|
Slow Food Pittsburgh visits Mung Dynasty
You can too.
Chris Wahlberg's Mung Dynasty, an indoor sprout farm, is a cool and misty world away, nestled in the Old Brew Works on the South Side. The cozy fortress, built in 1910, has 54-inch thick walls.
These walls, along with a green, glowing wheat grass/apple/citrus cocktail, presented as we enter, stave off thoughts of bitter gusts outside on this Easter Saturday.
The sprout crops stretch out in a living tapestry--tilting mini-fields of green (buckwheat), fuschia, chartreuse (corn), moss (leeks), orange (lentils). Walhberg buys seed by the trailor truck load and sells sprouts in the hundred millions of pounds.
Mung is the "largest farm in Allegheny County." Most of the seed comes from China--"seed sourcing has become Walmart-ized." He used to source it from all over the world. But his buckwheat is local, from organic farmer Ron Gargasz, in Volant, Pa. The Chinese seed is not organic, but "transitioning organic."
Tweaking his airy moist microclimate with fans and semi-automated sprays, he tends sprout crops that go from a pound of seed to 15 pounds of sprouts in three days.
"We are growing for color," Wahlberg says. At holidays, the chefs clamor for red. Purple comes from amaranth, cousin to quinoa.
We take flashlights into a shadowy room, where some shoots, like corn, mung bean, soy and sunflower seeds, "love to grow in the dark and bleach like white asparagus."
Microgreens have a bright-lighted growing room of their own. Unlike sprouts, which need no medium, feeding solely on their own seed, microgreens are sown in dirt and fed a weak solution of fish fertilizer. They take longer to mature, 8 - 13 days, growing into tufty flats--husky buckwheat, fragrant cilantro, feathery fennel, and a dozen more, in a riot of shades.
This is "Dave's room," Walhlberg explains. Dave is Mung's seed sower, a bass player who's got the right moves, and "can sow flats better and faster than a mechanical seed dropper."
The minicrops can be paced, made to grow slower or faster by cooling them or warming them. This can be handy to make availability line up with restaurants' heavier weekend demand.
Chefs like the various Mung mixes: "Thai" is mizuna, broccoli, bok choy and purple cabbage. "Citrus" includes punguent lemon balm, tart sorrel, lime and potent lemon basil-- and also buckweat, which is bland, and thrown into any mix when a calming flavor is needed.
Wahlberg is a healthful diet advocate --and looks the part, a young-looking grandfather indeed. He can talk informatively about the health-giving aspects of sprouts and microgreens and about any of his interesting past lives, from high school English teacher to power kayak builder.
Despite snipping for tastes throughout the tour, SFP tourists are incredibly hungry for lunch. This turns out to be do-it-yourself salad, choosing from a zillion sprouts and microgreens and several dressings, along with tasty hydroponic tomatoes.
For sprout-seekers off the street, Mung is open Monday through Saturday mornings.
Saturday's a fun and busy day. You can choose your own combo, but you may want to try the prepackaged Sprout Garden salads, $5. Salads come with astoundingly good house-made dressings: your choice of ginger miso, garlic or Thai. There are hefty wraps,$4, including a popular Southwest. These items are also sold at the East End Coop.
Bring your own container to the South Side site to purchase the homemade dressings, but call ahead as the batches are small, Wahlberg suggests. A few impromptu containersful might "wipe him out."
IF YOU GO: do not use Mapquest--it's wrong. Mung Dynasty is at 21st and Mary Street in the rear. Phone: 412-381-1350.
|
