Day 55: Sprouts

Houston, we have sprouts.

I harvested my first batch of sprouts today! It's really amazing how quickly they go from seed to fully grown and ready to be eaten. As seen on the left are my clover sprouts in the half-gallon jar, pre-hulling, and my lentil sprouts in the quart jar, dried in the salad spinner and ready for storage (no hulling reqired). They didn't make it that far though. We ate them with dinner. And I have my eye on the clover for a smoothie in the morning.

The growing process was relatively painless. I rinsed three times a day, in the morning, when I got home from school and before bed. I never did get around to covering them with a towel per Becki's suggestion, but they were really only in indirect sunlight for part of the day in that corner of my kitchen. I placed the clover in the window to develop some chlorophyll on the last day, and I think it greened nicely.

I'm ready to place an order for more seeds online from Sprout People, but I'm having trouble making up my mind. I made a list of everything I wanted, and the total was exorbitant. It's their blends that get me. The combinations all sound so good. Madeline's going to have to help me narrow it down.

I took the pictures in my currently (but temporarily) defunct balcony container garden, and look what I discovered! I had no idea that chives were annuals, but apparently they can go 2-3 years without being resown. After that, they start to lose their flavor. I took a small taste test of these, and they're definitely chivy. I can't wait for my local nursery to open in a couple weeks so I can get the rest of my garden going. This year I'm thinking plenty of tomato plants and copious amounts of parsley and basil. Focusing on just a few varieties of plants is probably a good idea so that we'll yield a significant quantity in our limited space. We'll see how that goes once I actually get there and am confronted by the numerous choices.

I did get to go on my hike, and it was even better than I thought it would be. I was actually really tired and dragging my heels when I got out of work, but I'm glad that I pushed myself to get out there. I have never once regretted a hike once I'm actually doing it, no matter how reluctant I was in the first place.

I trekked one of my regular trails and then decided to explore a new one. I was enjoying it, but it seems like it's also one of the more popular trails with the mountain bikers. I normally encounter a few, but after a while, I was jumping off the trail so frequently it was starting to get ridiculous. I felt like the original Super Mario hopping over those incessant rolling balls... know which level I'm talking about? I think I'll avoid that trail for a while, at least on a Friday at that time of day.

-Eloise