22: Peter Burke on Indoor Salad Gardening
Today, Peter Burke of TheDailyGardener.com, author of Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 Days, joins us in the studio to talk about an evolutionary approach to fresh salad every day, even in the winter. Peter began experimenting with organic gardening at age 17 when he was inspired by Mel Bartholomew and his book “Square Foot Gardening.”
Peter works 50-60 hours per week but around 2005, he decided to start growing greens inside during the winter months so he could have fresh salads. He started with sprouts, hydroponics, and lettuce. After much experimenting, he started using loaf pans and tried pea shoots. By growing a small amount on a daily or every other day basis but can keep a fresh salad going.
He discovered that this technique didn’t take up much room and it didn’t take extra lights. He soon added radishes and buckwheat. And then he decided to learn more by teaching.
Discover more of his style on the Podcast!
You can also attend Seed School Online and harvest your own.
Best way to read the book, according to Peter: Look at the pictures and read the captions – Use the A-Z guide to getting started, and then read it!
Peter has been teaching garden classes since 2006, when he started presenting workshops on Indoor Salad Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Extending the Garden Season, and many more. Peter lives and gardens in Calais, Vermont, with his family.
His best advice: DO IT! You can’t mess it up. And if you do, it’s delicious! See the recipe at the bottom of the notes.
Sprouts – Find out more about the amazing superfood cancer fighting benefits of these sprouts that you can grow in your own home on today’s Urban Farm Podcast!
Books & Mentions:
Square-Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons
Rodale Organic Gardening magazine
Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future by David Wolfe
Superfoods on Chelsea Green
Recipe: All-Star-All-Sprout Salad
Ingredients:
1 cup (236.8 ml) chopped sunflower greens
1 cup (236.8 ml) chopped pea shoots
1 cup (236.8 ml) chopped radish greens
1 cup (236.8 ml) chopped buckwheat lettuce
1/2 cup (118.4 ml) chopped broccoli greens
2 tablespoons (29.6 ml) sunflower oil
2 tablespoons (29.6 ml) balsamic vinegar
Herb salt to taste
Instructions:
Mix the chopped greens in a bowl with the herb salt. Add oil and vinegar and toss. I know it sounds too simple, but trust me this is one of the best; give it a try at least once. If you are not sure that you’re going to finish the salad, just mix half greens with half the dressing because the salad won’t keep that well if it has dressing on the greens.
Variation: Add 2 peeled and grated carrots to add a contrasting color and body to the salad. Any salad is enhanced with one ripe avocado, peeled and diced.
Yield: 4 servings
– See more at ChelseaGreen.com
Peter Burke is the author of Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening (Chelsea Green 2015). He has been teaching garden classes since 2006, when he started presenting workshops on Indoor Salad Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Extending the Garden Season, and many more. He also started thedailygardener.com website to support the need for specialized seeds for Indoor Salad Gardening. Peter lives and gardens in Calais, Vermont, with his family. He can be reached at TDGarden@aol.com.
About Indoor Salad Gardening: In this book, Burke presents an incredibly easy, high yielding approach to growing nutrient-dense greens indoors in less than 10 days, without any special grow lamps or equipment—perfect for those living in small spaces or in climates with very short growing seasons. The five basic varieties of seeds Burke uses are sunflower, buckwheat, pea, radish, and broccoli, and he even shares a number of healthy recipes to go along with your sprouts harvest. In addition to writing about what soil sprouts are and his growing technique, Burke also covers how his method is perfect for use in schools to teach kids about plants and even math and information on how to successfully market your greens as a small-scale farming business.
Thank you so much for this podcast! I have learned so much from listening to your fascinating guests! I especially loved this episode! Mr. Burke’s book caught my eye in the Johnny’s Select Seed catalog the day before this aired and I put it on my list to look into further. I was thrilled to hear him speak on your podcast – what timing! The same day I downloaded the book to my Kindke app, purchased the foil bread pans he recommends and potted up some seed left over from last year’s (failed) attempt at growing microgreens. This seems much easier. I have six trays going in my buffet cabinet as we speak. I love learning new ways of growing food! I coordinate a school garden program and I’m already thinking about how I can share this method with my students!
Jodie, that’s awesome! Please keep us updated – I am also going to purchase the book and would love to hear how it goes for you!
Great interview. Food Freedom Radio will be interviewing Peter this Saturday 1/23 at 8a to 9a Central time. http://www.am950radio.com/shows/food-freedom
Great podcast. Glad you had Peter on this podcast. I just started growing sprouts indoors and would like to grow more now. Appreciate the recipe too. I am going to be looking at getting more organic seeds. Does Peter offer the seeds on his site. I don’t see them.
Thanks