It's very hard to grow microgreens where l live due to the unsuitable climate, but now is the best time for growing all my favourite greens.

The buckwheat, grasses,peas and sunflower greens grow well in this moderate weather.

BUCKWHEAT LETTUCE


Makes a really unique and delightful drink. Gives off a unique feeling. A very slimey drink.


SUNFLOWER


Will post another picture late next week when these are fully grown. This is my favourite green, jammed packed with nutrition.


OAT GRASS


A nice dry taste. Not bitter like Barleygrass or sweet like wheatgrass.

Pea shoot greens are growing in the background.

I grow all my greens in a ventilated greenhouse = shelves covered in strong clear plastic. It keeps things from drying out too quickly and provides enough warmth and humidity to grow things well.

Even my chia sprouts are grown under fine netting cloth to keep them from drying out. See...some sprouts need special attention while others don't.

www.thesproutarian.com

About 2 months ago I dumped a massive 50 pound sack of 4 year old snow peas among my banana trees to fertilise the ground and grow microgreens. Now l look and find that the peas have grown quite large amongst the grasses and various weeds there. Good!

Next week l need a steady green to feed in my juicer with the buckwheat or else l would get a backup from the buckwheat and wouldn't be able to juice it properly, but if l feed some of this in with the buckwheat or after sections of buckwheat it will juice very well without wastage and backup overflow from the juicer.


LIVING FOODS - show peas, grass & weeds!!!






Why go to the market for greens when you can have this. All l did was dump seeds on the ground and let nature so the rest.

All those snowpeas will eventually die off in the summer and go into the ground and feed the banana trees. In the mean time l will feed off them.

www.thesproutarian.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2016 11:12PM by The Sproutarian Man.

Gorgeous!

The Chinese eat the leaves of the pea shoot greens when they are past the microgreen stage but still in the tender shoot stage. Try eating the leaves of the shoots next to your banana plants and see if they are still tender (you can't chew the stems, they are too fibrous). They taste like peas.

So beautiful and healthy The Sproutarian Man.

I have been experimenting with growing some of the greens without soil, especially that I am away most of the times.

Mung beans are my new friends. Very easy to let them grow into young greens, just keep watering them at least twice a day. They will not stand straight the first few days but as their open their leaves they will.





Some of the beans I let them grow in jars that I take to work for a snack, much better than a candy bar.

Quote
RawPracticalist
So beautiful and healthy The Sproutarian Man.

I have been experimenting with growing some of the greens without soil, especially that I am away most of the times.

Mung beans are my new friends. Very easy to let them grow into young greens, just keep watering them at least twice a day. They will not stand straight the first few days but as their open their leaves they will.





Some of the beans I let them grow in jars that I take to work for a snack, much better than a candy bar.

Thanks for posting your plants. I will say that l definitely prefer to avoid mung microgreens for a number few reasons.


1). they don't give out much juice
2). they don't green up as up well proper greens
3). they can be tough to eat
4). they can taste extremely strong

I find they are very unsuitable for microgreens. They make a much better food when grown in the dark and sprouted for about 5 days.


My buckwheat is getting more bushy now,it is jam packed with leaves EVERYWHERE!!! It would be even better if it wasn't for the very cold weather of late.


www.thesproutarian.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2016 07:50AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Great and very green those buckwheat micro greens.
I need to get back to growing them again.

On the issues of mung bean micro greens the points you made are correct but ironically that is why I am growing them.

The main point in my diet is variety not too much on quantity, some of the greens I grow indoor have very little juices but like everything in life they bring something different the other do not have.

Most indoor green growers revolve around two or three greens: sunflower, peas, and buckwheat. To me that is not enough, I add other seeds like corn, mung beans, lentils.

Lentils have very little juice but I still prefer to add them to my greens. And like corn, the seeds are very cheap.

Here is one of my lentil greens. 1.50 dollar bag of seeds will yield two baskets of greens.


I have a slow juicer so most of my greens I juice them.
Mung bean greens do have a lot of juices though but I prefer to eat the mung beans not as greens but just as sprouts like in the jars in one of the previous posts. I already have so many greens so if some are not greens that is fine.

yay nice sproutlove guys! I've got wheatgrass, alfalfa, lentils, clover and fenugreek on the go at the moment



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Nice! Lit up my day. Thanks. One of the coolest recent thread ever! Love the pics. I like pea sprouts. Juiced is especially nice as well.

