Growing rice in the corner of the house and squeezing it to make 'milk' to drink every day

In addition to growing clean vegetables and fruit trees on rooftops, many families in Hanoi now grow wheat indoors. This wheat is used to make a drink - often called 'milk' because it is rich in vitamins and nutrients.

After more than 2 years of growing all kinds of clean vegetables and fruit trees on the rooftop, for nearly 3 months now, Ms. Bui Phuong in Thanh Xuan (Hanoi) has started to learn and grow wheat (wheatgrass) indoors to diversify the source of nutrition from green vegetables for her family.

“Many people think it is grass, but it is actually 8-12 day old young wheat plants,” Ms. Phuong said. She grows this type of wheat not for the seeds but for the young plants to squeeze out the juice for drinking. Because, according to research by American scientists, this type of wheat grass has many vitamins and minerals, helping to digest food easily.

Growing rice indoors is becoming a new trend among farmers in Hanoi.

According to Ms. Phuong, this type of wheatgrass is very easy to grow, just like other sprouts. Just soak the wheat seeds for about 12 hours. Cover with a towel for 1-2 days to let the seeds germinate evenly. After the seeds have germinated, sow them on trays or plastic pots with drainage holes at the bottom, with a high density.

Water the seeds 1-2 times a day to keep them moist enough for them to germinate. If you don't plant a lot, you can use a spray bottle to wet the leaves and grass every day. In the first 3 days, leave the tray in the dark so the seeds germinate quickly. Then bring the tray out into the light, not too much light for the plants to photosynthesize and turn the leaves green. After 15-20 days, you can harvest a crop.

However, this is not wheat and not the kind commonly found in Vietnam.

This type of wheat costs from 140,000 - 180,000 VND/kg.

This type of rice is quite easy to grow.

“I have planted several batches, each batch planted 3 trays (200g of seeds per tray). When the rice sprouts are green and healthy, cut them and squeeze the juice to drink, just like other fruit juices.” Ms. Phuong shared more, one tray can squeeze about 2 cups of juice, it has a slightly sweet taste and a pleasant grassy aroma.

However, if you want to drink continuously, you need to plant rice next to each other, that is, sow a crop every 4-5 days to ensure there is always barley to drink.

Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Hien in Thanh Tri (Hanoi) also said that recently, in addition to growing clean vegetables, her family also grows wheat.

Just sow with paper towels or sow in burnt rice husks for about 15 days and you can harvest.

When harvesting, cut off the top part and discard the base.

However, the first crop she sowed with tissue paper, so the yield was not high at harvest. The second crop she learned from her experience and sowed on burnt rice husks and coconut peat, and the yield was much higher.

“My family only drinks it, my 2-year-old child still can’t drink this juice. Every other day I plant a tray because on average, the young wheat harvested can be pressed into about 2 cups of juice per day,” she said.

In fact, on social networking forums, housewives also compete to share their experiences in growing and caring for barley grass, how to juice wheatgrass to make it delicious, how to drink it to be good for health,...

After cutting, wash the wheat and squeeze it to get the juice to drink.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuyen, owner of a seed shop in Hoang Hoa Tham (Ba Dinh, Hanoi) said that there is currently a trend of growing wheatgrass indoors, especially in Hanoi.

According to Mr. Tuyen, wheatgrass is quite popular in the US, however, recently, this type of grass has been introduced to Vietnam and is bought by families to grow. Therefore, wheatgrass seeds are also extremely popular.

“On average, I sell about 20kg of seeds a day. Most of my customers are from Hanoi, but there are also some from other provinces, but not many.” Mr. Tuyen added that there are currently two types of wheat seeds: regular seeds and organic seeds.

Many families also grow wheat in pairs to have rice to continuously squeeze out water to drink.

With seeds usually originating from the US, Italy or Australia, the price ranges from 140,000-180,000 VND/kg, depending on the type. Organic seeds alone cost up to 500,000 VND/kg.

Most customers buy regular seeds because of the reasonable price. If you sow 1kg of seeds and then harvest wheatgrass, the cost is 20,000-25,000 VND/cup of juice. As for the rich, they choose organic seeds because they are safer, he said.

According to VNN