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You plant your tomatoes full of hope in May, and then you wait, and for weeks there is nothing but two little leaves that do not seem to do anything at all. By July the patience has run out, and you have decided you do not have the thumb for it, and you never try again.
The trouble was never your thumb. The trouble was that nobody told you to start with something fast. There are crops you can plant that will feed you in ten days, two weeks, three weeks, well inside a single month, and that first taste of something green you grew yourself is the thing that hooks a person for life. Get one harvest under your belt, and you are a gardener forever. So today I am giving you five fast crops, from the very fastest to the ones that push right up against that month mark, any of which will give a beginner that first sweet victory.
Here is what I walk you through in this one:
β Microgreens, the fastest food there is, a tray of tender greens in as little as ten days
β Pea and sunflower shoots, heartier and nutty, and how one handful of seed can feed you twice
β Baby lettuce, why you can harvest th
You plant your tomatoes full of hope in May, and then you wait, and for weeks there is nothing but two little leaves that do not seem to do anything at all. By July the patience has run out, and you have decided you do not have the thumb for it, and you never try again.
The trouble was never your thumb. The trouble was that nobody told you to start with something fast. There are crops you can plant that will feed you in ten days, two weeks, three weeks, well inside a single month, and that first taste of something green you grew yourself is the thing that hooks a person for life. Get one harvest under your belt, and you are a gardener forever. So today I am giving you five fast crops, from the very fastest to the ones that push right up against that month mark, any of which will give a beginner that first sweet victory.
Here is what I walk you through in this one:
β Microgreens, the fastest food there is, a tray of tender greens in as little as ten days
β Pea and sunflower shoots, heartier and nutty, and how one handful of seed can feed you twice
β Baby lettuce, why you can harvest th
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00:00You put a seed in the ground, and then you wait.
00:02And the waiting is where most first-time gardeners give up.
00:07You plant your tomatoes full of hope in May, and you stand over them every morning,
00:12and for weeks there is nothing, just two little leaves that do not seem to do anything at all.
00:19By July, you have lost heart.
00:22The patience ran out before the harvest came in, and you decided you do not have the thumb for it,
00:28and you never try it again.
00:30I want to fix that today because I have seen it too many times.
00:35The trouble was never your thumb.
00:38The trouble was that nobody told you to start with something fast,
00:42because there are things you can plant that will feed you in ten days, two weeks, three weeks,
00:48well inside a single month.
00:51And that first taste of something green you grew yourself,
00:55that is the thing that hooks a person for life.
00:57Get one win under your belt, one harvest, and you are a gardener forever.
01:04So today, I am going to give you five fast crops,
01:09from the very fastest to the ones that push right up against that month mark,
01:14any of which will give a beginner that first sweet victory.
01:18And here is why fast crops are the right place for a beginner to begin,
01:23beyond just the speed of them.
01:25They cost almost nothing to try,
01:28a packet of common seed and a box of dirt,
01:32so a failure costs you pennies and teaches you something,
01:36where a failed bed of slow crops costs you a whole season.
01:40They need next to no space.
01:43A sunny windowsill will do.
01:45You need not own a scrap of land.
01:48And they forgive a beginner's mistakes,
01:50because you are not nursing a plant for three long months,
01:54hoping nothing goes wrong.
01:56You are in and out in two or three weeks,
01:59before much can go wrong at all.
02:01Low cost, little space, quick reward, and small risk.
02:07There is no better way under heaven
02:10to learn whether a thing will grow for you
02:12than to start with a crop that grows fast, cheap, and easy.
02:17I am Elias.
02:19My family came over from the Palatinate in 1838,
02:23and we have grown our own food on this Lancaster County ground
02:27every year since.
02:29And I will tell you,
02:30the old people knew all about fast greens,
02:34because they needed them.
02:36In the late winter and the early spring,
02:38when the root cellar was running low
02:40and there had been no fresh green thing on the table for months,
02:45a body fairly aches for something green and living to eat.
