Grow Cress Eggmen

One of the beauties of this project is that it is very fast to grow cress, so progress will be apparent within a matter of days, and your cress eggman will have a healthy bunch of hair which you can then eat in egg sandwiches! They look pretty neat on the windowsill too!

The first plant I remember growing as a child was cress. We used an old ice-cream tub lid and some kitchen towel and could watch it sprout and grow almost overnight. I will never forget the excitement of running into the kitchen each morning to see how much the cress had grown, and just picking one tiny bit to taste.

From there we progressed to growing cress in empty egg shells, painting faces on the shell and letting the 'hair' grow!

How to Grow Cress Eggmen

You will need: an egg, some cotton wool or kitchen towel, felt tip pens and cress seeds.

1. Boil the egg and eat for breakfast! Take care to slice off only the very top of the egg shell - fairly evenly if possible.
2. Carefully place a wad of cotton wool or shredded kitchen towel in the base of the egg shell (now empty!). It should fill about half of the space available.
3. Place the egg shell in an egg cup and using felt tip pens, draw a face on one side of the egg - excluding any hair.
4. Saturate the cotton wool or kitchen towel with water.
5. Sprinkle some seeds on to the cotton wool.
6. Keep the cotton wool moist by watering every day, and within a matter of a couple of days, the cress will germinate and start to grow.

To grow cress is a fairly quick experience, it will literally start showing above the egghead within only about 10 days, and hey presto! you have managed to provide your Eggmen (or women, or monsters!) with a nice, edible mop of hair!

Tips

Use tepid to warm water to saturate the wool or kitchen towel, as this encourages quicker germination.

If your egg is large enough, try standing it in an empty and painted toilet roll, to provide your eggman with a body too!

As an alternative to cress, mustard can be used. It grows longer, so is ideal for larger eggs or really hippy eggpersons!

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