Plant Confetti

It's no secret that Hugo's has got to be my all time favorite restaurant anywhere. Chef Rob Evans has this way of taking food that I would normally never even think about eating and creating dishes that I dream about for months afterward. Fois gras ice cream. Beet risotto. Sea urchin. If he were to serve me dog food on a piece of old shoe leather, I'd eat it, because it's going to be remarkable.

The second thing that amazes me about Hugo's is that every time we eat there, I learn something new. Sure, a lot of the dishes are put in front of me that I have just no idea how I would even begin to recreate. That said, at least once during every meal I've had there, food is presented in such a way that I rethink what I'm doing in the kitchen and the garden.

On our last visit, we were introduced to microgreens. As the name implies, microgreens are very young and tender plants that get eaten, stem and all. The cotyledon (or those first, rather plain looking leaves) are pretty bland, but let them age enough to get their first set or so of adult leaves and look out. It's like having controlled doses of flavor on whatever you're eating.

The Johnny's catalog has pages of seeds for microgreens. The seeds are organic and the smallest size is the 1/4 pound bag. It may seem pricey, but consider how many carrot seeds are in a 1/4 pound. That's a lot of microgreens.

My own excursion into microgreens will start once there is room on the grow shelves. I figured I'd order some seeds and get a flat started to add to dishes all summer long. Experimentation is always one of my favorite parts of being a home gardener and I'll keep you posted as to how everything turns out.