It's ready today. It just won't wilt on you.
Nothing here is about waiting. The tray came off the bench fully grown, and the only real question is how quickly you want to eat it.
Cut as much as you want, whenever you want
Scissors, low down right at the mat. Take the whole tray at once — that plus a cucumber is dinner — or take a handful a day. Both are right; it's appetite, not a schedule.
Rinse what you've cut, right before it goes on the dish. Only the cut greens ever get wet — the tray itself stays dry.
The difference from a bag is what happens to the rest. Nothing is harvested until you cut it, so it stands there in good shape instead of wilting in a drawer.
Away for a few days? Cut the lot, pat it dry, and put it in the fridge in a container with a sheet of paper towel — the towel takes up the condensation that would otherwise turn it slimy. The tray needs water and light; cut greens need neither.
Left alone it keeps about a week on the counter. Four things keep it that way.
Out of the box, onto a plate
The box carries it home and no further. Lift the whole mat out and set it on a plate or in any shallow dish — that's where it lives for the week.
The mat is hemp — when you're done, it goes straight in the compost. The box is paperboard and goes in with the paper. That's the whole of the waste.
On the windowsill
Bright light, but not direct sun — a sill that gets plenty of it without the sun sitting on the tray is exactly right, and greens held in good light stay green. Through a Vancouver winter, err towards more: a dim corner pales a tray fast.
Sun straight through the glass is the thing to keep it out of, in any season: it turns a sill into an oven and the mat dries out in hours. Yellowing before the week is out can have several causes. If the spot is dim, move it somewhere brighter — but don't expect yellow leaves to turn green again.
Water the plate, not the leaves
About 50 ml once a day — a little under a quarter cup. Pour it into the dish underneath and let the mat draw it up. It should stay damp all the way through, never swimming.
Wet leaves make greens go slimy faster. Keep them dry and the tray keeps its crunch.
Leave it open to the air
It's alive and it breathes. Sealed under film or shut in a bag it sweats, and condensation is where trouble starts. No lid, no cling film, no fridge drawer under a pile.
At the end of it the tray yellows and goes over. That's it finishing, not something you did wrong.
Fine white fuzz where the stems meet the mat?
Usually root hairs, and usually because the mat has gone dry: the root puts out fine white threads to reach further for water. Watering the mat is also a useful clue — root hairs often collapse after watering. Mould won't simply disappear because the mat has been watered.
The rest of it is about where it sits rather than what colour it is. Root hairs stay at the base only, in an even halo round every stem, and smell of nothing. Mould comes in patches rather than a halo, turns up on the leaves and on the old seed husks, sometimes bridges between plants, and smells musty. A grey or blue-green cast is a late sign, not the first one.
If it hasn't gone after watering, or you are not sure: don't eat it. Photograph it and send it to shop@goldleaf.dev, put the mat in the compost, and remind us at the market — we'll replace it. A tray is ten dollars; we would rather lose one than have you wondering.