![]() ![]() I use a wider-diameter pipe with an endcap and lots of small holes drilled in (so water can pass through the pipe but the stones/clay can’t). Protection over the standpipe hole is required to stop the stone and gravel falling down the hole. The rest of the growing bed is filled with gravel and clay pellets to a depth of 7 or 8 inches (17.5–20 cm). The standpipe allows water to fill the growing bed to a depth of 6 inches and then drain through the pipe back into the water tank below. It already has a screwhole in it, so all you need to do is find a plumbing attachment (PVC with a diameter of 2 inches / 5 cm) and fit a 6-inch (15 cm) length of standpipe. That top section gets flipped over and becomes the growing bed. I chop off the top 8 inches (20 cm) of the drum. I use a 55-gallon drum (these are often available cheaply or free on Craigslist). It’s super basic in fact, I’m developing a DIY kit for a wheeled model that could live in your house! I manage to do this all winter with a small aquaponics system that I set up in my hoop house. You can trade some seed, sell some seed, eat some seed, regrow the seed, but also sprout some for super-tasty microgreens. It’s one more spin-off benefit from a sustainable food system. Growing microgreens makes total sense if you are saving your own seeds, because seed saving produces a surplus. They are described as light green leaves with faint red stems, and a mild okra flavor. After their first round of experiments, Blumenfield sent me a message saying, “One member of staff didn’t care for them and one really liked them.” But the experiment piqued sufficient interest, and now you can order okra microgreens through Sunburst’s website. Okra seeds germinate and grow best in warm soil, and luckily their greenhouses had a super-hot spot where they grew a lot of the heat-loving seeds. Their production schedule was crazy because of the super-quick turnaround of microgreens. I was amazed by the huge range of edible flowers and microgreens at various stages of production (they were already in their second season of growing okra flowers). Greenhouse manager Erica Blumenfield manages all the growing, and she gave me a tour of the Sunburst Chef and Farmer greenhouses. I gave Sunburst seeds of Clemson Spineless and Red Burgundy. ![]() I sometimes worry that my okra objectivity meter is off (or perhaps nonexistent), so I was keen to know how an experienced microgreen grower would assess okra microgreens. I approached Sunburst Chef and Farmer, an Asheville microgreen and edible flower producer, suggesting that they give okra microgreens a go. Thinning okra seedlings can quickly give you a basket full of okra microgreens. The baby leaves are still a nice addition to a salad for diversity, but in general I prefer to cook the leaves unless they are really young. In the case of okra, once beyond the cotyledon stage, the leaves lose that succulent nuttiness and take on more of their mallow family characteristics as well as “greener” flavor. I often overseed crops, knowing an early thinning can be eaten as microgreens, a later thinning as baby leaves, and a final mature-space thinning as braising greens (think beets, salad greens, brassicas, and turnips). I nibbled on a leaf it had heft and that distinct nutty flavor you’ll begin to associate with raw okra. I ended up with a small basket full of very tender-looking, red-stemmed okra cotyledons (the first leaf stage before true leaves appear). I had to thin them out with scissors to reduce competition and allow the remaining seedlings enough space to keep growing. If you plant old seeds at standard spacing, however, they’ll fail to germinate and you’ll have a patchy patch. Sod’s Law always wins: If you overplant, suspecting low germination, then they’ll all germinate. I’m never one to give up on a seed, though, so when I expect low germination, I compensate by planting a bunch more seeds than usual. ![]() Okra seeds are not known for their longevity, and I’d been working at Sow True Seed for about four years at the time of discovery, so we assumed the okra was older than that. I’d found it at the bottom of a box at the Sow True Seed storage facility, and no one remembered how it had come to be there. ![]() Once I had a random bag of okra seeds simply labeled red okra that I anticipated would germinate poorly. Listen to the excerpt below from the audiobook of The Whole Okra. The following is an excerpt from The Whole Okra by Chris Smith. You can grow your own at home! Okra can be grown using an aquaponics system find a use for any gallon-drums you have left in your garage or shed. Recently, okra joined the list of delicious microgreens. Microgreens can be used as a garnish or addition to provide great nutrients to your meals. ![]()
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