02:49So they grew quick greens in shallow boxes on the windowsill
02:54and in the first beds of spring,
02:56and those fast little crops
02:58carried them through that hungry gap
03:00between winter's end and summer's plenty.
03:03That is the old knowledge I want to hand you now,
03:08and it happens to be the very best way for a beginner to start.
03:13Let us go from the fastest to the slowest.
03:16Let me tell you where I learned this,
03:18because it was at my grandmother's elbow in the worst stretch of the year.
03:23February into March,
03:26what the old people called the hungry month,
03:29when the apples in the cellar had gone soft and wrinkled,
03:32and the last of the kraut was eaten,
03:34and there had not been a fresh green leaf on the table since fall.
03:39I remember as a boy
03:41how a body would near crave something green by then,
03:45your whole self hungry for it
03:47in a way you cannot explain to anyone
03:50who has always had a market open in January.
03:53And my grandmother, every winter,
03:56kept shallow wooden boxes of soil
03:58going on the south windowsill of the kitchen,
04:02sewing them thick,
04:03cutting the little greens off,
04:05sewing them again,
04:06all through that gray stretch.
04:09She called them her windowsill greens,
04:12and they were the first fresh thing
04:15any of us tasted each year,
04:17and I can still remember
04:18the bright green bite of them
04:20after a winter of heavy cellar food.
04:24She was growing what folks now pay a fancy price for
04:27and call by a fancy name,
04:29and she was doing it
04:31to keep her family fed and well
04:33through the lean weeks,
04:35for next to nothing on a windowsill.
04:38That is the knowledge I am handing you.
04:41It served them through hard winters,
04:44and it will give you your first easy win.
04:47The first and the very fastest crop
04:50you will ever grow
04:51is what folks now call microgreens.
04:54Do not let the fancy name put you off,
04:56for the thing itself is old
04:58and simple as can be.
05:00A microgreen is nothing more
05:02than a common vegetable
05:03picked when it is just a tiny seedling,
05:06a few days old,
05:07no bigger than a blade of grass.
05:09The same seed that would grow
05:11into a full head of cabbage
05:13or a tall radish.
05:14You simply harvest it
05:16when it is a baby,
05:17a little green sprout
05:18an inch or two tall,
05:20and you eat the whole of it.
05:22Here is how it is done.
05:24You take a shallow box or tray,
05:26an old wooden flat,
05:28anything a couple inches deep
05:29that will hold a little soil and drain.
05:32You fill it with a fine soil,
05:34and then,
05:35and here is the difference
05:36from regular planting,
05:38you sow the seed very thick,
05:40far thicker than you ever would
05:42in the garden,
05:43a whole dense carpet of seed
05:45across the surface,
05:46near touching.
05:47You press it in,
05:49water it gentle,
05:50and set it in a bright window,
05:52and in a week to twelve days,
05:54you will have a thick green mat
05:56of little sprouts
05:57standing up like the fur
05:59on a creature's back,
06:00and you take your scissors,
06:01and you cut the whole tray
06:03off at the soil line,
06:04a great handful of fresh tender greens,
06:07and into the salad or the soup it goes.
06:10Let me give you a few particulars
06:12so your first tray does not fail you,
06:14for the method is simple,
06:15but there are two or three places
06:17folks stumble.
06:18Your soil wants to be fine and crumbly,
06:21and able to drain,
06:23not heavy and wet,
06:24for a tray sewn thick
06:26and kept too soggy
06:27will turn and grow a fuzz of mold
06:29and break your heart.
06:31So water gentle,
06:32keep the soil damp
06:34like a wrung out cloth
06:35and never sopping,
06:37and give the tray air.
06:38Do not seal it up tight
06:39in a closed, warm place
06:41where mold thrives.
06:43A bright, airy windowsill
06:45is just the spot.
06:46Some folks lay a second tray
06:48or a bit of board
06:49lightly atop the seed
06:51for the first two or three days
06:52to keep it dark and damp
06:54while it sprouts.
06:55Then lift it off
06:56and bring the tray to the light
06:58once the sprouts stand up,
07:00and that gives a fine,
07:01even green carpet.
