Millard Elizabeth - Indoor Kitchen Gardening Handbook

Microgreens and other indoor edibles do more than simply feed the body. They add color and texture to the interior of your home, and watching them grow is an exciting adventure for kids and adults alike.

When people ask how I got into farming, I like to say that I dated my way into it. I met my future partner, Karla Pankow, during a Habitat for Humanity build in Zambia, Africa, and we joke that our relationship started while we had dirt-encrusted hands, so why not continue the tradition from there? The beautiful simplicity of living therealbeit for only a few weeksstayed with both of us, and we realized that we yearned to create a life focused on sustainability, abundance, gratitude, and plenty of dirt. By launching a farm, Bossy Acres, were off to an excellent start.

Before we first managed to get into our farmland, though, we began by growing a wealth of crops inside. Winter in Minnesota is notorious for wearing optimists down to a brittle nub, but the more experimentation we did with microgreens, pea shoots, radishes, and other tasty vegetables, the more we felt like we were extending summer into our house. As the snow buried the cars outside, we harvested wave after wave of tiny, delicious greens that kept us busy until we could find some fields to tillor at least break into the raised beds in our backyard garden.

The experience went against everything Id believed for most of my life: that indoor vegetable growing was for experts who possessed deeply green thumbs, and that anything edible raised inside a house had to be grown in some extensive, costly system. Most of all, I thought having a little two-bedroom bungalow in the city was a huge drawback because I didnt have an expansive kitchen with tons of natural light, or a finished basement with space for rows upon rows of grow lights.

Fortunately, through several seasons of indoor growing, I came to see that there are plenty of options when it comes to in-home farming. Nutrient-rich microgreens, sprouted alfalfa and broccoli, even beets and mushroomswith the right mix of light, airflow, water, and attention, all can flourish as easily as houseplants.

In this book, youll learn the basics of indoor growing, get tips on specific crops, and troubleshoot some common indoor growing issues so that you can easily get started on the leafy, delicious path of in-home gardening. Starting with planning your space, and finding the right area in your home (usually the kitchen, but not always), you can transition to planting, soil conservation, water usage, airflow management, and all those other zesty strategies that go into being an in-home gardener.

Also included are some ideas on preparing your hard-earned bounty. For several years, I focused so much on growing vegetables that I neglected educating myself on how to actually eat them. Yet, its hugely important to make food prep into a part of any gardening strategy. Thats why Im just as likely to be pickling, fermenting, and chopping as I am weeding, transplanting, and harvesting. There are certainly times where I plant a certain type of vegetable or fruit just to see if it can be done (Im looking at you, artichokes), but at the same time, I make sure to be prepared if my ambitious schemes end up working.

In short, Indoor Kitchen Gardening Handbook is about creating a sense of play and nourishment. Theres a certain thrill that comes with seeing seeds begin to pop into their first leaves, and if youre wearing your pajamas at the time, that excitement can feel doubled. Although there are some challenging projects wedged into these pages, much of the book is devoted to easy growing practices, so indoor gardening feels more like a fun journey than a daunting task.

It doesnt matter if youre crammed into an urban apartment with one fern balanced on the fire escape or pondering how to use a lovely greenhouse space in your new farmhouse, anyone can use these simple tricks and techniques to develop garden abundance. Let the adventure begin.

In addition to their high nutritional value, kale and chard are beautiful plants with impressive structure. They make fine focal points in high-visibility spots.

PART ONE

GROWING EDIBLES INDOORS

Living in a cold climate, Ive often dreamed of growing tropical fruits in my dining room, imagining a stretch of mangoes and papayas juxtaposed against the snow-sliding-sideways view of a winter afternoon. The kitchen would become a tangle of vines, lush with colorful blooms and quirky vegetables, and Id be able to pick my breakfast while the morning coffee brews.

Theoretically, with the right conditions, I should be able to achieve at least a fraction of that daydream. For example, its likely that I could grow a dwarf Calamondin orange tree, which is reputed to be hearty to 20F (-6C), or opt for an avocado tree sprouted from a pit, waiting the four to six years it takes for the new plant to bear its own fruit.

I did attempt to achieve the somewhat impossible once, trying to grow my own loofah plant, even though I knew I lived far out of the loofahs zone. I managed to get it about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, with luscious, broad leaves and plenty of potential, but it never fruited, only kept spinning its tendrils around curtain rods and houseplants. When the project resulted in more pruning than loofah harvesting, I came to an important realization: indoor growing is a pursuit that can be zesty and ambitious, but when it begins to feel like an overwhelming chore, it might be time to scale back. Most of all, I determined that indoor growing is best when it starts with a plan.