Quote
lisa m
yay nice sproutlove guys! I've got wheatgrass, alfalfa, lentils, clover and fenugreek on the go at the moment

Nice! I am super busy so l only have the following on the go at the moment:
* lentils
* quinoa
* chickpea
* sunflower kernels (fermented)
* chia
* sunflower greens
* buckwheat greens
* pea green
* oatgrass

Will start doing pumpkin seeds again for fermenting.

Quote
RawPracticalist


Most indoor green growers revolve around two or three greens: sunflower, peas, and buckwheat. To me that is not enough, I add other seeds like corn, mung beans, lentils.

Lentils have very little juice but I still prefer to add them to my greens. And like corn, the seeds are very cheap.

Fair enough.

Quote
RawPracticalist
Here is one of my lentil greens. 1.50 dollar bag of seeds will yield two baskets of greens.

Good.

www.thesproutarian.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2016 10:33PM by The Sproutarian Man.

Check out 5:00 to 6:00 and see how they have designated sprout drawers in their restaurant/cafeteria and a garden there, too.


More than work: Tokyo office grows own food in vertical farm

[www.youtube.com]

Really nice, I think home grown food is the next big revolution (since sliced bread of course).

I had heaps of greens today, 3 large trays jammed packed that yielded about 46 oz of juice.

- 22 oz sunflower green juice
- 20 oz buckwheat lettuce juice
- 4 oz oat grass juice (never gives much juice because oatgrass is more fiberous)


Oat grass



Sunflower greens



www.thesproutarian.com

See the comparison:


www.thesproutarian.com

Very green and beautiful.

With all of these fresh, clean, healthy greens we should be super healthy compared to the those living on burgers and fried foods.

If we are not something else is terribly wrong or missing, what could it be?

some lentils just taken out of the dark chamber(the oven) and barley grass

can't see any pictures

www.thesproutarian.com

Still can't see any pictures.

www.thesproutarian.com

When I preview they do show everytime before posting, there may issues with my google image configurations. Lets true one more time.







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2016 12:38PM by RawPracticalist.

Nice pics Raw P, thanks for posting.

www.thesproutarian.com

corn


mung beans




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2016 09:58AM by RawPracticalist.

Great. I used to grow corn grass 20 years ago. I might start again when l can get some good seeds.

www.thesproutarian.com

A 16oz glass of buckwheat lettuce and oatgrass juice


www.thesproutarian.com

Very good. Life in a glass.

Which raises the question, what is the downside of too much of a good thing?

Does too much light lead to darkness or blindness?

I am starting to be concerned with the long term effects of too much grass juices, too much green juices...

We nee to find way to minimizing the effects of oxalate. It is low in micro greens and grasses but still present. Maybe balancing the diet with other non leafy green raw veggies could yield greater results.

Quote
RawPracticalist


I am starting to be concerned with the long term effects of too much grass juices, too much green juices...

1 cup of grass juice five days per week is fine.
1 cup of buckwheat juice/radish juice three time per week is fine.
1 cup of sunflower green juice 6 days per week is fine.
1 cup of pea shoot juice 4 - 5 days per week is fine.

Quote
RawPracticalist
We nee to find way to minimizing the effects of oxalate.

We have already found promising ways. I reported on this years ago. Oxalate is easily handled when sulfated polysaccharide `Fucoidan' is administered in the diet.

Fucoidan: Structure and Bioactivity

Bo Li, Fei Lu, Xinjun Wei, Ruixiang Zhao (on humans)
[www.mdpi.com]

Fucoidan from F. vesiculosus can relieve the oxalate-induced free radical injury. Mitochondrial damage is an essential event in hyperoxaluria, and fucoidan was able to effectively prevent it and thereby the renal damage in hyperoxaluria. Fucoidan administration was able to maintain the integrity of erythrocyte membrane and decrease the damage to erythrocytes in hyperoxaluria. Advocation of fucoidan enhanced the antioxidant status, thereby preventing membrane injury and alleviating the microenvironment favorable for stone formation

and


Beneficial role of sulfated polysaccharides from edible seaweed Fucus vesiculosus in experimental hyperoxaluria (on rats)

Josephine, A., Preetha, S.P et al
[openagricola.nal.usda.gov]

One group was maintained as a control group and another group served as a drug control, which received only sulfated polysaccharides. Incongruity in the renal tissue enzymes (ALP, ?-Glu and ?-GT) were observed during hyperoxaluria along with an increased activity of oxalate metabolizing enzymes like LDH, GAO and XO. These changes were reverted to near normalcy with sulfated polysaccharide administration. Alterations were observed in the activities/levels of tissue enzymic (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) and non-enzymic (reduced glutathione, ascorbate and ?-tocopherol) antioxidants, along with high malondialdehyde levels in the hyperoxaluric group. However, normalized lipid peroxidation status and antioxidant defences were noticed with sulfated polysaccharide administration. Biochemical discrepancies observed in hyperoxaluria disrupt membrane integrity, favouring a milieu for crystal retention. Advocation of sulfated polysaccharides enhanced the antioxidant status, thereby preventing membrane injury and alleviating the microenvironment favourable for stone formation


Now, we know that brown seaweeds like kelp have among the highest amounts of sulfated polysaccharide `Fucoidan', so will it have the same effects as administered `Fucoidan' extracted from food, l suspect it would.

