GROWING CRESS HEADS

DIY / June 18, 2015

Growing cress is one of the most easy and engaging ways for little ones to experience first hand how to plant their own produce. And cress heads are a childhood classic that most will remember doing at some point in their own salad days! But best of all, it’s so simple and easy to get started …

All you will need are some little containers – anything will do here. you can use old yogurt pots, plastic tubs or small ceramic ramekins like we did. We wanted to add a pop of personality to our pots so we used a permanent marker to draw on some cute Kawaii inspired faces.

You will need:

Pots

Cress seeds

Kitchen towel

Cotton Wool

Water

To begin, place some damp folded kitchen towel into the bottom of each pot and then add a couple of damp cotton wool balls on top of that.

Now comes the fun part! Let your little one sprinkle some cress seeds onto the damp cotton wool – be generous here but do leave a little space for them to grow.

The seeds will need warmth and moisture to sprout so keep them near a sunny spot like a window ledge or wherever they will be in view of the sun. Have your little one be in charge of watering them everyday, spritzing the seeds with a water spray bottle works well.

Et voila! Tiny shoots and leaves will begin to sprout from 2 to 6 days. Every day Bou made sure to water her little plants and the best part was watching her excitement as they grew!

Once the cress heads are fully sprouted, you can encourage your little one to sample their home grown produce. Bou was really enthusiastic about tasting the cress which was great, although in the end she decided it was a bit too peppery for her liking but it just goes to show how getting them involved with preparing their own food makes them more willing to try new things!