在廚房裏開闢私家菜園

Two years ago, Elizabeth Millard discovered a way to put fresh produce into car food. No, she’s not the one who smuggled shredded lettuce into the Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch-Fiery, a 490-calorie, zero-noun snack from Taco Bell. Rather, Ms. Millard, a sustainable farmer outside the Twin Cities, did something even more unlikely: she grew a crop of microgreens on the passenger-side floor mat of her 2005 VW Beetle convertible.

兩年前，伊麗莎白·米勒德(Elizabeth Millard)發現了一個方法，可以讓新鮮的農產品成爲車載食品。別多想，她可不是在Taco Bell快餐店出售的那種490卡路里、0營養的小食“多力多滋奶酪玉米片”(Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch-Fiery)裏，偷偷放進碎生菜的人。不過，這位在雙城市(Twin Cities)的市郊從事可持續農業生產的農夫，所做的事要離譜得多：在自己那輛2005年大衆甲殼蟲敞篷車的副駕座位地墊上，種出了一小塊微型菜園(microgreen)。

“We were shuttling our box of seeds back and forth from our rented greenhouse space to our house,” she said the other day. “And I tripped and they fell all over the place.” Cress, mustards, a little purple mizuna.

“當時，我們正從租用的溫室裏來來回回往家搬運一箱箱的種子，”她那天說了起來，“然後我絆了一跤，把那些種子撒得滿地都是。”其中有水芹、芥菜，和一點紫色日本色拉菜。

Ms. Millard added: “Being frustrated and lazy, I decided I would clean them up some time in my lifetime. Which means never.”

米勒德繼續道：“我心煩意亂，也懶得收拾，就決定另外再找個時間把它們清理乾淨。其實就是再也不管了。”

It rained the next day. Ms. Millard, now 46, and Karla Pankow, her partner in life and in their C.S.A. business, called Bossy Acres, tracked mud into the car. After that, the June sun busted loose and they threw down the top. I think you can see where this is going.

第二天下起了雨。今年46歲的米勒德和她的人生伴侶兼C.S.A.生意夥伴、Bossy Acres公司的合夥人卡拉·潘科(Karla Pankow)，把滿腳的泥帶進了車裏。再然後，六月裏的炎炎烈日讓他們放下了車頂棚。我想你能猜到後來發生了什麼吧。

“About five days after the incident, I came out to my car in the morning and there was a beautiful flush carpet of microgreens on the passenger side,” Ms. Millard said. “It looked like a Chia Pet.”

“那次意外之後大約過了五天，我早上去開車門，發現副駕座位下面，有塊整齊漂亮的微型蔬菜地毯，”米勒德說，“看起來就像芡歐鼠尾草娃娃(Chia Pet)。”

The accident fed the philosophy behind her new book “Indoor Kitchen Gardening: Turn Your Home Into a Year-Round Vegetable Garden” (Cool Springs Press). This is a how-to guide that describes Ms. Millard’s experiments raising crops — sun-loving outdoor plants like herbs, carrots, radishes, potatoes and tomatoes — in her Minneapolis bungalow.

這次意外事件充實了她的種植理念，成就了她的新書《室內廚房園藝：把你的家變成四季菜園》（Indoor Kitchen Gardening: Turn Your Home Into a Year-Round Vegetable Garden，由Cool Springs出版）。這是一本操作指南，描述了米勒德在自己那棟位於明尼阿波里斯市(Minneapolis)的平房裏，是如何嘗試在室內種植一些喜歡陽光的戶外作物的，例如各種香草、胡蘿蔔、水蘿蔔、土豆和番茄。

I, for one, have daydreamed about owning a conservatory: a bright, climate-controlled growing space with windows, supplemental lights and a handy watering source. And here was Ms. Millard to tell me that I already possessed such a space, and it was called my condo.

其實我本人就幻想過擁有一間溫室：一個明亮的、可控制氣候影響的生長空間，有幾扇窗戶、有補充光源、還有方便取用的水源。但米勒德鄭重其事地告訴我，我已經擁有一個這樣的地方了，那就是我的共管公寓。

You don’t have to be a plant whisperer to enjoy success in this endeavor. Although, occasionally, you do have to be the bee. In a quest for bug-less indoor pollination, Ms. Millard stimulated the tomato’s reproductive parts with her electric toothbrush. (Talk about forbidden fruit.) But what she discovered, and what the book illustrates, is that it’s possible and even easy to cultivate shoots, greens and the odd root crop with almost no special equipment.

