The decision to garden in the winter is an easy one to make. It requires very little time, space and materials to grow tasty salad greens. While reading the seed catalogs, I came across growing shoots, specifically popcorn shoots. So, off to the local farm supply store I went. I snagged a bag of seed starting mix to start the process of growing shoots.

Besides the seed starting mix, all ingredients were on hand. The popcorn came from the kitchen pantry. There were leftover aluminum casserole trays with plastic covers from the holidays. I used an extra storage container to pre-soak the popcorn seeds for a few days.

This is a great project to start over a very long snowy weekend. As for time to harvest, after the pre-soaking period, it takes 10 to 14 days to get shoots 2 to 4 inches long. The shoots are simply snipped off at the base when they have grown to the length you want. I plan to use them in stir fry dishes and salads of course.

This is such an easy crop to grow, even in the winter!