Grow your microgreens with Kaboom

In a perfect world, you'd get home from work in time, whip up a delicious aglio olio with crushed garlic and juicy cherry tomatoes, and garnish it with fresh basil from your kitchen window.

So let's take this one step at a time, start with that mini-kitchen garden. Head to Kaboom (immobile food truck-style canteen tucked away in Mumbai's busy Ballard Estate area) for a free workshop on understanding and growing microgreens. In collaboration with Fresh & Local, the three-part evening will introduce you to different kinds of microgreens, show you how to cultivate them and how to use them in your day-to-day cooking. "Our main goal is to serve up wholesome food that just tastes great. We incorporate microgreens into our menu here (our favourite is the mushrooms on toast with micro mustard and red amaranth) and thought it would be great to get some people in and let them get their hands dirty," says Yohaan Dattoobhai, owner of Kaboom. What do you need to do? Just show up at Kaboom this Friday.

Flip through the gallery for a quick crash course on microgreens by the folks at Fresh & Local

The workshop takes place on June 26, 5.00pm, at Kaboom, Café Model, 3A Spott Road, Near Grand Hotel, Ballard Estate, Mumbai. Tel: 022 2261 4489

Photograph: Urbancultivator.net

What are microgreens?
Microgreens are young edible greens produced from the seeds of vegetables, herbs or other plants. Unlike sprouts which are grown in water microgreens are grown in soil and you consume the new tender leaves. They have a more developed flavour, colour and texture than sprouts. In general, microgreens contain considerably higher levels of vitamins and carotenoids — about five to 40 times that of their mature plant counterparts.

Recommended seed varieties:
Mustard, red amaranth, fennel, dill, sunflower, beetroot, coriander and spinach.

Materials required:
1. A shallow plastic or bamboo container with holes (for drainage)  
2. Light potting mix (equal parts compost and coco-soil)
3. Seeds

Do It Yourself:
1. Mix compost and coco soil in equal parts to create a light and airy growing medium
2. Fill container, keeping some mix aside for later use
3. Generously cover soil with seeds
4. Use remaining mix to cover seeds and tap down, firmly and evenly, to compress potting mix
5; Water generously until entire mix is moist (use a spray bottle,  watering can or bottle with holes so that watering is gentle and does not displace seeds)
6. Keep in a shaded space or cover with damp newspaper or shade net until seeds germinate
7. After germination expose to sunlight, a few hours a day should suffice
8. Harvest once true leaves have grown (about ten days from planting)

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