvest when the first small leaves—the seed leaf, or cotyledon—are fully grown and green and the stems are from 3 to 7 inches (7.6–17.8 cm) long. On average this stage arrives about 7 to 10 days after the seeds are planted. Refer to photos in chapter 15 to see what a fully grown seed leaf looks like. Another clue to watch for with the seeds that have hard shell hulls like sunflower and buckwheat is when the hulls have dropped and you see them on the shelf. Just remember that not necessarily all the hulls, just most of them, drop off when the soil sprouts are fully grown.

Also watch for the second set of leaves, the true leaves, to start forming. You will see them as a tiny set of new leaves growing where the two seed leaves join at the stem. Most true leaves are not as delicious as the seed leaf. In fact some are downright bitter, so cut your shoots as soon as you see the first sign of true leaves forming.

Pea shoots are an exception—they send up a stem with many true leaves right from the start, and they’re ready to harvest when they’re 6 to 12 inches (15.2–30.5 cm) high. Like a good cook you can taste them by nibbling a few shoots—it’s the ultimate test for every variety.

Cutting to Harvest

When you’re ready cut the greens about 1⁄4 inch (0.6 cm) above the soil surface using scissors or a knife; I prefer scissors. When you’re done cutting you should have a handful of greens with all of the stems lined up and ready to wash.

After 3 to 5 days of growing on the windowsill, the soil sprouts will be fully grown at about 8 to 10 inches (20.3–25.4 cm) high. Cut the greens about 1⁄4 inch (0.6 cm) above the soil line. I keep the stems lined up as I harvest because I find it easier to wash and cut the greens, but if the greens get jumbled and tossed around, it doesn’t really matter.

If the edge of your tray gets in the way of cutting, you can lift the whole thing—greens and soil cake—right out of the tray and set it on a piece of newspaper. This will give your scissors or knife blade better access to the bottom of the stems. I use this approach on all of my larger trays and on any tray where I can’t easily reach the bottom of the stems.

If I manage to pull up stems with roots or dirt on them, it’s easy to snip them while I’m still holding the freshly clipped mass and have the scissors right there in my hand. There’s no problem with eating the roots as long as the soil is washed off, but I’m particular and like to snip off the roots.

Cleaning the Greens

Cleaning really starts before the greens are cut. Before grabbing the scissors inspect your sunflower and buckwheat and pull off any hulls still stuck to the seed leaves. Most of the hulls will have fallen into the dirt, but invariably some of them hang around among the stems or on the leaves. I am not greedy about my harvest and will pull the head right off a shoot if the hull doesn’t come off easily. I’ve noticed frequently that sunflower shoots still encased in the seed hull by this time usually have a defect—a brown spot on the seed leaf. I don’t hesitate to just pull those out and compost them with the used soil.

Once the greens are clipped first rinse their stems to clean off any soil transferred from the tray. Then soak the whole batch in a shallow pan of fresh water to clean them and remove any last hulls that are stuck on a leaf or hiding out in the greens. With larger seeds the job is quick and it’s easy to get rid of big, unappetizing hulls.

For small seeds like broccoli or soft hulls like radish, it’s a little harder to clean them off, but less critical, too. I use a simple technique: Place the shoots in a small shallow container (I use a 3-cup (710.4 ml) disposable plastic container that is 4 inches by 6 inches by 3 inches (10.2 × 15.2 × 7.6 cm) deep, but you can use whatever you like in that size range); place the greens in the container and fill it with fresh water, letting the water run out slowly over the top; push the stems and leaves down to the bottom of the container, and the dry hulls will rise to the top and float off over the edge. Turn the whole batch of greens over, and repeat the process. This only takes a minute and works well for small seeds like canola or seeds with a soft hull like radish. It’s not necessary to wash off each and every hull; they’re soft enough to eat and have no flavor to speak of. But most of the hulls are left in the dirt, anyway.

Peas only need a quick rinse to get soil mix off the stems, but for radish, canola, and any soil sprouts that have hulls still stuck on the seed leaves, I use a small 3-cup (710.4 ml) flat plastic container. I push the cut greens down into the water, and the hulls float to the top. A quick tip of the container sends the hulls over the side. I repeat this action a couple of times to get the bulk of the hulls rinsed off, but a few small seed hulls are not any problem at all, so there is no need to go nuts trying to rinse every single tiny hull off. The sunflower and buckwheat are a whole different story because the hulls are large and unpleasant to bite into. I make sure these are all removed before I even cut the greens then rinse them.

Make a Salad, at Last

Let the fun begin! Picture this: You’re standing in your kitchen surveying your garden asking yourself what will it be tonight—what looks ready to harvest? It’s much the same as standing in the middle of your outdoor garden in July checking to see what’s ready. You’ve accomplished in about a week of indoor salad gardening what would have taken a month or more outside. Not only do you have fresh greens, but they’re beautiful—varieties of color, texture, and flavor ready for you to make a delicious salad or cook up a stir-fry for your rice or pasta.