07:03And use clean soil
07:04and a clean tray each time,
07:06for cleanliness is half the battle
07:08against mold
07:09in a thick sewn tray.
07:11Mind those few things,
07:13and your trays will come up
07:14thick and sweet
07:15near every time.
07:17Why, I love this one
07:18for a beginner.
07:19It is the fastest food there is,
07:22ready before you have time
07:23to lose heart.
07:24It is tender
07:25and full of goodness,
07:26and you can sow
07:28tray after tray,
07:29one after another,
07:30so as one is cut,
07:32another is coming on,
07:33and you never run out.
07:35Most any seed works,
07:36the radish,
07:37the cabbage,
07:38and its kin,
07:39the arugula.
07:40You harvest right
07:41when the first true leaves show,
07:43those being the leaves
07:44that look like the real plant,
07:46just after the first
07:47little seed leaves
07:48that come up first
07:50and look like nothing
07:51in particular.
07:52Ten days to a fresh,
07:54green meal.
07:55There is no faster start
07:56in all of gardening.
07:58Quick word before I go further.
08:00The old methods my family uses,
08:02there is more of it
08:03than fits in any one video.
08:05I gathered the whole of it
08:06into a book
08:07at EliasYoder.com.
08:09The book is the long version.
08:11If you want it,
08:12it is there.
08:13I will not mention it again.
08:15The second group
08:16is close kin to the first,
08:18but I set it apart
08:19because they look
08:20and taste quite different.
08:21These are pea shoots
08:22and sunflower shoots.
08:24They are grown the same way,
08:26sown thick in a shallow tray,
08:28but from bigger seeds,
08:30the common pea
08:31and the sunflower seed.
08:33The pea shoots
08:33are a wonder for a beginner.
08:35You take ordinary peas,
08:37the dried kind,
08:38give them a soak
08:39in water overnight
08:40if you like,
08:41though you need not
08:42even do that,
08:43sow them thick in your tray,
08:45and up they come
08:46into tender green shoots
08:47that taste exactly
08:49like a fresh sweet pea
08:50straight from the pod,
08:52that bright green garden taste,
08:54weeks before any actual pea
08:56would be ready in the garden.
08:58You snip them young
08:59and eat them raw in a salad
09:01or wilt it into a hot dish.
09:03And here is a thrifty turn.
09:05Those same pea shoots,
09:07if you let some grow on
09:08and set them out,
09:09will go on to become
09:11pea plants in your garden,
09:12so one handful of seed
09:15can feed you twice.
09:17The sunflower shoots
09:18are my own favorite
09:20of all of these.
09:21You would not expect it,
09:23but a sunflower sprout
09:24keeps that rich,
09:26nutty taste
09:26of the sunflower seed,
09:28like a fresh,
09:29green version
09:30of the seed itself,
09:31and it is a fine,
09:33refreshing thing to eat.
09:35They want the bigger seeds
09:37soaked first,
09:38and you watch them
09:39a touch more careful
09:40for mold,
09:41since a big seed,
09:42sown thick and damp,
09:44can sometimes turn.
09:45But keep the air moving,
09:47and they do beautifully.
09:49Twelve to fifteen days,
09:51and you have them.
09:53Peas and sunflowers,
09:55a little slower
09:56than the tiny microgreens,
09:58but heartier
09:59and with more substance
10:00to them.
10:02The third group
10:03is the whole wide world
10:05of baby lettuce
10:06and baby greens,
10:07and here is where
10:08I want to teach you
10:09a thing about
10:10how a plant grows,
10:11because it unlocks
10:13everything.
10:14A lettuce does not leap
10:16from seed to full head.
10:18It grows up through stages.
10:21And here is the beautiful part.
10:23You can harvest it
10:24at any stage along the way
10:26and eat it.
10:28Cut it as a tiny microgreen
10:30at a week.
10:31Or let it grow a little
10:33and cut a small, tender baby head
10:35at three or four weeks.
10:38Or let it go all the way
10:40to a full-grown head,
10:41though that takes longer
10:43than our month.
