Cucumbery Borage Growing Diary

Our limited edition Borage Microgreens will bring fresh flavor, luxurious texture and a gourmet look to all your meals. This juicy microgreen grows luscious stems and leaves that taste like cucumber with a subtle melon undertone 🌱🍈🥒. Cucumbery Borage Microgreens bring a refreshing crunch you don’t want to miss!

Health Benefits

🌱 Contain vitamin K for bone development and maintenance of bone health.

🌱 Contain vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant for skin health.

🌱 Contain vitamin B to help the body convert food into energy, create new blood cells, and maintain healthy skin cells, brain cells and other body tissues.

🌱 Good source of fiber to aid in cardiovascular health and promote regularity.

🌱 Good source of folic acid to help cells function properly and help red blood cells to mature.

*Scientific articles:

https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/borage

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/borage

Taste & Appearance

🌱 Unlike most microgreens, borage is a beautiful flowering plant, not a vegetable plant.

🌱 Borage microgreens have pretty large and oval cotyledons that are bright green in color and sometimes slightly furry.

🌱 They have a very strong cucumber and melon flavor with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

🌱 Micro borage can add a fresh pop of fresh flavor to many dishes, both sweet and savory.

Borage microgreens are a wonderful accompaniment to salads (including fruit salads, pasta salads and potato salads), dips, smoothies/juices and mild fish dishes.

You can find our favorite borage microgreen recipes in our FREE Recipe eBook. We hope you love them.

Follow our Micro-Borage Growing Experience

• The peel time is around 5-6 days after the initial soak.
• The grow time is around 7-10 days.
• Borage microgreens will grow to be about 2 inches tall when ready to harvest.

Day 1 - Planting the Seed Quilt

Just follow the simple Hamama instructions. This video demonstrates how to soak your Seed Quilt for optimal germination.

Give your Seed Quilt a quick shake to evenly distribute the seeds, add water to just below the fill line on your tray, then set the quilt on the tray’s bottom ribs. To ensure that it is adequately soaked, be sure to hold it down long enough for the quilt to turn a shade darker. After the soak, be sure that the quilt is properly propped on the tray's bottom ribs so that neither side of the quilt is dipping into the water. Make sure that no water is left pooling on top of the seed pockets. Find more watering tips here.

Day 2

The Seed Quilt won’t look much different. The water level may have gone down from day one, which is normal [Do not add additional water at this point].

Another thing to note is the environment where you keep your greens! When referring to temperature, anywhere between 65-80 F is best. The warmer they are in that range, the faster they will grow with predictable health. Cooler temps can stunt the growth and it'll take a little longer for the seeds to germinate.

What’s the top layer for? It's important to have a weighted black-out period for the first few days of growing microgreens. The weighted black-out period (seeds held down + darkness) encourages the seeds to send their roots downward, as opposed to growing outward and sending out root hairs to grab moisture from the air.

Day 3 -4

With many of our other Seed Quilts, you will commonly see some germination by day 3 or so. You should notice even ballooning across the Seed Quilt more and more each day after that. At this point, they are starting to set their roots down into the coconut mat.

White Fuzzy Roots, What’s the Deal?

If you see these white fuzzy root hairs as shown above, know that your Seed Quilt is happy, healthy and growing! Don’t worry - these tiny little root hairs are a completely normal part of the growing process. When roots have access to lots of oxygen for root respiration, these tiny fuzzy root hairs form - a great sign of healthy, happy root development!

Day 5-6

Peel Day! It’s important not to peel too early - Not only does the top paper help the roots but it’s also beneficial for the greens themselves. It keeps moisture in from the initial soak, regulates temperature and humidity, and also shields the seeds from light during the germination process.

Once the greens are pushing through the top layer across the whole Seed Quilt, causing it to either rip or balloon up. If the paper is ballooned, you can peel it off in one motion. If the paper is ripped, just remove the paper pieces individually. Provide your greens with plenty of indirect sunlight or indoor lighting so they can grow taller and greener.

Day 7

Your micro-borage will continue to grow each day from here on out. You’ll notice a big change in your greens from just morning to night, especially right after peeling and exposing them to light. They will turn greener as they absorb more light. As the greens get bigger they also tend to take up a lot more water. This is the perfect time to check the water level in your tray, especially if you live in a drier climate. If you notice that the water level has gone below the halfway point of the fill line and bottom of your tray, you can add enough water to reach the ridges at the base of the tray. This gives those roots enough water to sustain the greens without over-watering them. Never fill the water back up to the fill line.

Day 8-10

For a general rule of thumb, borage microgreens will range from 2-3 inches tall at maturity. This is just a reference as growing conditions (light, temp, etc) will affect the mature height slightly. A reminder that the leaves might be a little fuzzy - this is normal!

Harvesting & Storing your Microgreens

Borage microgreens can be harvested by cutting at the base & storing them in a glass Tupperware or Stasher Bag in the fridge. They will last for about 10 days that way. If you prefer to harvest them from the tray, they can remain there for a few extra days. Make sure the water in the tray doesn’t go dry, otherwise they may prematurely wilt over. The greens can also become slightly bitter and more fibrous the longer you leave them in the tray after maturing. Learn more about harvesting your microgreens here.

For salads or eaten raw, we suggest harvesting the borage when they are younger. If you want to add them to smoothies or steep them for teas, you can let them mature for a little longer.

* Make harvesting & storing your homegrown greens a breeze. The Hamama Harvesting Kit includes a reusable Stasher Bag®, cute branded harvesting scissors, and natural fiber bamboo scrub brush for cleaning your grow tray.

Do you need to rinse microgreens before use?

When the microgreens are ready to harvest you don't need to rinse them, but you can if you prefer. Since there’s no soil, they’re already super clean.

*For longer storage, don’t rinse the harvested microgreens before storing. Instead, rinse just before eating, if desired.

What's next?

After harvesting your greens, you can compost or re-purpose the used coconut mat. Learn how to Upcycle your Coconut Mats here.

Give your grow tray a quick wash & plant your next Seed Quilt. Learn how to wash your grow tray here.

Reach our team of Grow Coaches at hamama.com/help. We hope you enjoy our Borage microgreens! 💚🌱