Grass

Cereal grasses make excellent young green plants.

When Ann Wigmore set out to find the "best" green food wheatgrass soon become one of her favourites - and it's not difficult to see why.

Wheat germinates quickly, grows rapidly, doesn't take up much space - and produces a good volume of crop with minimal maintenance.

The resulting juice is moderately sweet and palatable, and the grass is highly nutritious.

Juicing equipment

The downside of growing grasses is that you really need a juicer.

Chewing on the blades is possible - but not very rewarding. The juice you get from doing that is low in volume, your jaws soon get tired - and the grass fibre gets between your teeth.

If you want to eat more than a few drops of juice (and significantly larger doses seem preferable) then a low-RPM juicer is an essential tool.

Juicers take time to use and clean - but the resulting high quality grass juice generally seems to repay the hassle.

The juicer I use is illustrated here.

Other grains

While wheatgrass is probably the best known, other cereal grasses are also very worthwhile.

Kamut - for example - seems to be better than wheat in practically every respect. Kamut grass is more nutritious - and better tasting - than wheatgrass. I find it germinates better at low temperatures than wheat does - and so makes a good winter grain.

If there's a downside it might be that the grain is less widely available and more expensive than wheat. However, this is only likely to be a problem for a minority.

Spelt is another excellent grain. It is often sweeter than wheat - and some find it more palatable.