你不必成爲一名花語者(plant whisperer)，也能在這一領域有所作爲。不過有時候，你的確得充當一隻蜜蜂。爲了探索室內無蟲授粉的問題，米勒德用她的電動牙刷來刺激番茄的生殖器（還談起了禁果什麼的）。但她在實踐中發現——也在這本書中談到，栽培芽類植物、綠葉植物和那些奇怪的塊莖類作物，不但有可能、而且是很容易做到的，幾乎無需特別的設備。

The VW microgreens did not become the stuff of a piquant salad. “I can’t imagine the carpet of your car is a food-safe environment,” Ms. Millard said. (What vinaigrette goes with road salt?) Instead, it became a proof of concept. “The lesson is: Don’t worry about it so much,” Ms. Millard said of her indoor garden. “If the conditions are right, it will happen.”

不過，她在甲殼蟲車上栽培的那些微型植物，並沒有成爲一份鮮美色拉的配料。“我沒法想象車上的地墊是食品安全級的環境，”米勒德說（誰能想象把香醋色拉汁和道路化冰鹽搭配起來，會是什麼味道呢？）。不過，這是一次理念的驗證。“經驗是：別想太多，”米勒德談起她的室內種植工作，“只要條件合適，該發生的自然會發生。”

In many ways, the gardening conditions in the northland are best suited to ornamental berries, red-barked shrubs and alcoholism. The professional eschatologists (known elsewhere as meteorologists) were predicting scattered frosts for the night after Ms. Millard paid me a house call. It was early September.

從許多方面來看，北部地區的種植條件最適宜具有裝飾性的漿果類植物、紅皮灌木叢，以及酗酒。這天晚上，米勒德到我家上門服務後，那些專業的末世論者（在其它地方又稱氣象學家） 開始預測哪兒會有霜降了。這纔剛剛九月初呢。

The parsley and sage in my backyard could hang on until Thanksgiving. But if I didn’t bring the basil inside now, I wouldn’t see it again until May or June.

我後院裏種的歐芹與鼠尾草還可以堅持到感恩節；但我現在如果不把羅勒移到屋裏來的話，到明年五、六月之前，我可就別想再看見它了。

While I was outside, I noticed a volunteer tomato seedling and a stray mint. What would be the harm in digging them up and converting them into house pets? (Ms. Millard recommends converting the garage or a three-season porch into a kind of halfway house where the plants can get acclimated.)

我在外面忙活的時候，注意到了一株躍躍欲試的番茄幼苗和一株流浪的薄荷。如果把它們都挖出來變成室內寵物，會有什麼壞處嗎？（米勒德建議我把車庫或三季門廊[three-season porch，類似於玻璃陽光房的門廊——譯註]改成臨時的種植園，讓這些植物有個適應過程。）

I asked Ms. Millard about what may still be growing at her house across town. But she had moved out soon after finishing a draft of the book. While she and Ms. Pankow shopped for farmland of their own, they were dwelling in a downscale version of that VW Microgreen: a 25-year-old Coachman fifth-wheel camper they bought from friends for $2,000. The quarters were homey; a previous owner had gone through the effort of painting the wallpaper.

我問米勒德，還有些什麼植物仍然生長在她那位於小鎮另一邊的屋子裏。但她把這本書的初稿寫完不久，就搬了出來。她與潘科在購買她們自己的農場期間，就住在那輛甲殼蟲微型植物基地的簡約版裏：一輛車齡25年的馬車伕(Coachman)五輪野營車，是他們花2000美元（約合人民幣12259元）從朋友手裏買來的。車裏舒服得像在家一樣；一位前車主還勞心勞力地繪製了壁紙。

“It’s surprisingly spacious,” she said. “It’s like a New York apartment.”

“那輛車寬敞得驚人，”她說，“就像一套紐約公寓。”

Except, presumably, in New York it would have cost $2.65 million in an all-cash transaction and another $1 million for a parking spot.

