Content
Intro
If you enjoy a nutty flavor, then you'll love the sunflower shoots flavor. Sunflower is my favorite microgreen.
Add nutritious and delicious sunflower microgreens to your daily meals. It's so dissatisfying to go to the grocery store and see sad-looking vegetables that are half dead and lost all their nutrients but still waiting for me to pick them up and buy them.
How can we have nutrient-dense produce?? We need to control what we intake into our bodies so that we can run in optimal condition.
Adding nutrient-dense microgreens into your diet can significantly benefit your body. Although buying microgreens can land you in the same position with sad-looking microgreens sitting on the shelf slowly dying and losing their nutrients.
Take control of your health and grow them yourself or find a local seller you trust. Developing microgreens yourself is the best way to ensure you have fresh, nutrient-dense produce. Come along to learn how to accomplish vibrant, healthy greens for you to enjoy!
What are Microgreens?
Microgreens are the youth plants harvested before they have become mature adult plants. Microgreens are the baby of the well-known common plants you would have in your garden or buy in the grocery store. For example, if you buy kale at the grocery store, you will be buying a bunch of kale leaves from a mature kale plant. Kale microgreens are the same plant only grown to the size of one to three inches tall and then harvested at that time. They can be harvested in eight to fourteen days, depending on the variety. There is a wide range of flavors with microgreens. They can be very intense flavored compared to adult plants.
Microgreens are grown away from a light source to get lengthy quickly before introducing them into the light. After you see the first true leaves, they are ready to be harvested. The first leaves that you will see are called cotyledons. The first true leaves are the second set of leaves that appear. When you notice these leaves, your microgreens are ready to be harvested and eaten.
Microgreens have a more concentrated nutrient content than mature plants. In most cases, the microgreen antioxidant levels, vitamins, and minerals are higher than the adult plants. There are some vegetables where that is not the case. Overall, eating microgreens will help you incorporate nutrition into your daily menu.
Sunflower Shoots Nutrition
How to Eat Sunflower Microgreens
Sunflower microgreens are nutty in flavor. They taste great in soups, salad, and sandwiches. Microgreens have larger quantities of magnesium, copper, and zinc than vegetables. Sunflower sprouts are very nutritious, rich in vitamins and minerals, including
Vitamins
A
B complex
D
E
Folate
Minerals
Potassium
Magnesium
Copper
Iron
Calcium
Zinc
Phosphorus
Sunflower is also a complete protein
Sunflower microgreens are a fantastic addition to your daily meal plan filled with antioxidants and nutrition.
Growing Sunflower Microgreens
Planting Sunflower Microgreens
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a fresh, delicious, and crunchy bowl of sunflower microgreens to eat? If you would enjoy that, I'm giving you my step-by-step process to grow these delightful sunflower microgreens. These greens taste delicious! Growing sprouts like these are an excellent way to get more greens throughout the winter months.
Here are the instructions on growing black oil sunflower seeds to grow some sunflower sprouts.
Day 1
For the first day, I will put a cup of sunflower microgreen seeds into a jar and fill it with water and a half teaspoon of food-grade hydrogen peroxide. I cover the jar with a glass, so the sunflower seeds are submerged in the water. I soak the seeds for 6 hours.
I use a cup of seeds for my tray size, but your tray size may be different, so you will have to test the number of seeds you need for your specific tray. I use coco coir as a growing medium(soil). After 6 hours of soaking time, I fill the tray with the medium and then add the seed on top of the soil. I'll then push the seeds down with firm pressure, and then I add a tray on top with 20 pounds of weight to push the roots into the soil as they grow. If you don't do this, they will sprout on top of your growing microgreens, and you'll have dead sunflower microgreens that you will have to remove.
There are four 5 pound weights on this tray with the sunflower seeds.
Day 2
I check on the seeds for day two and see how they look. I just look and make sure the soil is still moist so that the seeds are staying moist.
Not too much has changed for day two.
Day 3
Here on day three, they have sprouted and I can see the roots starting to grow out of the seeds and down into the soil. I check them making sure the soil is still moist and then place the tray over the seeds again.
Day 4
Instructions on day four, I check on them and water the seeds once in the day.
Day 5
On day five, the roots are pushing down into the soil. They look excellent! Today I will water one time on top of the sprouts and cover with the weighted tray again.
Day 6
On day six, the sunflower pushes the tray with the weights up, so now I remove the tray, and I water on top of the sunflower sprouts and cover the tray. At this point, I will set the sunflowers under the light. After the sprouts enter into the light they will start to turn green. The sunflower seed can also be placed in a window after they sprout and sprouts start growing.
Day 7
I topwater the sunflower sprouts on day 7, and then place the lid on top.
Day 8
On day eight, I bottom water and I run my hand across the top of the sunflower to knock the seed hulls off the plants. Sunflower seeds don't come off the sprouts easily.
Day 9
I bottom water on day nine and run my hand over the top to dehull the plants. Wow!! They look so delicious. I can't wait to harvest them. Almost time!
Day 11
Harvest day!!
I skipped a day, but day 11 is harvest day. They look so delicious. I can't wait to eat them!
To harvest the microgreens, I take one hand and grab a handful of microgreens near the top, and with the other hand, I cut as near to the base as possible without the knife hitting the soil. It would help if you had a very sharp knife to do this.
After I rinse my sunflower sprouts(wash off all the soil that may be on them) I enjoy eating hummus and microgreen sandwich(pictured below). I have a mix with other microgreens on the sandwich but also included are sunflower sprouts. I also enjoy salads that I mix sunflower sprouts with lemon, lime, and of course a drizzle of olive oil. Then add a little bit of salt and you'll be eating a salad with a fresh nutty flavor filled with organic greens!
The sunflower seeds are a great source of healthy fats, protein, and Vitamin E. They also contain many different minerals to help your body fight against free radicals that can cause cancer. Sunflowers have been used for centuries in traditional medicine practices as a way to combat inflammation and other health issues like arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, or high cholesterol levels. If you're looking for something out-of-the-ordinary but still delicious with an excellent nutritional profile then these sprouts will be perfect! Message me if there is anything I can do to assist you on this journey towards better health through food - just send a message by the live chat near the top of the page or comment below and I'll message back as soon as I can.
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