Place the washed greens on a cutting board, and chop the stem end of the greens 1⁄4 inch (0.6 cm) long. Toward the top leafy end of the stems, chop greens into larger 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces if you want, but be sure to cut the stem into little bits. Sunflower greens are very tender and can be chopped a little longer, but I still cut them like the rest.

To get started place the washed greens on a cutting board and chop the stem ends 1⁄4 inch to 1⁄2 inch (0.6–1.3 cm) long. Sometimes the stems of pea shoots and radish greens can have a very thin string, and cutting them into small pieces makes them crunchy with delicious flavor. The leafy tops can be chopped a little more coarsely—perhaps 1 inch (2.5 cm) long. They’re all perfectly tender at this stage.

Toss all the chopped greens into the salad bowl. As you can see it is a beautiful salad; I call it the All-Star-All-Sprout Salad. This is the beginning of a future of fresh greens, homegrown for a fraction of the market price.

Mix the chopped greens in the salad bowl and serve. Our family usually has several dressings on the table to accommodate our individual preferences, and if there are leftover greens they’ll store better in the refrigerator without dressing.

Once in a while, usually when we have company for dinner, my wife makes her special dressing and prepares it right in the salad bowl. It’s pretty much a guarantee the bowl will be empty by the end of dinner. Make sure to check out chapter 16 for recipes. Enjoy!

Storage

When the greens are cut and cleaned but they’re not going to be used immediately, put them in a plastic bag or container and place them in the refrigerator. They stay fresh and crisp for up to a week.

For a long storage life it’s important to remove dirt, wash away the hulls, and let the greens dry off before bagging and chilling. There will still be some moisture on the greens. I don’t literally dry them completely. A minimal amount of moisture in the bags helps them stay crisp in the refrigerator.

Store in the Tray

Before harvesting all the greens that are ready, consider leaving some where they are until you need them. Basically greens can be stored right in their trays. They continue to grow and require only a little water each day. They can stay in trays until their first true leaves (the tiny leaves that start to form between the big seed leaves) start to grow, at which point it’s time to cut them no matter what. I’m not saying that cutting and storing them in the fridge is a bad thing, but there’s no need for it if you use them fresh. No refrigeration means less space is required, which means you’ve decreased your carbon footprint. I live in a small cottage in the woods, and refrigerator space comes at a premium for me.

Green Bags

Recently I’ve been using Evert-Fresh Green Bags to store my sprouts. They’re specially formulated to protect produce and retard spoilage (you can read about them here: www.evertfresh.com). Because I cut large quantities of greens ahead of time for my classes (every class ends with a salad), I like to do everything possible to keep the greens extra fresh. I use the bags for other garden produce, too, and even for bread with good results.

All Together Now

We’ve gone through each aspect of indoor salad gardening, and by now you’ve likely tried the Quick Start Guide on page 49 and you’re planting trays of seeds. If you haven’t planted anything yet, may I suggest that you begin with one or two trays and work up to as many as five trays a day? I admit this advice to start small is easier to give than to get. I’ve never been good at starting slow myself. If you’re feeling like this might be a lot of work, go ahead, try growing just one tray a week to get the hang of it first—maybe one large tray, so you have a nice helping of salad greens.

Enjoying a small success is a good way to begin, and you’ll be sailing along quickly enough, adding more to your garden every day. When I present classes I focus on one type of seed at a time, and everyone goes home with one planted tray for each session. It’s easy to plant sunflower or radish once you learn how to plant peas, so one class is usually enough to get people started gardening.

In broad strokes a recap of the process goes like this:

• Soak your seeds and pour water into your soil mix to moisten.

• After at least 6 hours of soaking, the seeds are ready to plant.

• Fill your trays with compost, sea kelp, and moistened soil mix.

• Drain the seeds, and spread them over the surface of the soil so they just touch but do not overlap.

• Place a soaked paper cover over the seeds, and place the tray in a warm, dark place for at least 4 days (shoots will grow to about 1 inch [2.5 cm] high).

• Remove paper cover, water the roots, and place the tray on a windowsill.

• Water once a day until greens are ready to harvest, about 4 to 6 more days.

• Harvest by cutting with scissors or a knife.

• Serve in a salad, a sandwich, or a wrap, or use in a stir-fry.

The next step is to plant multiple trays, one for each variety of seed, creating a continuous supply of greens day after day. I regularly add two large trays of pea shoots in order to prepare a special recipe at least once a week. With my sons home I grow a few extra trays of sunflower greens, too. For my wife and me alone, I grow only two trays of salad mixes for a smaller daily harvest. You get the idea—start growing and adjust the amount to your needs. Whether it’s for an army of hungry family members or just one person, an indoor salad garden easily fills the need.