只不過，在紐約購買這樣一套公寓，大概得花265萬美元（約合人民幣1624萬元），不僅是現金全款交易，還得再花100萬美元（約合人民幣613萬元）去買個停車位。

Ms. Millard has good news for the yardless metropolitan. Much of the equipment you need for indoor kitchen gardening is already in the kitchen. Sprouts should grow in a Mason jar with a screen lid for air and drainage. Soak the seeds (Ms. Millard likes the flavor of broccoli). Then, after a day or two, turn the jar upside down and wait.

米勒德給那些沒有院子的都市人帶來了喜訊。這項室內廚房園藝所需的設備，多數都已經在廚房裏了。幼苗應該生長在一隻梅森罐（Mason jar——一種玻璃食品罐）裏，罐子要有網蓋，可以透氣和排水。把選好的種子（米勒德喜歡西蘭花的味道）浸溼，然後等上一、兩天，把這隻罐子倒轉過來，再繼續等待。

Are the white filaments edible food or some type of brassica thrush? Ms. Millard was noncommittal. “I will sprout things if people ask me to,” she said. “But I have not been a huge fan.”

這些白色的纖維到底是可以吃的食物，還是某種蕓薹屬的病態植物呢？米勒德含糊其辭地說，“反正我會讓東西長出芽來，只要有人要我這樣做，”她說，“但我也不會特別沉迷於這些事。”

Farther down in the cupboards, pie plates or baking sheets make satisfactory planters to grow microgreens or shoots. At the start, plastic wrap can keep the seeds humid. You may even have the shoot seeds in the bulk bin: say, dried peas, raw sunflower seeds or untreated popcorn.

櫥櫃的很下方有幾隻餡餅盤或烤盤，可供那些能幹的種植者們種植一些嫩莖類或芽類的蔬菜。剛開始的時候，用塑料袋包裹，可以讓這些種子保持溼潤。你甚至可以用散粒儲存箱來裝這些嫩芽植物的種子：比如干豌豆、生的向日葵籽，或是沒經處理的玉米粒。

Germination isn’t a sign of spoilage; it’s the goal here. Ms. Millard recommends soaking the seeds for a day or two beforehand, changing the water now and again. “If you leave them longer than that, they’ll give off a really vile smell,” she said, “like burning moldy feet.” At this point, you’re not raising food but developing a biological weapons program.

發芽並不是變質的標誌，而恰是我們此時此刻的目標。米勒德建議大家把種子提前浸泡一、兩天，不時換換水。“如果你浸泡的時間再長一點，它們就會發出相當難聞的氣味，”她說，“就像在燃燒發黴的腳一樣。”這樣的話，你就不是在種植可食用的東西、而是在研發一種生化武器了。

The easiest indoor gardening projects look a lot like seed-starting. You don’t need much dirt: an inch and a half for sprouts, and maybe half an inch for microgreens (a regular lettuce mix, harvested early). “You can do that on a paper towel,” she said. “They’re not going to grow into their fullest expression of what they could be.” But then, who among us hasn’t thought about their own dirt nap and harbored the same self-doubt?

在室內栽培項目中，最簡單的似乎就是讓種子發芽了。你不需要太多土壤：鋪上1.5英寸（約合38毫米）厚的土用來發芽，再鋪半英寸（約合13毫米）用於那些嫩莖菜的生長（這是一種常見的混合生菜食材，很早就被採摘下來）。“這些活兒，你在一張紙巾上照樣能做，”她說，“它們不會長成其成熟植株本來會是的樣子。”但是仔細想想，我們當中有誰從沒想過自己最終的結局，然後抱有同樣的自我懷疑呢？

Ms. Millard had dragged a full bag of vermiculite as big as a pillowcase up the three flights of stairs. This, of course, was a bit of a sight gag: the white filler looks like Styrofoam and weighs no more. The idea was to mix it with a bagged organic compost she likes, called Cowsmo. But any indoor potting mix with a little fertilizer would do.

