One of the great rewards of farming is witnessing the miracle of growth on a regular basis. How is it that when you combine a few tiny seeds with some warmth and moisture plants sprout and mature to produce a forest, a field of flowers, or food?

A marvel that never ceases to amaze me every week happens while growing microgreens.

First, we layer our homemade soil mix into a shallow 1-inch flat. We add water and seeds. Then we stack them up to five trays tall. Lastly, we place the same-size flat filled with concrete on top of each stack. The heavy weight ensures the seeds have good contact with the mix simulating growing in the ground covered with a layer of soil.

Next comes the miracle. In a few days, the seeds sprout and grow pushing up the concrete weight. That’s right! You can see in the picture above a tray of sun shoots seedlings holding up a tray of concrete!

And that weight is a very heavy 16 pounds! Just ask my sore toe which took a hit this last week when I dropped one of those concrete weights on it.