Managing Microgreens
Don’t throw the thinnings from your garden onto the compost pile. Instead, toss those tender, young greens into crisp, colorful salads and other dishes.
By Debbie Whittaker
April/May 2000
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Microgreens are any vegetable or herb seedling with at least one set of edible true leaves.
Photography by Anybody Goes
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Every year, I thin my vegetables and herbs and toss the thinnings into salad. Little did I know that I’ve been on the cutting edge of gastronomy—the discovery of microgreens. These tender, young shoots of everything from arugula to tat-soi are appearing on the menus of high-end chefs from Boston to San Francisco, but the real discovery awaits the home gardener who can harvest the delicate shoots fresh from the garden. Microgreens are difficult to find, expensive to buy, and have a short shelf life—none of which affects the home gardener.
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Microgreens’ beautiful textures, vibrant colors, and variety of flavors provide cooks with a new medium for creativity, and they are loaded with nutrients. The brilliant colors of beet tops, ‘Rainbow’ chard, and purple basil highlight monochromatic greens, grains, and meats. Frilly, ferny sprigs of dill, fennel, mizuna (a Japanese mustard), and shungiku (garland chrysanthemum) add texture; a judicious sprinkling of cress, mustard, or arugula punches up the flavor; while pea shoots and tat-soi add a mild-tasting, pleasant crunch.
What are Microgreens?
Opinion as to what constitutes a microgreen varies significantly, depending on where you live and who’s doing the growing. Some people refer to them as sprouts, and some suppliers sell sprouts under the name microgreens. Markets in Vancouver and Seattle describe them as baby lettuce, and a San Francisco chef who published a recipe with microgreens on his website could offer no better description than “you get them in bags at the farmer’s market.”
To most people, however, microgreens are any vegetable or herb seedling with at least one set of edible true leaves. (Sprouts have only seed leaves.)
Some growers harvest all their microgreens at the same height, usually between 1 and 2 inches, but others harvest each plant at a different height. “You need to taste to determine when a plant is ready,” says grower and botanist Deone Sears of Colorado Springs, Colorado. “A pea shoot might be 4 to 6 inches, depending on the variety, before it develops two sets of true leaves, which is when ours have the best flavor.”