10:44The very same plant,
10:46three different harvests,
10:48depending only on
10:50how long you let it stand.
10:52So for fast eating,
10:54you grow lettuce
10:55to the baby stage,
10:56those tender young leaves,
10:59sweeter and more delicate
11:00than the tough,
11:01full-grown head,
11:02and ready well inside a month.
11:05Now here is a gardener's secret
11:07on the spacing,
11:08and it matters.
11:10If you mean to harvest
11:12your lettuce young and small,
11:14plant it close together,
11:16a good deal closer
11:17than you would for full heads,
11:19because each plant
11:20needs less room
11:22when it is only going to grow
11:23to baby size.
11:25Plant it thick,
11:27let it fill in,
11:28and then cut your baby leaves
11:30as you need them.
11:32The loose-leaf kinds
11:33are best for this,
11:34for you can take the outer leaves
11:36and leave the heart growing.
11:38Cut and come again,
11:40one planting feeding you for weeks.
11:44Before I leave the greens,
11:46let me give you the one habit
11:48that turns a single harvest
11:50into a steady supply,
11:52for it is the real secret
11:54of never running short.
11:56It is what the old folks called
11:58succession sowing,
12:00and it is nothing more than this.
12:02Do not sow your whole packet at once.
12:06Sow a little tray
12:08or a little row this week,
12:11and another the next week,
12:13and another the week after,
12:15a small sowing every week or so.
12:19Then as the first comes ripe
12:21and you cut it,
12:22the second is right behind it coming on,
12:25and the third behind that,
12:27and you are never without
12:29and never drowning
12:31in more than you can eat at once.
12:34A man who sows one great planting
12:37feasts for a week
12:38and starves the rest.
12:40A man who sows a little every week
12:43eats steady all season long.
12:47With these fast crops,
12:49it works a treat
12:50because they come so quick
12:52you see the reward of it in no time.
12:54Three small sowings
12:57a week apart,
12:58and you will have fresh greens
13:00every few days
13:02without a gap.
13:03And remember that
13:05cut and come again gift
13:06I spoke of,
13:07for it doubles all this.
13:10Many of these greens,
13:12the loose leaf lettuce
13:13and the kale especially,
13:15you do not pull up by the root
13:17when you harvest.
13:18You take only the outer,
13:21older leaves,
13:22cutting or pinching them off
13:24near the base,
13:25and you leave the young heart
13:27of the plant standing.
13:28And that heart
13:30goes right on growing
13:31and throws out new leaves.
13:34And in a week or so,
13:35you come again
13:36and take another,
13:38picking off the very same plant,
13:40and again after that.
13:43One planting,
13:44harvested gently this way,
13:46will feed you for weeks on end.
13:50Between succession sowing
13:52and cut and come again,
13:53a very small bed
13:55or a few trays
13:56will keep a family
13:58in fresh greens
13:59far longer
14:00than you would ever believe.
14:03The fourth group
14:04is one that surprises people,
14:06and it is one of my favorites.
14:08It is the greens
14:10of the root crops.
14:12Now hear me,
14:13for this is a thing
14:14most folks throw away
14:16in ignorance.
14:17When you grow a beet
14:18or a radish
14:19or a turnip,
14:20that leafy green top
14:21is not waste.
14:23It is a fine vegetable
14:24in its own right,
14:25and it comes ready
14:27long before the root below
14:28ever swells.
14:30So you can grow these crops
14:31for their greens alone,
14:33harvested fast and young
14:35before the root
14:36has even begun to bulb.
14:39The beet greens
14:40are the prize of these
14:41to my taste,
14:42better than the beet
14:43itself some days.
14:45Cut them young and tender
14:46and wilt them in a pan
14:48with a little fat,
14:49some onion,
14:50a bit of garlic,
14:51and you have a dish
14:52finer than many a thing
14:53folks fuss over.
14:55Radish greens
14:56and turnip greens
14:57the same.
14:58They sprout fast
15:00and they grow fast.
