Tray Grown vs. Field Grown WheatGrass
Looking at the wheatgrass plants above, which would you rather juice and drink?
In today's wheatgrass juice market, there are two ways to grow the wheatgrass: in trays or in fields. Here at Evergreen Juices we take great care to ensure that our grass is organic, non-GMO, and field grown. Want to know why? Then keep reading.
Tray grown wheatgrass juice is grown for a maximum of 10 days. Any longer than that and the plant will begin to wilt because there is no more room for growth in the tray. Tray grown grass can be grown under artificial light, in a greenhouse, or outside. The grass only grows to the sprout stage, so it is full of simple sugars. Tray grown grass has a syrupy sweet taste. If it has a bitter aftertaste, it has likely been contaminated by mold. Tray grown wheatgrass has a high risk of mold contamination because of how tightly packed the seeds are. (More on this next week!) Fresh or frozen tray grown wheatgrass juice will usually sell for $2-$4 per ounce. If you are growing your own, each ounce could cost you $4 per ounce plus the time taken to maintain the plants and juice the grass.
Field grown wheatgrass is grown for over 90 days in the open air with sunlight. The longer growing time is shown in the root structure. The plant grows into a vegetable full of complex carbs instead of simple sugars. As a result, the flavour is smooth and mild with no aftertaste. There is a negligible risk of mold contamination due to the space between seeds and sunlight. Field grown wheatgrass juice has to been frozen or turned into a powder because of the short harvest season. This means the producer does all of the hard messy work and the wheatgrass juice ends up costing less than $2 per ounce.
So I will ask you again, which type of wheatgrass would you prefer to drink?