Sprouting

I've just started to get into sprouting So far I've stuck to mung beans and lentils but I want to get my hands on alfalfa seeds and try out sprouting wheat too.

Anyone else into sprouting? What do you sprout? Any tips or sprouting suggestions you want to share?

If you can, try to buy organic alfalfa seeds (since pesticides concentrate in seeds). Alfalfa sprouts are probably the easiest sprouts to digest and lend themselves readily to sandwich fillings.

I guess you know about the frequent rinsing and to get the sprouts exposed to daylight (e.g. an indoor windowsill) once you see small leaves appear.

In health shops, you can buy breads made from sprouted seeds. They are dense, moist and sticky but lovely....bit like an upmarket malt loaf. Go well with bananas.

This place has a wonderful collection of videos on how to sprout both beans and wheat grass... it's also where I get much of my supplies from.

http://www.wheatgrasskits.com/wheatgrass-growing-videos

For basic sprouting here's the best system that I've found for a household. Pretty much everybody out there sells this same brand, even our local co-op.

And for wheat grass look into this system. Oddly with wheat grass you are supposed to be able to add sea salt while watering it and it not only won't hurt the crop but it adds minerals and inhibits mold growth. Mold is the curse of wheat grass growing.... a lot of folks that think they're having a bad reaction to wheat grass juice are actually responding to the mold that was juiced along with it...

Oh thanks for the link StephanK! That sprouter looks good, I'm going to see if I can find something similar in europe. I had a sprouting tray once but either I was doing something wrong or the design was not very good, but the little valves in it always got clogged and the water did not run through to the bottom tray. In the end I gave up using it but this time I want to really get back into sprouting properly. At the moment I'm just using glass jars with a piece of muslin and an elastic band holding it in place over the rim, which works ok for the mung beans and lentils but maybe not so good for the Alfalfa seeds?

amy green I'm looking for a good local or at least reputable european source of organic seeds for sprouting. I'm going to ask at my local organic store, but live on an island in the Baltic sea so anything "unusual" is difficult to come by locally That bread sounds so good! I need a trip back home to London to get my hands on some Unless you have a good recipe to share?

[Arcturus]

i like sprouting. i eat green lentil and mung bean sprouts. i also sprout fenugreek which i highly recommend as one of the healthiest and most beneficial of sprouts-you only add a few to other sprouts. you don't need many sprouts- a good handful/half cup a day at one meal is plenty. have to be careful not to overdo superfoods. alfalfa -stands for father of all foods i think. "open sesame" from the arabian nights...the magical words used to open the cave of treasures...open sesame = unlock the treasures within the seed. i use old glass jars myself and organic is best tho fenugreek is hard to come by organically

Originally Posted by greenwillow

amy green I'm looking for a good local or at least reputable european source of organic seeds for sprouting. I'm going to ask at my local organic store, but live on an island in the Baltic sea so anything "unusual" is difficult to come by locally That bread sounds so good! I need a trip back home to London to get my hands on some Unless you have a good recipe to share?

Just to say alfalfa works well with glass jars (which is what I've used). When exposed to light they may need turning round occasionally (I used the squarish large glass jars).

Sorry don't have a recipe for that bread.

Hey amy green I got some alfalfa and radish seeds the other and I've started sprouting them, I'm pretty excited about it

Thanks for the tip about sprouted seed bread, I've started looking about online for recipes and hopefully can experiment.

Good going greenwillow! Not tried radish seeds.

I soak/sprout all my grains/beans! They expand so much and you get quite a bit from just a small amount. plus it affects the meal immensely (in my experience)
it's like eating fresh life that's ripe with energy...or something like that :P