Thursday, May 14, 2009

Happy Grass

A while ago on my friend Marne's blog she had some cute wheat grass that she had grown. I thought it would be a fun activity to do with the tots while Jimmy was out of town.

So we found some spare pots and filled them with potting soil and sprinkled the wheat on top. I thought it was really weird not to cover the wheat in dirt, but once they start growing you realize that it's better for them to be on top. Max tipped over several of these pots so ours got a little mixed up. Oops!

A few days later, they had teeny-tiny sprouts. And then a few days later they went from 1/4 inch sprouts to 3-4 inches. It was totally crazy how fast it grew.
I took this photo today which is probably a week after we planted. These grew a little funny because they were growing toward the light and I needed to rotate. My larger pot has filled in really well.

I suppose if I were super healthy, I would grab a handful and toss it into a smoothie, but I think we'll stick to grass viewing only in this house.

This winter I'm going to plant a bunch of tiny pots (like the 49 cent ones at Ikea) to put on shelves in my house. What happy grass to have around!!

I'm not sure what the future is of this grass.
I suppose we ought to trim it??
Replant when it dies??
I guess we'll see.

But for now, we'll enjoy our inexpensive HAPPY indoor grass.


Another question I have is this - what if you planted some in your garden?? - would it really turn into wheat like the golden glorious Idaho wheat fields.  Or is that a completely different type of seed?  Any farmers out there know?

 p.s. - speaking of growing things - our tomatoes froze ... which means we need to start over and buy new plants. We thought it was supposed to be 70 all week which is why we planted last Saturday. And then this freak cold-front zipped in to slaughter our efforts. Next year - tomato tents!!!

2 comments:

Amy D. said...

We did this once for preschool with Owen and it was so fun because it grows so tall so fast. Yes, it will grow in your garden, but why? It's not enough to really be a wheat field and harvesting would have to be by hand :).

Wheat sprouts are really tasty and healthy--great in salad. That's just another idea. If your wheat gets too old, it won't sprout well, but new it does great. I have heard that sprouting your wheat in times of eating food storage is great for adding different nutrients than just grinding the wheat. So, enough from me!

Julie said...

I am going to try this. I looks so fun. Thanks for sharing.