Monthly Archives: April 2018

Saving Radish Seeds

Square Foot Gardening (SFG)

Last year we shared a picture of the radish we allowed to go to seed.  Today we are harvesting those seeds and will share with you this experience.  First, here is a look at the seed pods that grew from the radish.

radish seed pods

First we removed the pods from the dried radish plant and discarded the largest stems and stalk.

radish seed pods

The radish seeds are small, round, hard balls which are heavier than the dried pods that encase them.  Next we need to liberate the seeds from the pods by crushing them.  With this amount of seed pod, the quickest way was to gather them up in my hands and rub back and forth.  I considered getting a meat tenderizer tool to crush them with, which I don’t think would have been a bad idea, but I had enough hand strength to crush them between my hands, or even between my fingers.

radish seed pods pulverized

The smaller, heavier radish seeds are all inside this pile of pulverized pods.  Now we need to separate the seed from the chaff.  The easiest way I found to do this was to tip up the lid from the tote I was using as a working surface, gently work the chaff back and forth, and the round seeds would roll down the lid to the bottom.  I could pull the chaff material back to the top and continue the process, liberating more seeds.  Because the chaff is lighter than the seeds, I can now lift off seedless material from the top and set it aside.  Also, I can use a technique called winnowing to remove additional chaff material from the pile by blowing gently on it.  The lighter chaff will blow away from the top of the pile, leaving more material dense with seed below it.

Through this patient process of rolling, blowing and moving the chaff around, the vast majority of seeds collected will roll down to the bottom of the lid.  Once the seed has been separated from the chaff, the next step is to store the seeds in a cool, dry location for future use.

radish seed pile

And this is how we can turn one or two seeds into hundreds of seeds to use in the future.  God is good.

Breakfast for Clare

Chickens, Indoor Vegetables, Microgreens

This is what I whipped up at Clare’s request for breakfast.  Two farm fresh eggs, a bit of water and several small pieces of cream cheese make the base of the omelette.  A strip of cooked bacon cut up, two home grown cherry tomatoes diced up, a bit of sunflower microgreens minced up and shredded mild cheddar cheese comprise the filling.  Topped with another sprinkle of shredded cheddar, a bit of radish microgreens and two more homegrown cherry tomatoes and there was enough to not only feed Clare, but also enough to feed her twin sister as well.

Farm Fresh Omelette

Testing the New Ebb and Flow Microgreens Bed

Indoor Vegetables, Microgreens

I’m not going to lie.  I’m quite nervous and excited about this test.  Four trays were seeded and stacked in darkness late on Monday.  I was hoping they would be a bit further along before Friday when I placed them into the 4’x4′ ebb and flow grow bed for the automation testing.

Under two of the trays I have coconut coir mats and two of the trays I decided to place in the bed without the mats underneath.  I’m hoping the coconut coir mats will act as a filter so preventing the majority of particulate mater from draining out through the water pump when the flood cycle is completed.  Perhaps I should have washed the mats prior to placing them into the grow bed as these mats, when dry, seem to shed some debris.  I’m also concerned with taking the water level too high on the flood cycle thinking a higher water level might induce more debris to fall from the small holes in the bottom of the trays.

Testing the 4'x4' ebb and flow bed for microgreens

The organic gardening soil might retain moisture better than standard hydroponic grow mediums, so I will certainly need to be observing this system closely an make adjustments.  The goal of this system is to keep the microgreen growing process going even if I am unable, or unwilling, to tend to them for a few days (like being able to not go into the office on the weekends).  Wish me luck!

James 1:2-3
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

 

Homemade Wheatgrass Powder

Dehydrating, Microgreens

What does one do with an aging half tray of grown wheatgrass?  Juice it, dehydrate it and keep it as a powder, of course!  How much wheatgrass juice powder does a half of a 1020 tray yield?  Take a look below:

dehydrated wheatgrass juice powder

If I do this again, I would want to do a much larger quantity.  Scraping the thin, dried sheet from the dehydrating liquids tray was a little tougher than I thought it would be.  In the thicker spots, it seemed to come off a bit better.  Perhaps if I started with even more liquid, this scraping step would have gone smoother.

