 normal growing conditions - 5 days We are always searching for better ways to do things and we based some production changes on things we had noticed. We noticed a distinct advantage to presoaking larger seeds while we were working with our pea shoots. So we experimented with some radish seeds to see what might happen. We planted three trays of minowase radish seeds. This first photo on the left here is our normal process of placing the seeds on our custom blended MicroFarm Soil with a simple misting to moisten and germinate the seeds. We then took a second tray and used our hydroponic system which involved more water but not a soaking. The third tray in our little experiment was seeds that were soaked for 5 hours and then placed on the same MicroFarm Soil for germination. The comparison photos are shown below with all three growing trays. You can really see the difference the 5 hour soak gave our minowase radish plants. We are normally at the harvest point at 7 days or so, so these all are good to go, but the plants emerging from the soaked seeds are significantly stronger and larger. When you look at the gallery below, the third picture shows all three trays and vividly illustrates that a small tweak can give you large results ...
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 We are preparing to supply some pea shoots for a benefit dinner at the Makena Resort next week and were introduced to kaiware shoots as an addition for sushi. We researched this and started to grow some for the dinner. What has followed is an amazing new offering to our line of micro greens / herbs / shoots. We will have more shots of these spectacular micro shoots shortly.  Pea shoots in a sandwich clamshell We have determined that our kits can be used to grow our crops in virtually any container, thus BYOC (Bring Your Own Container). Check out our results using one of our kits that have the seeds and soil included. Our MicroFarms are basically a 5"x5" square growing trays and our seeds and soil are premeasured to fit our farms. We have taken a hamburger or sandwich clamshell and simply put the soil and then the peas to see what would happen. You can mix a little potting soil to our MicroFarm Soil to fill larger containers as our seed densities are high, so larger containers are easily accommodated. See the photos in the gallery to see what our experiment looks like after a week of growth. You can use any of our seed and soil kits to do this. We will have more available in the coming weeks.  Since today is officially the future according to Doc and Marty, I thought it fitting to give you a glimpse of something from the past that is going to change the future. Our NEW design is basically something that has been done for years (see patent from 1917) and made into commercial and home systems. Our new SIP system is pictured on the right versus our present MicroFarm pea shoot growing system. Everything the same in both except for our bottom watering SIP unit. We have taken this design and applied it microgreen production and is the basis for a new Micro Farm specifically made to grow micro greens/herbs right in your kitchen. The design features simple watering and will include special soil to create a complete microgrogreen production. Watch for formal announcement and availability later this week.  pea shoots at 10 days We delivered a tray of pea shoots today and wanted to document the results of the growth. Not quite optimized yet, but the results provide a good picture of how pea shoots can be grown effectively using our MicroFarms. We have pictured here at the left a shot of the preharvest tray of pea microgreens that have been growing under our MicroFarm LED lights for 10 days. We initially soaked the peas for 8 hours in plain water before planting them in our WonderSoil growing media. Photos below shows the results of our harvest. We obtained over 2 1/4 ounces of fresh pea shoots with a little less than 1 ounce of seed. I think under optimal growing conditions we could get close to 3 ounces of production for a single ounce of pea seeds. We used dun peas for this test and we are testing several more varieties actively. The remaining root mass is simply amazing and we took the whole remain and planted it in our garden outside where several more of the peas are now sprouting !!! Tomorrow watch for our posting of the Micro Pea Farm kits with explanations and pictures of some of the unique features that these pea shoots can bring to your Micro Farming experience ...  Here are some shots made tonight of our new Pea Micro Farms in our single LED MicroFarm. We were doing our normal shots and started experimenting with angles and unique positioning of our pea shoots. We are going to post an in depth blog of the new kits and take it step by step from seed to harvest. Tonight I just wanted to show a playful side of our photography. Our new Pea Micro Farm kits are going to be available by the end of the month in our store. We are testing multiple crops and so far are completely blown away by the incredible visuals and taste. Pea shoots are a staple in Europe and Asia and our new farm will grow an impressive crop in 6-12 days from seed to harvest. Peas require pre soaking to insure good germination. Our blog post last week showed the peas a few days earlier while you can see this picture of what we harvested today. We got a larger container of the sprouts from our tray and the sizes ranged from 3" - 6" with tendrils just starting to show on some of the taller shoots. The insets show the farm and a tray we filled with the harvest. The bottom picture shows the mat of root mass that is left, really incredible stuff. The greens are tender and sweet ... what a great crop of super nutrition. Marc Jaoude of Markito Nutrition gives a good rundown in a recent article here. Watch for our line of Pea Farms to come before the holidays!   peas after 8 days Here are photos of the new configuration of our live container highlighting radishes in full splendor. Also pictured are pea shoots creating an incredible green forest. These new pictures illustrate the novel use of our live trays and turning them into a bottom watered system that allows much more effective watering of the plants and simple visual checking of moisture levels. We are working on a new bottom watered system for our Micro Farms. This new system will be available in time for the holidays. The new self watering system will allow proper hydration while allowing simpler operation and more consistent production. Look for more details in the coming weeks.
Our normal sauce with cold tofu consists for grated fresh ginger with soy sauce. We saved some leftover sauce and remembered that we had some silken tofu that could be used for making sauces thicker. So we took the leftover sauce and combined it with the silken tofu to create a creamy Asian sauce that we tossed on shaved cabbage (both red and green) to create our Asian super slaw. Note that the sauce contains an entire box of silken tofu so the cabbage not only has a healthy dose of fresh ginger, but a lot of protein via the tofu. Usually served as a side dish, this wonderful mix can almost stand alone as a meal. We topped the creation with a healthy amount of fresh microgreens and took the following picture ... please use this as a starting point and season to taste.  Asian Super Slaw:
1/2 head of red and green cabbage 3 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger 1 small block of silken tofu Shave the cabbages and mix together. Take the silken tofu and whip in the soy sauce and ginger until it creates a creamy smooth mixture. Mix into the shaved cabbage and top with fresh microgreens (optional). You can vary the amounts of soy sauce and ginger to taste. You could also add some mayonnaise to get closer to a true slaw mix. This is a great way to get some significant nutrition into your diet. |
UrbaformUrbaform is a technology integrator and developer specializing in food production in the urban environment ... Archives
February 2020
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