Sprout Your Own Garden
Edible Flowers & Sprouts Anyone?
Grow your own food: A Covid19 Garden for produce like the WWII Victory Gardens.
Even if you live in an apartment, like I do, and have a balcony, you can grow some nutritious edible foods.
One of the simplest and most inexpensive alternatives to growing produce is to grow sprouts. These can be grown all year indoors. They grow quickly, which means you can harvest your nutrient-dense food in just about a week and they don't have to be cooked to enjoy. Purchasing fresh, healthy foods can sometimes be expensive, but sprouts when you grow them yourself the cost is significantly less than purchasing them from the store.
Some commonly sprouted seeds are beans, nuts, broccoli, sunflower seeds and pea sprouts. Many of the benefits are related to the concentrated amount of nutrients in the initial phase of growth. These benefits include a higher vitamin, enzyme and fiber content.
Sunflower sprouts have the most volume and the best taste. If you don’t have much garden space, consider growing your garden in pots. Many of the vegetables and fruits you enjoy can be grown on your porch or balcony.
Edible Flowers can be added to any salad or meal. Both the leaves and petals of the nasturtium plant are packed with nutrition, containing high levels of vitamin C. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello. Reportedly, salads were a large part of his diet. The beauty of nasturtiums is found not only in their vibrant colors, but also the fact they will attract hummingbirds, as well as bees, butterflies and other beneficial pollinators to your yard and garden.
There are many reasons more people are buying seeds and planting their own gardens. One of the main reasons is that you have control over growing your food organically and you can enjoy some of the freshest produce available.Â
Get heirloom seeds that aren’t genetically modified and organic varieties of seeds from Seeds of Change.
Add leaves or blooms to sandwiches, wraps and vegetable juices
Decorate cakes, other desserts and party trays with the flowers, or freeze them in ice cube trays to add a splash of color to cold beverages
Incorporate chopped leaves and blooms into casseroles, soups, risottos and rice dishes; blend them into grass fed butter
Stuff and bake the blooms as you would grape leaves, using a mixture of currants, nuts, rice, and savory spices like cinnamon, cloves and mint
Use chopped leaves to replace garlic or green onions in soups, stir-fries and other dishes
Nasturtiums — colorful flowers that are fast and easy to grow — provide edible blooms known for their peppery tang
They do well in lean soil and thrive even when somewhat neglected
Nasturtiums not only contain beneficial amounts of vitamin C, beta carotene, iron and manganese, but they also boast the highest lutein content of any edible plant
Some of the purported medicinal uses for nasturtiums include fighting bacterial and fungal infections, neutralizing free radicals, promoting hair growth, soothing colds and coughs, and help your skin.
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) is a flowering plant originating from South America whose name literally means "nose-twister." It's important to make a distinction between this type of nasturtium and Nasturtium officinale, which is commonly known as watercress. Natives of the Andes region used nasturtium as a general antibiotic, as well as to treat kidney problems and urinary tract infections.