Sprouting In Your Kitchen
I’ve been having a problem this winter – I miss the fresh produce available so readily during the summer. This summer was so crazy that I rarely got out to farmers markets, and since my son was born at the beginning of the summer, I had no chance to plant a garden this year. So, I missed out on a lot of the summer lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers… I could go on and on about these.
Anyway, the middle of winter is no time to be buying fresh stuff at the grocery store. Besides the horrible cost you have to pay, any veggies you find are either slightly wilted, flown thousands of miles or consist of iceberg lettuce and cabbage. Not that these are bad! They’re just not what I want right now.
So are there any alternatives to these choices? I could start up a cold frame garden (which I plan to do soon, we just can’t this winter), but that would require waiting. I could settle for iceberg lettuce, but that’s really only to add a crunch to certain items – there’s not really any flavor there.
My favorite way in the winter to have fresh, yummy salads or something to top my sandwich is to grow sprouts. Before I started growing sprouts, I always thought these were going to be hard and labor intensive, or need a lot of equipment. But I’ll bet you have everything in your house already – other than the seeds!
There’s lots of options with sprouting equipment, but all you need to begin is a jar (a quart jar is best – an old spaghetti or mayonnaise jar is fine), either glass or plastic. You’ll need a rubber band or a piece of string and you’ll need something to cover the opening of the jar. You can use a section of cheesecloth, and old pair of pantyhose (cleaned!) or an old t-shirt. I’ve even used a small circle of old screen door material (I had to replace the screen after the dog tried to get in one night…). To use the screen material, it can be held in place with the ring portion of a canning jar lid. It works!
So to sprout seed, you need to soak the seed overnight. The next morning, pour the seed into the jar, cover the opening of the jar with your desired material and secure this material with string, rubber band or canning ring. Just rinse the seeds twice a day (or more, if you want), and make sure the remaining water all drains out each time. Depending on your seed, you’ll have a jar full of fresh sprouts in 2 to 5 days!
I love using these for so many reasons. My kids love to watch these grow each day and see the roots developing – we’ve started a lot of school conversations about how seeds grow this way! Everyone in the family also loves how these sprouts taste. These aren’t the kind you’ll find in the grocery store – at 3 dollars for a package that feels about as heavy as a marshmallow. These are crunchy, fresh, living sprouts! Some mixes will give you a bit of a spicy bite, while others just taste like summer. So I get my fix in the middle of winter.
I also like how nutritional this food can be. The mix I’ve been using has nearly every vitamin and mineral needed along with fiber, antioxidants and enzymes that help the body digest the sprouts. One sprout mix I have contains high levels of proteins, iron, vitamin C… everything your body needs in a nutrient starved world! Don’t forget, this is about as locally grown as you could ever hope to find – right by your kitchen sink!
Rinse & Prep
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
November 11th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
What kind of seeds are you using here? Looks like birdseed… I sprout lentils and beans, but only before cooking the normal way, I haven’t sprouted them to actual “greens” yet. I’d like to try this.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
You can sprout almost any kind of seed – that’s all wheatgrass is, for example. There are quite a few “sprouting mixes” available out there, we’ll be carrying some of the more popular varieties in our store in the next few weeks… different seeds obviously have different flavors, some spicy, some mild, etc. This particular mix in the photos is has been labeled a “sandwich mix”, but we eat it on pretty much anything!