Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 days

Having grown my share of sprouts in mason jars (lots of rinsing; very little output + associated health risks with e.coli and salmonella) and experimented with indoor micro greens (complicated and expensive) I was delighted to discover Peter Burke's simple soil sprout method. Follow the directions outlined in the book and you can't go wrong; you will be harvesting ultra-fresh, delicious organic greens from your windowsill in less than 10 days. For me it is 7 or 8 days, which I think is impressive. The author clearly knows his subject and has thought through every aspect. The book is comprehensive, well-organized, and generously and helpfully illustrated. The author's tone is friendly and encouraging. Getting started is simple, just gather up a short list of supplies -I had almost everything at home. If aluminum foil pans don't appeal to you, visit your local thrift store or a yard sale and pick up a couple dozen cereal bowls to use for planters. Book includes contingency plans for when your schedule goes off course and your indoor garden gets neglected. Nice recipe section inspires reader to use soil sprouts in salads, stir fries, soups, dip, tempura, sandwiches, wraps, and the workday lunchbox. Seed by Seed index is a goldmine of info for 25+ types of greens you can grow. The author recommends beginning with buckwheat, pea, sunflower, daikon, and broccoli, which I did. I have since added popcorn, Chinese cabbage, adzuki beans, Tuscan black kale, garnet amaranth, purple kohlrabi, and a French Garden mixture which includes clover, cress, arugula and lentils. Without exception every bowl I have planted has yielded a beautiful "head" of greens...and yellows, reds, pinks and even purples and I am shocked at how easy and enjoyable it is! I wish I had thought of this method! But since I did not, I am glad Peter Burke did.

I got several other books on growing micro greens at the same time I got this one. If you want to grow micro greens or as the author calls them "soil sprouts", this book is by far the easiest to understand and to follow, and highly recommended for beginners. There are detailed instructions and photos. For some reason I can not get my sun flower sprouts to grow with out mold, (I am still trying. It's not the book's fault), so I moved on to trying some other seeds with great success. I tried the wheat grass (foolproof), pak choy (great), and the buckwheat "lettuce" (delicious). I was afraid the pak choy would taste too strong in my salads, but that is not the case. I do not use the aluminum foil pans that the author recommends, as I am too afraid the aluminum will leach into the food, so I recycle the clear plastic bins that my spinach and lettuce come in from the supermarket. I just cut down the box a little. No need to put in drainage holes, as he explains. Since my house thermostat is set on a pretty cool setting, and it is winter here in the Midwest, I have been using some heating mats specifically made for starting seedlings during the incubation period. Other than that, no growing lights have been necessary. I did not have confidence that I could grow soil sprouts even though I have been highly successful growing alfalfa sprouts without soil. I felt very intimidated by growing soil sprouts, but I wanted a way to grow my own food in the cold winter months. This book definitely delivers. I am now adding many handfuls of luscious sprouts to my salads, and the hubby likes them too. Today I am planted my first batch of lettuce mix. We will see how it goes. I definitely will be branching out and trying lots of different types of seeds. I grow trays of the wheat grass for me to juice, and a special little tray of wheat grass for my cat, who loves to stick his nose in the grass and sniff. Seeing green things growing in my house makes my heart happy, and it sure is great that I can eat them too!

I love the microgreen salads! I didn't have much of a use for sprouts until this book said you can make salads out of them. I LOVE salads. I'm waiting for my hydro lettuce to finally get big enough to use and need something else right now. After reading this, now I'm planting tons of seeds every day and driving my husband crazy. Lol. But I'm a happy wife. I decided to use bootstrap farmer's trays instead of what he uses simply because they are convenient (8 of the 5x5s to a 10x20 tray and no lugging around tons of individual small trays.... and you can use the humidity dome too). I also got myself a rolling shelf that is 3ft wide to hold 3 trays a shelf. Will add lights later to save the counter space in the kitchen. Buy this book. It's pretty simple and you can get most information in a couple of sittings. But it's practical information. Buy the seeds or use old garden seeds to use them up. Get growing. You only have to wait a little over a week to get something out of this. Happy Growing!

I really appreciate this straightforward guide to growing your own salad green sprouts. I have wanted to grow salad greens indoors for quite a while but I didn't want to deal with the trouble of having to set up lights and the long wait from seed to salad. I find the salad green sprouts to be the perfect fit for what I want because they grow quickly with only the light from a window. They taste delicious and are much easier to grow indoors than salad greens. This book does a great job of going over all the details of growing indoor salad sprouts as well as describing what seed varieties are best for sprouts. It's totally worth buying if you like the idea of growing your own sprouts! I spend about 10-15 min a day preparing my salad green sprouts (you plant new pans every day so you have a daily supply), and it's really as easy as the book describes.

This is what I was looking for: practical and clear information. I am going to start growing sprouts the way it is explained. Looking forward to harvesting!

Thanks this is a great book ,lots of info on gardening and cultivating sprouts .

Amazing book. I was looking for a source that I could follow to grow indoor greens this winter and this book is the answer. I purchased the book 3 weeks ago and already I have harvested pea shoots and broccoli shoots. It is very clearly written and the instructions are super easy to follow. A great and easy way to grow greens over the winter. I am still doing some experimentation with seeds to see which shoots I really love but I know that I will continue to follow this fun and easy way to grow greens.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend having previously bought it for myself. It is quite simply the best book available on growing organic salads year-round regardless of the weather.

Excellent little book. Easy tyo follow. Thank you