Also, l think l remember the gut bacteria of humans can break down oxalate, that is why l always recommend ferments to have the good bacteria topped up.

Truly, microgreens aren't really a problem if we follow the guidelines l mentioned above and rotate various greens at times.

www.thesproutarian.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2016 08:15AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Lovely shots TSM! Buckwheat lettuce - how mature do you let your buckwheat grow? I seem to remember it gets toxic at a certain point? I just planted some out yesterday with some sunflower greens too. Whenever possible I try to plant in the ground rather than in trays, to get that earth energy into it. But sometimes the slugs get there first.... I must have the healthiest slugs in the world



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Quote
lisa m
Lovely shots TSM! Buckwheat lettuce - how mature do you let your buckwheat grow? I seem to remember it gets toxic at a certain point?

Buckwheat is toxic as a microgreen, but it isn't a problem when had in limited amounts. However if the body builds up this toxin then it will have bad effects. Remember that all types of plants have toxins, so the key is to consume some plants less, especially when juiced.

For eg, l will consume 13 oz of buckwheat juice twice per week, but no more than that. This allows the buckwheat toxins to not build up and cause any problems.

Eg 2, l would only have snowpea shoot juice 4 times per week. Having it anymore than that means that the alkaloids build up. If l consume that juice everyday for 6 weeks I then fall apart, so l have learned from experience that 4 days per week is a nice balance.

Quote
lisa m
I just planted some out yesterday with some sunflower greens too. Whenever possible I try to plant in the ground rather than in trays, to get that earth energy into it. But sometimes the slugs get there first.... I must have the healthiest slugs in the world

Yeah,slugs are a big issue with buckwheat, they love that stuff and the grasses. I have a greenhouse type of arrangement so l no longer get any slugs.

If one gets slugs they must wash the greens in water.

Make sure you get the black oil sunflower seeds (cost more and are smaller) and not the grey striped variety. Why?

BLACK SUNFLOWER
* a much better harvest - up to 16 oz of juice per tray
* about 99% of the shells drop off so it only takes 5 minutes to pull the rest of them off
* grow better


GRAY SUNFLOWER
* a much lower harvest - about 7 - 8 oz per tray
* about 75 - 80% of shells drop off so it takes 45 minutes or more to pull the rest of the shells off lol.
* where the grey variety don't grow near as well and are more prone to developing problems during growth in my experience, not worth buying.


Michael Bergonzi basically says similar things to l do about this.

www.thesproutarian.com

Black sunflower v's gray sunflower

Gray sunflower
Notice how the shells don't come off a lot of them, and notice how poorly they grow. So in effect you'll be taking all day to pull the shells off to get a modest harvest. Not good enough!





Black sunflower
Notice the difference. Nuff said!

Much better growing and hardly any shells.





Some really awesome looking Arugula microgreens l found online:


www.thesproutarian.com

Sunflower micro greens are so rich in nutrients and so beautiful.

Yes Arugula I saw then too online and thought about adding them to my list.

How do you eat your micro greens? I mostly juice mine and eat some in salads.

Green smoothies???

Quote
RawPracticalist

How do you eat your micro greens? I mostly juice mine and eat some in salads.

Green smoothies???

I don't eat salads much because l end up biting my lip and chewing parts of my cheek off dozens of times each time l have a salad, so l gave them away years ago. The inside of my face ends up with heavy blistering when l eat salads.

I juice my greens only these days. It saves heaps of time (takes way too long to eat a large container of greens) and saves me heaps of pain and mutilation of the inside of my cheeks and lips. I also tend to blend my sprout meals also.

The only salad l will eat is a small seaweed salad. All other salads are liquid salads.

I did used to enjoy eating a big green sprout salad over a 90 minute sitting, but my cheeks and lips were becoming too mutilated so l had to give it up unfortunately.


Today's juice

20 0z of oatgrass & sunflower juice:



I may be doing a truckload of sunflower and grass juice for the next few months.

www.thesproutarian.com