Growing Sprouts at Home

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My first successful gardening adventure this year was growing sprouts indoors.  I first tried growing sprouts 3 years ago.  I bought a 3-tray sprouter from a seed catalog and mung beans seeds.  I grew them non stop for 2 months until the seeds ran out. By that time I was burned out on sprouts and Em wouldn’t look at them anymore so this poor little sprouter tray sat in storage until recently.

So with renewed motivation and a fear I won’t be in the garden until July this year – As I write this (the second day of Spring) it is snowing in Maine, I begin my sprout growing again.

 

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I start my sprouting adventure by measuring 1/2 cup mung bean seeds and a 1/4 cup wheatgrass seeds into separate bowls.  I rinsed and drained the seeds to get any dirt off, then filled the bowls with water and sat them on the counter to soak for 8 hours.

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After the soaking, I drained the water and divided the seeds into the trays.

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The trays stack on top of each other with a water catcher making up the base and lid for top.  Now I pour a couple cups of water in the top tray and the water will drain through all three trays soaking the seeds with the extra water draining into the base.  You can use this water by feeding it to houseplants or container plants.  The water is nutrient dense from the sprouts.

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The plan is to water every 12 hours.  I do it once at night and once in morning.  I also keep the sprouter out of direct sunlight per the instructions included with it.

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The wheat seeds were opening in under 48 hrs and that turned out to be the best time to eat them. They were small, nutty and delicious.  I let some go 4 days and the grass started growing (imagine this – wheatgrass tasted like grass once it got bigger).

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The mung beans tasted best at 4 days to me.  The fifth day I didn’t water them to let them dry out and packed them into containers and put in the fridge.

From the 1/2 cup mung Bean seeds and 1/4 cup Wheatgrass seeds I yield 1.25 lbs of finished sprouts.  Honestly that is to many sprouts for me to consume in a week so from here on out I will do 1 tray using a 1/4 cup mung bean seeds each week.

Next step is to get the maniacs to eat them.  We will try salad first, then start easing them into stir fries and other dishes.

I bought my seeds and you can purchase a germinator from Johnny’s here.  I also found this website – sproutpeople.org to be an incredibly informative resource about growing sprouts at home.  (Neither of these sites are affiliate links and I do not earn anything from you buying from them. They are the resources I used and would recommend)

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An Emily made Sprout filled salad!

I am hoping sprouts combined with micro greens will become a way to keep us in fresh salad material through winter next year.

Jeff McIntosh

About Jeff McIntosh

Jeff's family lives in his childhood home on a 1/4 acre in town lot. Despite the small space to work with, they have challenged ourselves to produce as much of our own food as possible — and cook it! They document their journey at Blogging with Apples.