Growing Sprouts

It’s mid-winter and all my plants have died. At the end of fall I harvested my balcony garden and moved some of the containers inside. They fell one by one and now only the parsley bravely hangs on to life. Around here the farmers markets run from May to October, so the first one is still several months off.

I still wanted to incorporate fresh, local vegetables into my diet, so I googled plants you can grow indoors in the winter. A lot of the articles I found suggested using artificial lights on the plants, which I didn’t want to do. In my searching I found the idea of growing sprouts and microgreens.

There are a lot of great things about growing sprouts. They grow well at room temperature and don’t require much light. I only have to keep these plants alive for five days before harvesting them. And what can be more fresh or local than sprouts grown right on my own kitchen counter? I decided to try growing sprouts as a way to have fresh produce in the winter, but they can be grown all year round.

Sprouts can also be grown in a tray but I decided to go with the jar method. Here are the directions I used for growing sprouts: https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/grow-your-own-sprouts-jar.html

You can buy a special plastic-screened lid that screws onto a mason jar for sprouting if you want. I used a clean pasta jar with some cheesecloth tied onto the top with a string (I used a rubber band before but I find the rubber band breaks down after a while so string works better for this). This also is a great way to reuse any glass jars you have that you might have lost the lid to. Who needs to go to the store and buy a fancy mason jar and lid when you have a motely collection of jars you got for free? (well, as a bonus to the food in the jar that you bought)

In the bulk spice and tea section of the co-op grocery store I go to they have broccoli seeds for sprouting and I’ve had the best results with those. (The first time I tried growing sprouts I didn’t want to go out and buy anything special so I used the seeds from a squash I was cooking. The seeds took longer to sprout and some of the seeds turned kinda black and gross-looking.)

The directions suggest rinsing the sprouts 2-4 times a day. I do twice a day -in the morning and at night, which takes me about a minute altogether. Growing the sprouts is low-effort, just remembering to rinse them is the tricky part.

With the broccoli seeds I harvest them after 4 or 5 days. I store them in a container in the fridge. They have a nice crunchy texture and I like the sense of accomplishment from eating something I have grown. Buying the sprouting seeds and growing them yourself is also a lot cheaper than buying the packages of sprouts/microgreens from the store. Before I started growing my own sprouts I would rarely eat them because they are so expensive at the store. But now, as someone who eats (and grows their own) sprouts I feel like I have really upped my hippie game a level.

Things I have liked using my sprouts for:

• an ingredient in salads
• on a sandwich or wrap
• as a topping on soups and stir fries

Crocheted Rag Rug

When I was going through my closets I had some clothing that didn’t fit anymore and was too damaged to donate. (Like yoga pants with tears from where my thighs rub together, old camisoles, and thin ankle socks with holes in them.) I decided to turn the old clothing into a rag rug.

Here are the base instructions I used for making the fabric into strips of “yarn” to crochet with. I used a size M crochet hook for this project.

https://www.petalstopicots.com/green-crocheting-making-fabric-into-yarn/

I cut the strips about an inch wide. Since the author of the instructions was doing just one type of fabric (a bed sheet) the consistent width worked well for them. In the future I will probably cut bulkier fabrics into thinner strips so my gauge while crocheting is more consistent.

Since I had a pile of clothes I cut them all up at once. When joining two pieces of fabric strip together I overlapped the end and used a needle and thread to sew stitch or two to connect them. I would not recommend tying them together because when I did that it leaves a big lump in the rug.

I tried doing it in an oval at first, but the ends started curling and it wouldn’t lay flat. I’m not very good at crocheting so I was confused about whether I had too many or too few stitches. I started over and made a rectangular rug all in single crochet.

The rug’s current size used up my initial batch of clothing scraps. But I think leftover scraps from sewing projects will also work well. In the future as I have more scraps the plan is just to keep crocheting on the end.

I am using it as a boot rug. It’s a bit away from the door because the rug is thick and the door wouldn’t be able to open over it. Having a rug that I can easily wash will be nice. I originally wanted to use it in the kitchen but it doesn’t have a grippy back and I didn’t want anyone to slip.

Getting Wax Out of Candle Jars

I used to throw my candles away once the wax got too low for them to burn well because I didn’t know what else to do with them. I knew I could theoretically remove the wax from them so I could reuse the jar but it seemed too difficult and messy. When I hit the end of the mulled cider candle I’ve been using I decided to try a method for getting the wax out.

This how-to video I found for using hot water to remove the candle wax worked really well. I like how it is short and to the point.

If you don’t have a chopstick a butter knife would also work to poke holes in the wax. I used my electric kettle to heat the water. I also placed a crocheted trivet underneath the candle jar to be sure of protecting my counters since I am renting.

It was cool to watch the wax float to the top as it cooled, it looked a lot like a lava lamp.The images below show the wax after it has floated to the top of the water and it cooling.

 

Once the wax had completely cooled I scooped out the wax and removed the metal wick collars. Then I washed the jar and lid with soap and water.