sprouts

Guess what's in the mail, headed my way?  Lame as it may sound to you, I'm excited to have everything I need to grow my own micro greens and sprouts.  Seeds, planters, kits... bring it.

The reason I'm excited?  Besides all the nutritional reasons, I always fall in love with how Aran Goyoaga uses microgreens to style her food photography.  I like to be fancy.  And her work is so pretty it makes me think that sprinkling my food with micro greens will be akin to sprinkling it with fairy dust.

image via cannellevanille.com

There was a story in Martha Stewart Living recently that made growing my own seem so doable, that I just had to give it a try.  The stakes are really super-small.  And I have the perfect sunny windowsill in my kitchen.

image via marthastewart.com

image via marthastewart.com

I found this windowsill planter from West Elm that's the perfect size for my windowsill.  Two of these should transform the window above the kitchen sink into a little garden of micro mini cute.

image via westelm.com

And so I continue to fight the winter doldrums by pretending it's spring.  Spring Spring Spring Spring Spring.........

If, perchance, my ambitions come to fruition and I find myself with actual mini-greenery adorning my windowsill, it will certainly appear in my instagram feed.

Plan for Prettier Days

I am so over this winter.  As is the rest of the population of North America.  I'm grateful to be in Utah where I at least get some sunshine with my snow and sub-zero temperatures, but the crunchy, dirty old snow that envelopes my life is getting on my nerves.  The giant icy perma-puddles inside of my garage, the skating rink that is my front porch because the gutters are blocked up with ice, the endless shoveling, treacherous driving, and the need to keep track of six people's worth of winter outerwear - all of it has lost it's novelty and any charm it may have had.

I'm ready for some green-ness.



But, since I'm not the one who controls the weather, all I can do is plan and hope and dream.  Luckily, Janu-Feb is a perfect time to plan one's garden.  And so as the seed catalogues trickled in, I squirelled them away until I needed them for my sanity.  And when that need surfaced recently, I was armed and ready.

It's so invigorating to think of garden produce, flowers, and mowing the lawn.  Just the idea of being able to be outside without 20 minutes of prep-work makes me swoon.  And you know what else has been super-fun?  Sir O has taken this family-gardener-identity and run with it.  I catch him sneaking the catalogues into bed with him.  He begs for us to plant colorful peppers and carrots.  It's downright adorable.

It's also evidence that we are horrendous nerds.  But I'm okay with that.  Now, to take my wish lists to the master gardener around here and see what makes the cut.  We do, after all, only have so much dirt to work with.