The 52 week salad challenge: several weeks on!

Oops! I got distracted by actually doing, y'know? And I have, honest, and I mostly took pictures while I was doing. Only fair, innit!

So, week 2, I nearly got behind. A little supermarket pot of basil was crying out to me to be rescued, so I bought it, for 70p. It must have been last year's, because there were only two stalks, but they both looked like mature plants, well, almost, so I put them in their own little pots, cut them down to have an easier time, and they're both really happy still - well, mostly happy, I think I didn't quite take off enough leaves.

What I *did* take off, I combined with the sprouted mung beans, and ate. Go me!

This is the little basil plant, ready to be divided.

Done! There's a lot of new growth showing on them now, I'm sure they're going to make it, no basil plant funerals here any time soon. The cuttings are sitting in water at the moment, hopefully they'll take root, and I'll have some more. When I'm ready, I'll buy a couple of supermarket pots and make a little basil forest, but not yet. Happy with this, tho!

The sprouts from the first week went really well with the basil leaves, and this is how they looked together with some chili sauce - thats from Approved Foods, bless them, I haven't grown my own chilis yet.

This week, the project has been to grow some cress seeds - I confess, the seeds were Best Before 2009, but they did eventually sprout.

This is how they looked a few days ago. Today (I'll include an update on the next week's) they're looking more like cress, but I don't like it nearly as much as the sprouting - I'm quite prepared to add sprouting to my weekly schedule, but this isn't great, though I might feel better about it if I used a little layer of compost, rather than kitchen towel **shruggy smiley**

All in all, although I might be one of the least active on this challenge, I'm really pleased I'm taking part - must remember to post over there at the end of the month. And this week's challenge? I have some lettuce seeds. I suspect they're as old as the cress seeds, but we'll see :)

The 52 week salad challenge begins

The challenge is from VP at Veg Plotting, which is a *really* professional blog, with huge amounts of information, both on there and referenced.

http://vegplotting.blogspot.com/2012/01/52-week-salad-challenge-begins.html

And now that we're at the New Year, it seems appropriate to take on a challenge, a practical one anyway - I have enough challenges that need just online or written work to fill a book of their own, which is very aargh.

Anyway, I've Commented on the post I've linked to there, and I did indeed put some mung beans into soak. I'm going to root about (geddit?) on VP's site now to look for quick instructions on sprouting - I'm fairly sure I remember how, but better check, poor little mung beans, it would be sad to do it and drown them and have to throw them away ...

I confess, I hadn't researched the posts carefully enough: I was going to grow in this, just a food tray from a supermarket. But I read the sprouting post, and it seemed the drainage would be a nightmare. The label, by the way, is that classic of the green world, a piece of a plastic bottle. And the beans themselves are on the right, soaking in a little glass jar that held pesto (to which I am addicted - this jar is from the Waitrose version, a nectar indeed).

Then I thought of this, which I bought from Zimbabwe more than ten years ago - I wouldn't normally do that, but I've since had a couple of presents of much more dramatic woven stuff, and a big basket also from Zim, so at least a single use before I get something more appropriate is okay. Though its certainly not two inches high (EDIT - but that doesn't matter because it won't be stacked, d'oh!).

This big basket, it cost about 50p, which even at the time was a bargain. Absolutely unique, especially because of the bent twig for the handle. I bought it from an ordinary little stall at the roadside, which is a great way to buy - *all* of the money goes straight to the woman who made it, after all.

This big square one was a gift a couple of years ago. I think the "crazy patchwork" effect might mean its a more Western approach, but its still hand made by someone ...

I've photographed the reverse as well, as the handfinishing using natural objects is so remarkable - you can see where the stalks or strands or whatever they are have been chopped off in the finishing work, so it will sit straight on a table. Gorgeous.

This one is more accomplished, its made of softer strands, more tightly woven, some of its been dyed and then woven into patterns. Its less striking because of that, but if you look closely (at the rim, on the right hand side) you can just see that its not concentric rings - its a spiral! Thats a lot more impressive, and a lot cooler :) :) :)



This business of whether the sprouts are supposed to root or not is a bit confusing: if its a tray you're using, its good to give the sprouts something to root to; if you're using a bag, you should move the sprouts around to stop them rooting ... I think chaos theory (otherwise known as suck it and see) might operate here.

A bag seems the best alternative long term, but I'll be using the little Zim basket for this helping. I think I might end up actually *knitting* a bag, not sure yet.

This post seems to be much more about basketwork, but you know what, there's an important principle there - how to use those dramatic things we buy on holiday! The little one I'm using to sprout the seeds, thats been my bedside tray for ages, so things don't fall off my chair. The lovely big square one can do that for a while, thats fine. Usefulness!

Wish me luck with the sprouting!