In the United Kingdom, cut cress shoots are commonly used in sandwiches with boiled eggs and mayonnaise. Consumers commonly acquire cress as seeds or (in Europe) from markets as boxes of young live shoots. Keep the seeds dark until after germination and then move to a warm well lit spot ensuring that the medium stays moist. If it’s the middle of winter and there’s nothing much going on in the vegetable garden, or you want some easy and ultra-fresh salad greens, or a rainy day project to help keep the kids occupied, then try growing mustard and cress! Cress ( Lepidium sativum), sometimes referred to as garden cress (or curly cress) to distinguish it from similar plants also referred to as cress (from old Germanic cresso which means sharp, spicy), is a rather fast-growing, edible herb.

You can crowd them in – they’re not going to grow big enough to need any space, and you want plenty to harvest. A delicious salad and sandwich ingredient, Mustard Cress takes up little space and a very small amount of your time. Place the growing medium in a small container or saucer and moisten well, then spread the seed thickly over the surface. To boost the nutritional value of microgreens include extra-virgin olive oil with your meal as the presence of oil helps improve the bioavailability of the fat-soluble nutrients in microgreens (carotenoids, vitamin E, and vitamin K).Cress, sometimes referred to as garden cress to distinguish it from similar plants also referred to as cress, is a rather fast-growing, edible herb. This is one of a series of articles on basic gardening that I have put together for those of you who are just starting out. If you want to grow mustard and cress to harvest them at the same time, then you need to sow the mustard 3-4 days ahead, because mustard seedlings grow faster. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure this information is correct, the data contained here has been supplied by the respective brand owners and Creed Foodservice is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of this data.

If you sow your seeds in the morning then they may have started to germinate by bedtime – small white roots will be visible.L. sativum is often used in experiments to teach biology to students in schools; the plant grows readily on damp paper or cotton, and its fast germination and development time makes it useful in demonstrating plant growth.

If you want something a bit milder, look for oilseed rape (canola) seeds – they can be grown the same way. Mustard can be grown in trays of compost or on the surface of pads of cotton wool, flannel, kitchen towel etc. Garden cress, known as chandrashoor, and the seeds, known as aaliv or aleev in Marathi, or halloon [11] in India, are commonly used in the system of Ayurveda. Seeds and garden supplies will normally be delivered within the time period stated against each product as detailed above. Among dietary minerals, manganese levels are high (26% DV) while several others, including potassium and magnesium, are in moderate content (table).

As a sprouted seed the rape sprout does not look very different but the flavour is unremarkable compared to the old fashioned mix.