I was surprised at how quickly the liquid dehydrated.  It was set for 105 degrees F in order to keep the temperature low enough to maximize the nutrition in the final powder form, and I was scraping it off the tray by lunch time.

Next step in this experiment … rehydrating it and ingesting the reconstituted wheatgrass juice.

Rockwool … It’s a Great Start

Aquaponics, Indoor Vegetables

The lettuce floating in the DWC desktop aquaponic bed has run its course, and in typical fashion I have not already started the plants that I want to replace them.  Perhaps I’ll consider some kale and swiss chard I have on the side as a temporary replacement until new lettuce is ready.

I’m coming to like this rockwool material for starting seeds.  Especially for the aqauponic growbeds.  I’m still experimenting with taking a seedling started in rockwool and seeing how well it transplants into a soil medium.  But for the aquaponic bed, this is my favorite way to start seeds, hands down.

Step one, seen here pictured below, it to soak the rockwool material.  I like to get a healthy scoop of fishwater from the fish tank into a re-used plastic food container and then drop in the rockwool, let it soak up the water, and rotate the rockwool pieces to get a more even saturation.

Step two, drop one to three seeds into the small hole in the center of the individual rockwool cubes.  Why do I say one to three?  It depends on your seeds germination rate and how certain you want to get a viable seedling going in each rockwool cube.  If several seedlings pop up, you can snip off the weaker looking ones with scissors and just keep the best looking one.

Step three, keep the plastic tray holding the rockwool cubes in a warm space and make sure it is under appropriate light once the seeds have germinated.

Step four, just make sure there is always some water in the bottom of the plastic tray and the water will simply wick up into the rockwool material giving your seed an optimal moisture environment for growth.

rockwool cubes set to soak

“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.”
—Luke 5:36-38 (NASB)

Ebb and Flow Watering System for Microgreens

Indoor Vegetables, Microgreens

So far so good on the installation of a 4′ x 4′ ebb and flow growbed at the office!  Next project will be to get the LED light panel installed over it and then get some microgreens growing!

What you see below is the the business are of this ebb and flow growbed.  One of the fixtures is for the water to pump into the growbed from the water reservoir below.  The other fixture is the overflow which will prevent catastrophic flooding should the water pump stay running in a malfunction.  We’ll get the timing dialed in when we are actually growing microgreens in here, but the pump runs for 3-5 minutes 2x per day, and that should keep these little delicious plants hydrated during its growing cycle.

At full capacity, we should be able to harvest up to 8 trays per week from this system!  For the first part of the growing cycle, the seeded trays sit covered in the dark.  On the following Monday, I plan to transfer the trays that were in the dark into this automated growbed.  The hope is by Friday we will be able to harvest and distribute over the weekend.  The best laid plans of mice and men … we shall see how this vision culminates.

ebb and flow microgreen grow bed

Vine Ripened Indoor Cherry Tomatoes!

Indoor Vegetables

Now we are finally getting to the pay-off.  Three cherry tomato plants, started from seed months ago, are finally experiencing the full ripening of its fruit under LED lights.  These are definitely not the watery orbs shipped in from Mexico and purchasable in local grocery stores.  These babies are small but full of flavor.

I was tricked before when I pulled one and a half cucumbers from my indoor trellis, only to have the plants’ roots rot (most likely due to colder temperatures, even indoors) and quit producing.  As the tomatoes are in a better location indoors and housed in a grow tent, my hopes are higher for future tomatoes!

On a side note … Allison, I didn’t have these at home for Paul’s sandwiches (may have only had enough here for one or two anyway) as these were at my office location, or Paul would be enjoying them today.  The good news for my girls is they can have at ’em !!  Perhaps next time.

ripe cherry tomatoes

Ina Garten’s Chicken with a Sunflower Microgreen Salad

Microgreens

Do you feel like chicken tonight?  After seeing this culinary creation from a friend of Sustainable Roots, I think chicken would definitely hit the spot.  Here we see a perfectly executed Ina Garten chicken recipe served up along side mashed potatoes with gravy and a sunflower shoot salad with cherry tomatoes, capers and blue cheese!  Does this inspire you and make your mouth water?

Ina Garten’s chicken with sunnies salad