As the pandemic presses on, people are doing more home cooking instead of dining out these days. It seems these habits will continue. What’s more, this shift is driving a change in shopping lists as well. As people are turning on their kitchen stoves more often, they are also thinking of options that make home cooking healthier.
A lot of people turn to pick more veggie choices than before for meal ideas and are thinking about improving their food management habits. The idea of making meals from fresh ingredients flourish and some are determined to grow vegetables and herbs for their own plates.
Seizing this opportunity, the Campus Sustainability Office hosted an online workshop on growing microgreens in October 2020. Microgreens are the young shoots of vegetables and herbs that can be consumed less than a month after seeding. Tiny in size, microgreens often deliver an attractive aromatic flavour, concentrated nutrient content, and they come in a variety of colours and textures. They are very convenient to grow, and they can be grown in a variety of locations.
Before joining the workshop, participants were each given a special kit with everything they need, and they were encouraged to follow the advice from the workshop instructor to nurture their komatsuna and beetroot. With step by step demonstrations and detailed explanation, they learned some doable and easy tricks to grow and include microgreens in their diet. They also picked up the techniques to prepare upcycled containers to grow their microgreens and to use empty toilet rolls as their microgreens planters!
As one of the VeggieLicious activities in 2020, this workshop offered an inimitable experience for all participants. It combined theories of veggie diets, hands-on kitchen gardening skills with creative recycling ideas on making little upcycled planters for starting seeds with unwanted empty toilet rolls. It sparked off a journey of getting a continual harvest of fresh, healthy greens with their own hands and the path to greener and more sustainable living habits.
