Micro Greens Salad

radish, chard, kale and mustard sprouts with red onion and blueberries

Or in less fancy talk, veggie sprouts. 

I'm sure I'm not alone in the fact that when I sow seeds, I inevitably over sow. This is partly because it's difficult not to (especially with smaller seeds), and partly because it's a pretty good strategy. You can always thin out a row, but it's inconvenient to fill in a sparsely sown row with supplement seeds. Over sowing also allows for some loss through critters, pathogens, or less robust seedlings etc., without necessarily loosing everything. And of course, there's always at least a few duds in a batch of seeds that aren't viable. 

About 2 weeks ago, I planted my autumn greens and now they are coming up in crowed little rows: 

the radish crowd

Some leafy crops don't need too much thinning, especially if you want to harvest them as baby greens. Mesclun, leaf lettuces, dandelion, or arugula for example don't seem to mind crowds and there's just more for you to harvest.  Other things like root crops and fruiting crops (peas, squash, tomatoes, etc), really need the space to allow for the root and plant to grow unimpeded. And, while things like chard, kale and mustard are fine in crowds if you want to harvest them as young baby leaves, if you want to grow nice big individual plants, it's a good idea to thin them out as you go. Having said that, it always pains me to thin rows ; I feel sorry for the little guys. This regret fades a little, I find, if you eat them.

Hence, micro greens salad. They also make lovely garnishes to sprinkle over your food. Just rinse them gently, sprinkle and eat.