what’s working :: growing sprouts

June 9, 2009 in at home, farms + food, what's working! by eringoodman | 8 comments

Growing your own sprouts is healthy, fun and SO easy.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Start with sprouting seeds, which you can buy at your local food co-op or health food store (or order online). In the picture above we were sprouting (from left): a “salad mix,” sunflower seeds, and alfalfa seeds.

2. Put about one tablespoon of the seeds into a glass jar (more for the bigger seeds like sunflowers) and cover with a mesh lid or cheesecloth secured with a rubber band.

3. Cover the seeds with water and let them soak for 6-8 hours.

4. Drain the water and then rinse and drain the sprouts 2-3 a day for 3-5 days. {I keep ours on the window sill above our sink (except when I’m doing a little “photo shoot” for my blog ;-) so it’s easy to rinse them multiple times a day.} Once they are the size you would like them to be, give them a final rinse and drain and store them in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week. (I’ve also recently read that it is good to place them in the sun for 15 minutes before eating to produce even more nutrients but I haven’t been organized enough to make that happen.)

5. Enjoy on salads, in sandwiches or my kids’ favorite way — with peanut butter on a rice cake! Yum!

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For a fun and eclectic list of things that are working in other families, check out Works for me Wednesday.

8 comments

  1. Rose’s avatar

    Rose on June 9, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    I haven’t made sprouts in ages! My son would love this. I should give it a try again.

    Thanks for the reminder!

  2. Denise’s avatar

    Denise on June 9, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    okay, I have seen this enough now that I need to try it.

  3. mub’s avatar

    mub on June 10, 2009 at 4:15 am

    I have my jars and lids and have been on a quest to find some sprouting seeds! Have you done bean sprouts? I’d like to try that too =)

  4. eringoodman’s avatar

    eringoodman on June 10, 2009 at 7:35 am

    we haven’t grown bean sprouts yet. i’m sure we will try it soon though!!

  5. Luci’s avatar

    Luci on June 10, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    This sounds very easy to do. Maybe I will try it! Thanks for the motivation to try somethng new and different!

  6. Hannah’s avatar

    Hannah on June 10, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    Growing sprouts is one of those things I want to do “one of these days”. (Seems like I have a lot of things like that!) Nice to hear how it’s done and that it’s quite simple!

  7. Jenny’s avatar

    Jenny on June 10, 2009 at 11:42 pm

    they started doing this with the kids in my son’s class. he came home with plants (their dead now) and it was so cute.

  8. gourmetmomma’s avatar

    gourmetmomma on June 11, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    i just started sprouting too. i’m amazed at the variety of flavors between different kinds of sprouts. i like them a lot of different ways, but straight from the fridge seems to be a current favorit.

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