Alfalfa microgreens, in fact, are one of the best nutrient-dense plants.
They regularly get added to what people eat. Unfortunately, it is not exactly something you are going to get in your local grocery store. Luckily, it is something you can easily grow in the privacy of your own home.
So, how do you grow alfalfa microgreens?
Surprisingly, not too much. You will have to put your seeds through some sort of rinsing and draining cycle. You will have to put your seeds in a sprouter for this.
After you sprout the seeds, you will then transfer them to a tray and simply wait for the alfalfa greens to grow and be ready for harvest.
So, we want to go into a little more detail. As in, we want to explain the exact step-by-step process needed to grow your alfalfa microgreens.
We do want to take you through the initial processing of the alfalfa microgreens, up to the stage where you harvest.
Don’t worry. This is something that you can do with even no real experience in growing anything.
How Do You Grow Alfalfa Microgreens?
As we discussed, the only thing you will need for your alfalfa microgreens is:
- a sprouter
- your seeds
- growing tray
You will also need a small amount of soil to layer in the tray.
Some people choose to use coconut husk as well.
Step 1
The first thing to do is place the seeds into a bowl.
Again, you will want a bowl that is sufficiently deep:
- You will want to cover the seeds in water. Again, make sure that they are completely submerged. The water should be at a very cold temperature.
- You will want to let them soak for about 12-hours.
- After the 12-hour mark has passed, you will want to drain out all the water. Then uncrowd the seeds by essentially rinsing them.
Step 2
Now that your seeds have been cleaned, you will want to get them over to your sprouter.
Of course, you can also put them in another bowl if you prefer.
However, if you’re going to be growing alfalfa microgreens regularly, it might be worth it to get the proper equipment:
- Cover the seeds in some cold water again.
- At this point, you will need to leave the seeds in cold water for 12-hours.
- After the 12-hours, you will want to rinse off the seeds and cover them again.
Basically, every 12-hours, you are going to rinse off the water the seeds are sitting in.
Then you just sit back and be patient; after about 3-days, the alfalfa microgreens will start to sprout, and you can move on to step 3.
Step 3
You can finally stop rinsing the seeds at this point. However, you will need to drain them properly.
You will want to transfer them over to a growing tray. There should be a light layer of soil at the bottom of the growing tray.
Underneath the growing tray, you will want to place a second tray. This will collect the water that has drained through the soil. This is important you want to be sure your alfalfa microgreens have proper drainage, or you will kill them.
Spread the seeds evenly across the tray. Try to spread them out some, but it doesn’t matter much if they touch.
You will want to water the seeds every 12 hours. This should also be a partial rinse. This means using the tap to water the seeds. No need to turn the tap up to the maximum.
The water will then drip through the soil with time to the bottom tray.
After 3-4 more days, the alfalfa microgreens will be ready to be harvested.
Step 4
The final step is to harvest your microgreens.
This should be dead simple:
- Remove the newly sprouted plants from the tray and place the plants into a bowl or bowl of water.
- In the bowl of water, you’ll want to make sure that you remove all of the hulls.
- Once you have removed the hulls, give the greens a rinse.
- At that point, you can eat them straight away or think about how you might store them.
Step 5
Now you can go through the whole process again!
The alfalfa microgreens also aren’t going to leave any seeds behind, so you will have to get some new alfalfa microgreens to grow again.
But since you know how easy the process is now, you shouldn’t have any issues!
How Long Does It Take to Grow Alfalfa Microgreens?
Typically, alfalfa microgreens will take around 6-days to grow.
Just because they take about 6-days, though, does not mean you have to harvest them at 6-days. Some people may keep them growing for a few more days.
Alfalfa microgreens have a pretty mild flavor profile. If you let that alfalfa microgreen grow a little longer, alfalfa can change its flavor a little.
Many people will play around with the growing times for alfalfa microgreens to find the flavor profile they like best.
How Do You Store Harvested Alfalfa Microgreens?
Ideally, the best time to consume the alfalfa microgreens is as soon as possible.
Having said this, we know that some may have produced far more of the plant than they can eat in one sitting.
This means they will be storing them.
It is important to make sure the alfalfa microgreens are as dry as possible when storing them:
We recommend putting them in salad spinner. This will help to remove all of the water. You can then leave them in a dry plastic bag in the fridge.
If you don’t have a salad spinner, then you can put the alfalfa microgreens between two sheets of paper and leave them in the fridge until they have dried out. You can then put them in a bag just as you did if you were a drying them in the salad spinner.
It is important that they eat the alfalfa microgreens in 5-7 days.
This is important. If they turn brown, they have to be thrown away!
Is There a Special Way to Eat Alfalfa Microgreens?
Not necessarily. The microgreens really don’t have much flavor.
While they will be overflowing with nutrients, they are not going to really do anything to the flavor of what you are eating.
Chances are most people will add the alfalfa microgreens to a salad or sandwich.
We are confident you will be able to find a good number of recipes out there.
Conclusion
Alfalfa microgreens are super nutritious.
The nice thing about growing alfalfa microgreens is that you shouldn’t have a ton of trouble getting them to grow.
The only real majority of work is that you do have to attend to them every 12-hours for something like 6-7 days, but for most people shouldn’t be a problem.
If you put in the work, then you will have a super nutritious salad leaf that would work in plenty of different dishes that you could make.