Growing up as a teenager, in a family owned garden center, I had a lot of exposure to planting, growing, and harvesting of a wide variety of flowers and vegetable. One of my favorites memories of the garden center was the massive garden we had at the garden center! Now that I have a family of my own I love creating these same memories with my kids. Every year In late winter we start our vegetables from seed. Anxiously awaiting the last freeze to plant our vegetables in the garden. We will plant cauliflower, radishes, broccoli, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and other fun vegetables to add to our dinner menu for the summer.
So how does all this relate to microgreening??? I will get to that shortly.
As an adult my husband and I, and our family, love to travel! Whenever we travel to different areas we enjoy trying the different resturants of the regions. It was through our travel that I had my first introduction to microgreens and the beautiful presentation they added to the meal. The different colors of these beautiful leaves was magnificent. But it was the taste and the additional crunch that stayed with me. (I may be a bit of a foodie...but with young kids I don’t get the opportunity to explore that as much as I would like).
However, it wasn’t until later, after a conversation with my mom about the benefits of microgreens that I decided to grow some of these for our family. My kids are coming into the ages where they are the PICKIEST eaters. Yesterday they liked eggs or peanut butter and banana sandwiches and today they don’t. Yesterday they cleaned their plates and today they stare at them and act like they are being starved because they want nothing to do with it. Yet they will visit my mom and dad and eat their sprouts like crazy. And this is where I fell in love with microgreening. Microgreens can be up to nine (yes 9) times more nutrient dense than their full grown varieties. They are packed with magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, iron and other vitamins and minerals. They are also full of antioxidants and polyphenols. As you can imagine seeing my kids, and hearing about other picky eaters, eating these in their meals or as a snack (plain) was a mom and human win for us! And this is why I want to share this with you!
With microgreens the tastes can range from spicy, bitter, or sweet and their is something for everyone. Don’t love broccoli...the broccoli microgreens are much more subtle in flavor but still offer some of the earthiness and mild broccoli flavor. Do you like the spiciness of radish but don’t love the texture of a radish. Then a radish microgreen is perfect. With a crunch similar to lettuce, or a green leafy vegetable, with the radish flavor these spicy treats are amazing in any meal or just to eat plain as a spicy treat. And if I still haven’t convinced you to add these little morsels of flavor and nutrients to your life then here is my last piece of advise for microgreens. Impress your dinner guests with a stunning presentation and a secret punch of flavor when using them as the final garnish to your dish.
Have more questions...feel free to reach out with your questions to bowlinfamilymicrogreens@gmail.com!!
-Much Love-
Bowlin Family
