First of all, I’m not kidding about the broccoli.

We planted a crop of broccoli seeds and I, ahem, neglected to tell the participants we were planting this dreaded member of the cabbage family and eating it sprout form. But hey, whatever works, right?

What you’ll need:
• Ramekins or small glass storage containers (We preferred glass because we could see the roots, which was kind of neat.)
• Potting soil
• Seeds (We bought a small package of Mr. Fothergill’s Broccoli at Canadian Tire; they’re intended to be grown and consumed in sprout format.)

Directions:
1. Fill your ramekins with a little bit of potting soil, taking care to remove any lumps or chunks of bark. Black-thumbed wannabe gardeners like myself should read the planting instructions on the back of the seed package. Amazingly, our seeds sprouted after three days and grew very quickly.

When the girls sampled this crop my youngest exclaimed, “Hey it tastes like apple! No, BOK CHOY!” which is interesting, because the package declares the sprouts to have a “mild, fresh fruity flavour.”

I haven’t told them—yet—that they’ve been nibbling on baby broccoli sprouts. (Insert evil laugh here.)

When we do this again we will spread the seeds a little thicker to get a proper little hedge. I’d like to make one for each family member and use them as edible dinner table decorations. Or maybe we’ll write our names on the ramekins with window markers and use them in lieu of fancy place cards at Sunday dinner. Whatever we end up doing, I’m just happy the kids got some extra greens in their system!

Andrea Tomkins is a mother of two imps, and wife of one. You can follow her adventures on her blog, a peek inside the fishbowl, where she’s been writing about family life since 1999. She’ll be sharing a great new craft idea here at CF.ca every Friday.