15:01That is their nature,
15:02and they will give you
15:03a green harvest
15:04in short order.
15:06And here is the bonus of it.
15:08With the radish especially,
15:09if you let it go on
15:11to that 30-day mark
15:12instead of cutting
15:13just the greens,
15:15you will get a little crop
15:16of baby radishes besides,
15:18the root itself,
15:20crisp and peppery.
15:22So a row of radishes
15:23can feed you twice over,
15:25the greens early
15:26and the roots
15:27a little later.
15:29The beet and the turnip
15:30take a touch longer
15:31to make a root,
15:32but their greens
15:33are yours fast either way.
15:36The fifth and last group
15:38I will call
15:38the finer greens,
15:40the ones a step up,
15:41that still come in
15:42under a month
15:43if you take them young.
15:45The first is kale.
15:47A full-grown kale leaf
15:49is tough
15:50and wants cooking,
15:51but baby kale,
15:52picked young,
15:53is tender
15:54and sweet
15:55and mild,
15:56fine raw
15:57in a salad,
15:58none of that toughness
15:59you have to chew through.
16:01The same plant,
16:02just taken young.
16:03There are beautiful
16:05kinds of it too,
16:06some with deep
16:07blue-green leaves
16:09and bright veins
16:10running through,
16:11as pretty in the bed
16:12as it is good
16:13on the plate.
16:14Then there is bok choy,
16:16sometimes called pak choy,
16:18one of those crisp,
16:20upright greens
16:21with the thick white stems,
16:22and for fast-growing,
16:24you want one of the
16:25small dwarf or baby kinds,
16:27which come quick
16:28and tender
16:29and are a fine thing
16:31plucked whole
16:32and cooked in a hot pan.
16:34And there is mizuna,
16:35which is a kind
16:36of mustard green,
16:37giving you that lively,
16:39peppery, spicy bite
16:41that wakes up a salad
16:42or a dish of cooked greens.
16:45These finer greens
16:46push right up
16:47against the month mark,
16:49the slowest
16:49of our five groups,
16:51but still well inside it,
16:52and they give a beginner
16:54something a little special
16:55to be proud of
16:56beyond the plain lettuce.
16:58So there are your five.
17:00The micro-greens,
17:01fastest of all,
17:03ten days to a tray
17:04of tender sprouts.
17:06The pea and sunflower shoots,
17:08a touch heartier,
17:09near two weeks.
17:11The baby lettuce,
17:13sweet and tender
17:14inside a month
17:15with the cut
17:16and come again gift.
17:17The greens of the root crops,
17:20the beet and radish
17:21and turnip tops,
17:22fast and fine
17:24and twice giving.
17:25And the finer greens,
17:27the baby kale
17:28and bok choy
17:29and mizuna,
17:30right up against
17:31thirty days,
17:33a little something special.
17:35Plant any one of these
17:36and you will be eating
17:38something you grew
17:39with your own hands
17:40before the month is out.
17:42Now let me say a word
17:44on what to do
17:44with all this
17:45once it is cut,
17:46because a harvest
17:47is only good
17:48if it comes to the table well.
17:50The beauty of these
17:52fast greens
17:53is how easy
17:54they are to use.
17:55The tender ones,
17:56the micro greens
17:57and the shoots
17:58and the baby lettuce,
17:59want little more
18:00than to be rinsed
18:01and tossed fresh.
18:03A handful of several
18:04kinds together
18:05makes a fine mixed salad,
18:07the mild lettuce
18:08and the nutty sunflower
18:10and the peppery mizuna
18:12and a few beet greens
18:13all in one bowl,
18:15dressed with nothing more
18:16than a little oil
18:17and vinegar
18:18and a pinch of salt.
18:19The heartier ones,
18:21the root greens
18:22and the baby kale
18:23and the bok choy,
18:25take kindly to a hot pan,
18:27wilted quick
18:28in a little fat
18:29with onion and garlic,
18:30a dish in five minutes.
18:32And any of them,
18:34a handful thrown
18:35into a soup
18:36or a pot of beans
18:37at the last minute,
18:38brightens the whole thing.
