Sprouts!
Sprouts: fresh, green, nutritious stuff all year long. Very, very simple to do. Requires very little in the way of materials, can be done in every climate and season, and the seeds last years. Yeah.
Prepare to sprout
Salty picked up a bunch of new sprouting seed for me this year. I also had some seed left over from last year, which it turns out is still good. So I started a batch, and four days later had fresh greens, tender and tasty.
The basic basic plan for sprouts is, first, you buy the sprouting seeds. I like the little seeds such as alfalfa and clover. You can also sprout other things like the beans and lentils (which are pulses not really beans). The bigger seeds make bigger, more robust sprouts. But I like the little fine seeds. They grow very fast, and don’t leave big crunchy seeds to bite into.
Soak the seeds you want to sprout in water overnight. This starts the germination process and lets the seeds pick up some water and start to split their hulls.
I use sprouting trays but you don’t have to. The sprouting trays have very fine little holes, small enough that the seeds won’t drop through but water will. One can also sprout in plain mason jars. Anything that will keep the seeds damp but not soaked will do.
Here’s a podcast we did on Fall Gardening and Sprouting recently:
Sprout those seeds!
Lay the soaked seeds out — I do a single layer thick on the trays. Once or twice a day, spray them with water then drain off the excess water.
They don’t need sun. In fact, you don’t want them in the sun until the very last day. We set ours inside the (not running) dehydrator, because it’s already in the kitchen and they’re not in the way. Let them grow until they’re the size you want, with their first two tiny leaves (cotyledons to be technical) out. Little seeds like clover or broccoli take only 3-4 days. Peas are closer to ten days.
On they day they’re nearly big enough, you can leave them out near a window to get some sun. Even an artificial light will do. This greens them up, making them both more attractive and more nutritious.
Finished sprouts can be refrigerated for several days.
Sprouting doesn’t need much in the way of resources.
Sprouting seed looks expensive. You look at a bag of sprouting seeds … it’s a bag of clover seed and it’s several dollars. You may think “Really? That seems excessive.” Then you buy it and start sprouting from it. And five months later you’re still sprouting from the same bag. I get about a quart of fairly tightly packed well grown sprouts from two tablespoons of seed. At that rate the bags of seed last quite a while.
Where do you get sprouting seed? Some places that have a good kind of hippie-ish, natural foods groove to them or a good organic section sell sprouting seeds. We get ours at our local country (Mennonite) stores. One could buy clover seed by the 10 lb bag from garden suppliers. We spring for the sprouting special stuff because that way we know they haven’t put pesticides or anything on it.
Seeds last. A pint of sprouts from the grocery store runs a couple of dollars and lasts a couple of days in the fridge. By contrast, a $6 10 oz bag of seeds will stay happy at room temperature in its ziplock bag (even opened) for at least two years. The germination rate is still very good after all that time, too.
Why bother with sprouts?
You get extraordinarily nutritious little greens. Not for calories; they’ve got almost no calorie count. They are Great for minerals and lovely antioxidant phytochemicals, though. They also have some fiber. All of these are components sadly lacking in much prepper food.
Sprouts can be used on salads, or even as salads. They work like lettuce. Put them on sandwiches. Add them to tacos. Top your chili with them. You can also dump them into soups, stews, and casseroles. They pump up the nutrition and add bulk and a fresh, pleasant crunch. The picky eaters won’t even notice the taste in spaghetti sauce and the like.
And there’s the psychological angle. If you’ve spent much time eating off your stored foods, you’ll notice the ‘eternal, prepackaged’ feel of it gets old fast. A handful of sprouts adds color and crunch. The meal feels much less austere. As Salty puts it — it’s good for morale.
Summing up sprouts
So they’re cheap. They’re easy to grow in generous plenty. The seeds don’t require any kind of special storage, and need very little space. They grow in any conditions people can live in, and don’t mind being tucked in a cabinet most of the time if space is tight. And you can grow fresh greens for your family to eat in an emergency situation.
There we are. Sprouts make for fresher, healthier, more appetizing eating. Happy growing.
Thank you for listening and we’ll catch you on the next podcast.