Hi HORT 4000!

Hi! This is Erin, here to do my introductory blog post.

I'm a senior Nutrition major. I decided to sign up for this class because I'm interested in using gardens to help people gain a greater appreciation for the food they eat. School gardens seem like a great way to get kids learning about food and the environment at a young age, which I think are important but under-emphasized topics in most schools today. 

Having some understanding of those things, and caring about them, will hopefully encourage kids to seek some balance in what they consume. In urban areas in particular, we're pretty removed from the whole process of how food is grown and how it gets to us. Vegetables get a lot more interesting (to kids and adults) when you've dug around in the dirt to find them, or watched a tomato or pepper grow and ripen. Even if they don't apply it right away, I think having the opportunity to learn from and appreciate a garden is the kind of experience that would stick with someone, and would help shape choices they make later on.

I don't have a picture of the microgreens yet, unfortunately. But I'm really into cooking, so I here's a photo of some things I made last week! I love the idea of helping kids learn about nutrition through growing and making their own food, so it's a skill I hope to incorporate with some of the things we learn and do in this class.

In the photo: Coleslaw, cornbread, beans & bacon, garlicky collard greens.

YUM

Eating microgreens

On Wednesday I went into the greenhouse and harvested some microgreens. I harvested some peas and Chinese cabbage. On Thursday morning when making my lunch I decided to add some to my sandwich. This gave the sandwich a unique taste which was very similar to putting lettuce on the sandwich. I have a picture below. That night my roommate and I found some pasta sauce in the fridge so we decided to have spaghetti. I thought the microgreens treated great on my sandwich so I decided to add some to my sauce as well and I found that the pea taste definitely was more apparent.  My roommate was not willing to combine them into her sauce but I made her try both kind of microgreens which she said they both tasted like grass especially the peas. I don't know how she knows what grass tastes like but I thought it was interesting how each of our taste buds perceived the taste differently. Finally, This morning I still had a few microgreens left which I decided to add to my scrambled eggs. I felt that cooking the microgreens brought out the taste and added a different texture to my ordinary scrambled eggs.

1 week old microgreens

Looking good and some could be harvested, most are cotyledons; peas have true leaves.

Monica's Post

Hi all,

Going along what Alisha was doing for her first post, I'm going to do an introduction about myself as well. 

My name is Monica Chung.  I am a junior as well with a B.S. in psychology.  I haven't decided on a minor, but I am hoping to try and do a nutrition one.  I took this course because I find horticulture very interesting and I love planting stuff.  Also I wanted to study abroad and even thought a week in London may not sound like a lot of time, I think it will be a wonderful experience.  After college, I haven't really decided if I want to go to grad school yet, but it is a possibility as well as going to culinary school, for I also love cooking as well as baking.

Alisha's first blog post

Mary wanted us to put up a post this week. I wasn't sure what to post so I thought I would do a quick introduction of myself.

My name is Alisha. I am a Junior majoring in horticulture with and emphasis on plant breeding and genetics. My minor is plant biology. I decided to take this class because I have always wanted to study abroad and this worked best with my schedule and budget. I also am interested in starting and volunteering at school gardens in the future or possibly work with the education at a public garden so I felt that this class would help prepare me for my future work with school gardens.

I see that Mary posted a few pictures of the microgreens on Friday. They were starting to germinate as early as Wednesday. The pictures below are of a few trays on Thursday morning.

Microgreens Are UP!

Planted on Monday, germinated by Friday: looks like we planted the peas too shallow ???

Planting Microgreens

Watch a video with Mary Meyer, professor at the University of Minnesota teaching

How to Plant Microgreens.