The $200 Salad

I may or may not have mentioned that prior to beginning my current endeavor to grow actual vegetables in actual dirt, I thought I might give gardening a try "the easy way," i.e., in a just-add-water idiot-proof hydroponic setup called the Aerogarden.

On January 29, I bought the Aerogarden from the local Bed, Bath and Beyond and set it up inconspicuously on the floor in the living room. It is made of black plastic and consists of a base full of water and two bright lights that hover above. To grow stuff, you must also purchase little pods which snap into holes in the base and over the course of four weeks grow into plants, like so:

In this last photo, the light canopy has been raised higher to give the plants more room to grow, so even though they don't look as tall they are actually quite large.

After three and a half weeks of watching the greens grow, it was clearly time to start harvesting some salad and eating it. So at dinner time last night I took my harvesting scissors* and harvesting bowl** over to the harvest area*** to pick some lettuce. We washed it, tossed it with just a touch of olive oil and salt, and ate it right up.

It was the tenderest, creamiest lettuce I have ever eaten! It was divine.

But not very filling, perhaps because it it made only of water and "nutrients" that come in tablet form and are dropped into the bowl every two weeks. So, we had to make some more food, too.

*just normal scissors

**regular bowl

***floor near Aerogarden