米勒德拖着枕頭套那麼大的一袋蛭石，爬了三段樓梯。這確實有點像滑稽表演：袋子裏那些白色的東西看起來好像泡沫塑料，實際卻沉重無比。她打算把這些“泡沫”和她喜歡的科茲摩(Cowsmo)袋裝有機堆肥混在一起。不過任何室內盆栽混合土壤，只要含一點肥料，都是可以的。

“You want something that drains really well,” Ms. Millard said. “Dirt from your garden is too dense.” As a no-pesticide farmer, she welcomed the chance for a clean start. There’s a book to be written about how to breed common garden bugs in the house, but let’s leave that to the newspaper’s entomology expert.

“你要的是那種排水非常好的東西，”米勒德說，“從自己花園裏挖來的土壤，密度太大。”她是一位不使用殺蟲劑的農夫，喜歡從一開始就保持土壤的純淨。至於如何在屋裏養殖常見的花園昆蟲，這個話題可以寫出一本書來，我們還是留給本報的那些昆蟲學專家們吧。

Ms. Millard totes a stack of 20-inch black plastic planting flats almost everywhere she goes, the same way a real estate agent seems to bleed a trail of lawn signs. Get the ones with the bottom watering slits and the translucent lids. They are a masterful piece of industrial design, they cost about $1.50 each and they look just like garbage.

米勒德不管到哪兒，都拖着一堆20英寸（約51釐米）厚的黑色塑料種植板，就像一名房地產經紀人不管到哪兒都會豎起一連串草坪標牌那樣。去購買這些底部裂口、帶透明蓋子的東西吧。它們是工業設計的傑作，每個大約1.5美元（約合人民幣9元），看起來就像垃圾一樣。

A Pyrex casserole dish makes a smarter display. “It may help with the drainage to put a low layer of gravel in the bottom,” Ms. Millard said, prepping the planter. A few handfuls of soil mix flew into the trays. She was no more delicate with the pea seeds and the popcorn kernels, scattering a single layer over the surface. Being housebound, they wouldn’t need a coat of dirt on top.

用派熱克斯(Pyrex)烤盤則要氣派得多。“在底部鋪上薄薄一層碎石，可以幫助排水，”米勒德說，她正準備播種。幾把混合土壤撒進了這些托盤裏。她不再小心翼翼地處理這些豌豆種子和爆米花硬核，而是粗略地在土壤表面撒了薄薄一層。反正是在室內，它們不需要在頂上再鋪一層土。

You’ll want to sow at the kind of density you would see in front of the stage at Bonnaroo. Once the sprouts come up, Ms. Millard said, “you could have someone crowd surf without falling in.”

你播撒種子的密度，要像你在波納羅音樂節(Bonnaroo)舞臺前方看到的人羣密度一樣。等這些幼苗長出來，米勒德說，“你都能讓一個人在上面玩人體衝浪，也不會掉下去了。”

At this point, Ms. Millard mentioned a piece of look-for-it-in-the-basement gear: a box fan. A little airflow helps ward off disease and stiffens a plant’s resolve.

說到這，米勒德提起一件“要去地下室裏找”的裝置：一臺箱式電扇。一點氣流可以幫助植物避免疾病，並增強植株的抵抗力。

My summer corn crop in the yard had been a mixed success. By that I mean it was a success for the squirrels that stripped the stalks clean and a total failure for me, who waited 80 days and got nothing.

我夏天在院子裏種的玉米算是成敗參半吧。我的意思是，對於松鼠來說是成功的，它們把玉米杆子剝得一乾二淨；但對我而言則是徹頭徹尾的失敗，等待了80天，結果一無所獲。

“Depending on your conditions in here, after about two weeks you should be able to harvest them,” Ms. Millard said. “Cut them like you’re giving them the worst haircut in the world.”

“這取決於你這裏的天氣狀況，再過大約兩週吧，你應該就能有收穫了，”米勒德說，“收割玉米的樣子，就像你要給它們剪全世界最難看的髮型。”

I said, “I think I’ve given someone that haircut.”

我說，“我大概給人剪過那樣的髮型。”

Ms. Millard said, “I think I’ve had that haircut.”

米勒德說，“我大概被人剪過那樣的髮型。”

What about lights? This is the question that every lay agronomist seems to ask, Ms. Millard said. It’s as if she has proposed a suspect workaround: school without homework, say, or an affair without text messaging (I mean, sex).

