Page 40 - ALG Issue 4 2022

vegetables
Mini veg with big benefits
The winter may be a time when you have less growing on the plot but you can still sow crops galore, be it on a tiny scale as Emma Rawlings, deputy editor on Kitchen Garden magazine, explains:
In spring and summer, we have a large choice of vegetables to sow but come autumn and winter we often think we have few? In reality we have almost the same choice but now they can be grown and harvested while small.
WHAT ARE
MICROGREENS?
These are vegetables harvested at seedling stage and are great additions to all your cooking, salads or smoothies. Pretty much any veg can be grown as a microgreen as long as it has an edible leaf. Exceptions to the rule include anything from the tomato family including aubergines.
You can even grow things that you don’t normally have space for, to grow to maturity and still benefit from
their powerful nutrition as seedlings. Examples include as alfalfa, wheatgrass and amaranth.
WHY GROW THEM?
1. To get a quick crop.
2. Cropsareverynutritiousatthis
stage. Some have been found to have 40 times higher levels of nutrients than their mature counterparts.
3. You don’t need a lot of space to grow them.
4. From autumn to early spring we don’t have good light and day length to grow crops to full maturity but we can grow microgreens
5. Itisrelativelyeasy
TOP 10 MICROGREENS
1. Radish - Has a peppery flavour 2. Pea shoots - A delicate flavour of
pea. Tasty and juicy
3. Broccoli-Earthyflavourandpacked
with vitamins. The benefits of broccoli without months of growing it.
4. Beetroot-Theredshootsareso tasty and eating different coloured veg has proven health benefits
5. Swisschard-GoforrainbowSwiss
40 Allotment and Leisure Gardener
TOP TIP:
Use up part packets
of herb or veg seed for microgreens before they go out of date