Aren’t you bored staying at home, day after day, week after week, and now, month after month? Because, I am.
I have tried to do many different activities to entertain myself in these small-all-same-all days. Recently, I found a stunning project which turned my days, from black-and-white back into vividly colorful. So, today, I am going to invite you to this project by sharing my recent experiences.
What comes to mind when you hear someone talk about planting? Hard work, commitment to your time and effort, physical space like a garden or at least a patio, black dirt under your nails, if you do care about your nails, or maybe some shame of failure. I did have the exact same perception about planting up until recently. I can make this it-is-not-my-thing list more exhaustive by adding one more thing: I am deathly afraid of worms, and especially all kinds of crawling creatures with more than six legs.
Recently, I started two planting projects, and these projects were so simple that they blew away all the worries I had, in no time. In fact, I am not certain whether I can call it even planting, since it is so simple, easy, and straightforward.
The first project I worked on was to grow green onions. If you are like me, you cook lots of Asian foods, and green onions are an essential and irreplaceable ingredient in Asian cooking. Actually I use a substantial amount of green onions for home-cooking in almost every single meal. So, it is one of my happiest moments when I can find fresh green onions at a grocery store. Now, however, I am growing green onions by myself, and I am able to supply the freshest and healthiest green onions to my kitchen every day.
The way I plant green onions is like this: buy a bunch of green onions at a grocery store; just make sure that they have some roots; cut off the bottom white part of them, about 2 inches up; and put them in any container, filled with water. Now, the only thing you need to do is to change the water once a day. Then, in less than a week, you will get fully grown green onions. Then, you are ready to cut off the green parts for your cooking. You can harvest as many as five or six times from the same roots. It is that simple! It grows so fast that you can notice the difference every day.
My second project is growing bean sprouts. Again, this is also like a walk in the park. Buy black beans in any grocery store. Soak them in water for 24 hours. After that, drain them and store them in a container with drain holes and cover it with a cloth. Now, the only thing you do is to water them once a day. In only two days you will see the beans starting to sprout. It is startling to believe that stone-like hard and dry beans contain living life inside them and to witness how fast they grow. This is my bean sprouts on Day 6. I think I need a couple of days to eat them.
Planting green onions and bean sprouts is as easy and simple as this. It is trouble-free, worry-free, failure-free, chemical-free, and most importantly, worm-free.
Beyond all of what I just said, it feels like I am breathing life into a thing. That’s the beauty of planting. It brings to me real joy, amusement and exhilaration. Definitely, I can say this is a silver lining in the dark cloud of the COVID pandemic.
So, what do you think? If you have 79 cents for a bunch of green onions, or 99 cents for a bag of beans, you are ready to go! Who is up for this planting with me?
Lois
