Sprouts, Glorious Sprouts!

Per my Chibi’s request, here is a quick tutorial on how to grow your own delicious, delicious sprouts – without dirt!

You’ll need some alfalfa seeds (or whatever sort of seeds you fancy… I get mine in bulk from Amazon.com), a jar with a mesh lid insert (I’ve heard some people skip the mesh insert and just use a paper towel, but since we don’t do paper towels here, I opted for the mesh insert, which I think was $2 or $3, also available at Amazon.com), and your kitchen sink.

Here’s a close-up of the mesh & the seeds:

First, put 2 or 3 teaspoons full of seeds in the bottom of your jar, fill it with water, and soak overnight.

Next, drain the jar & flip it upside down in an area out of direct sunlight (I just keep mine on the edge of the sink).

A few times a day fill your jar with water, swish it around a bit, and drain again.  In a day or so your sweet little seeds will look like this:

This is day three:

And this is the finished product, which takes about a week:

YUM!  Don’t those look tasty?  Here’s one way you can eat them:

(Yummy, yummy salad with home grown lettuce, home grown tomatoes, home grown sprouts, sunflower seeds, banana peppers, and soy nuts… such a colorful lunch)!   My absolute favorite way to eat sprouts is on top of cottage cheese, but i also put them in sandwiches & use them in sauces & such to kick up the nutritional value of my meals.  To learn more about the awesomeness of sprouts, check out some Sprout Nutrition.

I especially like growing my own sprouts because it’s cost effective.  A little pack of sprouts at the grocery store costs around $4 or $5 depending on the season.  I purchased a pound of seeds for $8 in January.  I grow a batch of sprouts every other week (one week to grow, one week to eat), and I’ve used about a quarter of my seed stash.  I initially invested about $12 (for seeds and a mesh jar topper), so after growing 3 batches of seeds I’ve already made it worthwhile.  If you don’t have a canning jar you can also buy a little kit with everything you’ll need to get started (again on Amazon… gosh I love that site!), but it’s a bit more expensive.  Anyway, there you go!  Much easier than growing lettuce, much cheaper than buying at the grocery, and packed with nutrients.  Enjoy!  })i({