Concerned about your health? Confused about what nutrients are best? Why not look at adding sprouts to your daily eating plan? They can provide a healthy portion of your vitamin C needs and bolster your system with many of the B vitamins. The green leafy ones are excellent sources of vitamin A. You can take a whole array of expensive vitamin supplements and still not get the nutritional benefits that these very inexpensive additions to your diet will provide.
They’re easy to produce even though there are certain guidelines you will need to follow. You can grow them yourself even if you don't have a green thumb. You don't need soil at all–only water and cool temperatures. The time between starting the seeds and harvesting sprouts is short: sprouts will emerge in as little as two days and not more than seven. It depends on what you’re sprouting. There's a wide range of choices, but it might be good to limit yourself to only a few at the outset until you begin to get the hang of it.
Some of the Seeds, and Beans you can Sprout:
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Beans (mung, kidney, pinto, navy and soy)
- Broccoli
- Clover
- Dill
- Garlic
- Mustard
- Pumpkin
- Radish
- Sunflower
- Wheat berries
Remember, this list is only partial; once you become proficient at sprouting, you will want to look at others. Variety makes this approach to food interesting and even exciting.
You don't need any special equipment to grow sprouts. All you need are seeds, water, warmth, and darkness. You will probably only need to spend 10 minutes of your time each day to grow all the sprouts you can eat.
*Recipe:
1½ cup of these seeds: wheat, beans, rye, oats, rice, sunflower, lentil, hulled buckwheat, garbanzo beans
2 Tablespoons: alfalfa, radish, clover, cabbage.
Soak seeds 2 to 3 times their dry volume (water). Once they absorb all the water they will absorb (two to twelve hours depending on the size of the seed), drain the water off, rinse, and put in a dark, warm place with the bottle upside down and tipped up against a corner. You want the water to drip out. Put something under the bottle to catch the water. Put on a lid that permits air to move in and out of the jar. A thin cloth or nylon stocking will do. Fasten it around the opening using a rubber band or a bottle ring. For sprouting very small seeds like alfalfa: after the seeds have stopped draining, roll the bottle to coat the outer wall with seeds. Leave the bottle on its side in the dark. Best room temperature is 70C. Important: rinse the seeds twice a day, draining them well. Sprouting should being within two days.
If you Plan to Eat them Raw
They should grow to 2 to 3 inches. For alfalfa, wheatgrass, buckwheat or sunflower sprouts, expose them to indirect sunlight for four to five hours once they've been harvested. They will turn green, which will increase their vitamin A content. Don't expose bean sprouts to sunlight; it will make them bitter. Once they are at the desired length, rinse them and put them in a sealed container with a water-absorber on the bottom and store in the refrigerator.
Don't keep your sprouts longer than a week, and only grow small quantities, only what you’ll use in a short period of time. It's a good idea to keep some sprouts growing all the time. If you plan to get all your vitamins from sprouts, it's advised that you store up to 125 pounds of a variety of seeds per person per year. Otherwise, 30 pounds should be enough if you are going to eat them raw.
The number of companies that provide sprout seeds has been growing very rapidly in recent years. The cost will be more if you buy from these companies than seeds for planting. You might find cheaper seeds that are just fine for your purposes. Some sprouting experts report that it's a waste of money to buy “sprouting seeds” rather than regular seeds. Go slow! Purchase a small amount of seed and try them.
Don't store seeds for more than 5 years unless you have a very cool place to keep them. As seeds age, they take longer to sprout and there will be more that won't sprout.
*Taken from http://waltonfeed.com/grain/sprouts.html
By TTS Cofounder Botanical Chef Omid Jaffari
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