Growing Sprouts in your Kitchen

If you spend a lot of time in your kitchen, you might enjoy growing your own sprouts.  Sprouts are very good for you, they are very alive when you eat them which makes them high in Prana, or vital life energy.  They are a good source of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins and phytochemicals.  Bacteria can develop on sprouts and cause illness, so it is important to use clean equipment and to know what you are doing.  Here is a great site with lots of information as well as a store for supplies  sproutpeople.com. I buy my favorite sprouts at the farmers market, Sunflower Seed, as I am not successful growing them myself. Many small seed sprouts have given me challenge and I recommend new sprouters begin with the following easy sprouters, mung beans, garbanzo beans, cashews and almonds.  For cashews and almonds you are not trying to grow a long stem sprout, but only activating the plants spouting instinct with a short soak of 4-8 hours.  The nuts will then be soft and easily blendable, perfect for making milk, butter or cheese!  For the mung beans and garbanzo beans, after an initial overnight soak we will begin to rinse and drain the beans periodically (1-3 times per day) until the sprouts look like we want them, maybe 2-5 days.  Again, be careful as there is a risk of bacterial infection if something has gotten in to your mix and is germinating along side your sprouts.  Your bean sprouts can be eaten raw on your salads, or cooked or prepared in other ways.

My supplies:  jars and sprouting trays, mung beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, alfalfa seeds and radish seeds

dry radish seeds in tray

dry alfalfa seeds in sprouting tray

beans soaking in jars, seeds and lentils in trays for 8 hours

radish seeds 24 hour soak

alfalfa seeds 24 hour soak

mung bean after 24 hour soak

garbanzo bean after 24 hour soak

radish seed after 48 hour soak

alfalfa seeds after 48 hour soak

mung beans after 48 hour soak

garbanzo beans after 48 hour soak