那麼光照呢？這似乎是每位外行的農學家都會提出的問題，米勒德說。那語氣就好像她已經提出了一個可疑的變通方案：就像是，比方說不留家庭作業的學校，或是不發短信（我指的是，性）的外遇。

Ms. Millard dutifully runs through the options in the book. A window with southern exposure will get you somewhere. But the plant will need to be close to the pane, where conditions may be drafty. Incandescent bulbs give off more heat than light. Ms. Millard doesn’t spend too much time on specialty lighting systems: HID, LED or plasma. This kind of expertise and budget are the province of the marijuana cultivator. We have a lot to learn from them.

米勒德很負責地把書中的選項都瀏覽了一遍。一扇向南的窗戶會對你有所助益，但是植物得靠近窗格，那裏的環境可能比較通風。一些白熾燈泡會比自然光發出更多熱量。米勒德沒有在如何佈置專門的光照系統上花太多時間：HID啦、LED啦，或者等離子什麼的。這種光照系統的專業程度和預算花銷，是大麻栽培者熟悉的範疇。我們有許多東西得向他們學習。

Ultimately, Ms. Millard recommends cheap shop lights, with full-spectrum bulbs (t5 or t8) and reflective hoods. The adjustable fixtures are better still: You can start them a couple of inches above the newly sprouted seeds and raise them as your plants grow.

最終，米勒德建議大家採用廉價的店鋪照明，這種照明系統有全光譜的燈泡（光管直徑t5或t8[t5直徑約16mm，t8直徑約25.4mm——譯註]）和反光罩。最好讓那些可調節燈具保持固定：你可以一開始把它們裝在新發芽的種子上方几英寸的位置，然後隨着植物的生長逐漸升高。

We’d moved on to planting herbs and root crops. Untreated potatoes from the farmers’ market would turn into suitable plants. Just wait for the eyes to form. Ms. Millard suggested putting five or six in a 15-gallon pot. “They should get some light during the day,” she said. But, “potatoes do well with the whole benign-neglect situation.” They’re like children that way.

我們又談到了種植香草和根莖類作物。從農貿市場上買來的、未經處理的土豆，就會長成適合栽培的植株，只要等待芽眼形成就可以了。米勒德建議在每個15加侖大小的鍋裏，放五至六個土豆。“它們應該在白天得到一些光照，”她說。但是，“土豆很會適應被完全善意忽視的情境。”在這方面，它們就像孩子一樣。

Rounded carrots and radishes wouldn’t outgrow their Procrustean beds. She mentioned French baby carrots (“carefully bred in France!”) and a favorite radish called Parisienne, which had the soul of a carrot. Alas, indoors, they would grow about as fast as the European economy. “Carrots take forever,” Ms. Millard said. “About two months, if you’re lucky.”

圓滾滾的胡蘿蔔和小蘿蔔，生長過程中都不會超出它們那張“普羅克汝斯忒斯之牀”（Procrustean beds，源自希臘神話，形容強求一致的標準——譯註）。她還提到了法國小胡蘿蔔(French baby carrots)（“在法國悉心栽培的！”），和一種叫做“巴黎女子”(Parisienne)、的討人喜歡的小蘿蔔，它擁有一根胡蘿蔔的靈魂。唉，養在室內的話，它們的生長速度就能快得堪比歐洲經濟了。“胡蘿蔔的生長週期很長，”米勒德說，“大約要兩個月吧，如果你幸運的話。”

In the end, she harvested maybe 10 carrots — not the kind of bounty to run through a juicer. “When you spend that much time and love,” she said, “you slice them up and eat them raw like carpaccio.”

最後，她收穫了大約十根胡蘿蔔——絕不捨得放進榨汁機裏。“當你花了那麼多的時間與愛心，”她說，“你只會把它們切成薄片，然後生吃，就像吃生牛肉片一樣。”

She wouldn’t blame anyone who concluded that indoor kitchen gardening is impractical. “There’s something of the hobbyist to it,” she said.

如果有誰得出室內廚房園藝不切實際的結論，她也不會責怪他們。“這只是某種偏好。”她說。

Before I forget, then, here’s a reminder. In New York City, the outdoor planting date for carrots is only 150 days away.

以免我到時候忘了，先在這裏提個醒。在紐約市，再過150天，就到了該在戶外種植胡蘿蔔的日子了。