18:40You need be
18:41no kind of cook.
18:43These greens
18:43are so fresh
18:44and good in themselves
18:46that the plainest handling
18:47suits them best.
18:49A bowl of greens
18:50you cut yourself
18:51an hour before supper
18:53needs almost nothing
18:54done to it.
18:55Now let me say
18:56the small, honest word
18:58about who profits
18:59from your believing
19:00gardening is slow
19:01and hard
19:02and not for you.
19:04Not to rile you up,
19:06just so you see
19:07the shape of it.
19:08There is good money
19:09in your buying
19:10a clamshell of microgreens
19:12at the fancy market
19:13for the price
19:14of a good meal.
19:15Those very same sprouts
19:17you could grow
19:18in a tray
19:18on your sill
19:19for pennies
19:20from a packet of seed.
19:22There is money
19:23in the bagged salad
19:24and the bunched greens
19:26trucked in from afar.
19:27And underneath
19:28the selling
19:29there is a quiet message
19:31that growing your own
19:33is hard,
19:34slow,
19:35a thing for experts,
19:36best left to others,
19:38best left bought.
19:40It is a lie
19:41and these five crops
19:43are the proof of it.
19:45A child can grow
19:46a tray of microgreens.
19:48I am not telling you
19:49a man schemed this.
19:51No one had to.
19:53It is worse
19:54than a conspiracy
19:55because it is a system
19:56nobody had to coordinate.
19:58It simply pays better
20:00to sell you greens
20:02than to teach you
20:03that the fastest of them
20:04grow themselves
20:05in a box of dirt
20:07by your window
20:07in ten days.
20:09The old people
20:10grew their own
20:11because nobody
20:12was selling them anything
20:14and they would laugh
20:15to see a sprout
20:16sold at the price of meat.
20:18So if you have never
20:19grown a thing,
20:21start here.
20:22Start fast.
20:23Get that first harvest,
20:25that first taste
20:26of something green
20:27off your own windowsill
20:29and I promise you
20:31it will light something
20:32in you
20:33that does not go out.
20:35The slow crops,
20:36the tomatoes
20:37and the squash
20:38and the corn,
20:39they will come
20:40and you will have
20:42the patience for them
20:43once you have a win
20:44behind you.
20:45But start with the fast ones.
20:47Start with a victory.
20:49Now I want to hear from you
20:51and I ask honest
20:53because I learned
20:54the whole country
20:55from these comments.
20:56Tell me in the comments below
20:58if you are new to growing,
21:00which of these five
21:02will you try first?
21:03And tell me your county
21:05and whether you mean
21:06to grow it
21:07on a windowsill
21:08or out in a bed
21:09because that changes
21:11what does best for you.
21:13And if you are an old hand,
21:15tell me your favorite
21:16fast crop
21:17that a beginner
21:18ought to know.
21:20I read every one.
21:22Next time,
21:23my wife Esther
21:24is going to show you
21:25how she keeps
21:26our kitchen windowsill
21:27green
21:28all the winter long.
21:29The trays of fast greens
21:32and the herbs
21:33and the cuttings
21:34she keeps going
21:35through the cold,
21:36dark months
21:36when the garden outside
21:38lies under snow.
21:39So there is always
21:41something fresh
21:42and living
21:43to bring to the table.
21:44It is the very best place
21:47to put what you have
21:48learned today
21:49to use.
21:50Everyone remembers
21:51their first harvest.
21:53It is a small thing,
21:55a handful of green sprouts
21:57off a windowsill.
21:58but it changes
21:59how a person
22:00sees the world
22:01because for the first time
22:03you fed yourself
22:05from a seed
22:06and a little dirt
22:07and your own care
22:08and you understand
22:10in your hands
22:11what your grandparents
22:13knew in theirs.
22:15The kitchen that grows
22:16even a little of its own
22:18is a kitchen
22:19that remembers it can.
22:21The people who built
22:22this country
22:23with their hands
22:24knew that
22:25and we are only
22:26just starting
22:27to remember it.
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