All About Sprouting

Seeds, Nuts, Beans and Grains

Sprouts  are a wonder food!

Scientists have studied sprouts for centuries to better understand their high levels of disease-preventing phytochemicals, and how they contribute to better health, from prevention to treatment of life-threatening diseases. Major organizations including the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society and Johns Hopkins University have reinforced the benefits of sprouts with ongoing studies that explore various sprout varieties for their nutritional properties and to validate health claims.

Sprouts are better for you than the seeds and plants they come from, and contain more of the enzymes which helps protect cells and prevents their genes from turning into cancer. Studies have shown that sprouts contain significant amounts of vitamins A, C and D. Sprouts are widely recognized by nutrition conscious consumers and health care professionals as a “wonder food.”

Want to learn how to grow sprouts?  Read on!
Following are basic directions to grow sprouts from nuts, seeds and beans.
 

Sprouting Tips

Remember that germination declines with time.  Keep an eye on your sprouts to see when they are full and ripe.  When seeds have soaked and have not sprouted well they can still be prepared in other ways.  The longer sprouts grow the more flavor they have.  Sprouts grow bitter as green chlorophyll develops.   Keep refrigerated after sprouts are ready to eat.

Add to salads, decorate dinner plates, garnish buffet bars, and use in soups.

Growing is like a work of art, it doesn't always result in perfection.
 

Sprouting Jar Method for Growing Sprouts

(Alfalfa Seeds)

Place seeds, nuts, grains  or beans in a jar and cover with room temperature water.   Soak 8 hours.
Drain and rinse twice a day for the specified numbers of days listed below for each seed, grain, nut or bean.

A quart canning jar works well.  There are sprouting screen lids you can purchase that fit on wide mouth canning jars.  Or you can cover the opening of the jar with cheesecloth and secure with screw-on canning jar band ring.  (There are many other varieties of sprouting containers  on the market as well.  These include stacking trays, bag sprouters, tray sprouters and many more.)  A simple jar works well and most folks have one of these handy in their kitchens.

After the seeds, nuts, grain or beans soak in water, strain off the water and let the seeds sit. You want the seeds to be wet and to have access to air. Therefore, don't let the seeds gather in clumps at the jar's bottom. In fact, take advantage of the fact that the wet seeds want to cling to the jar's inside surface. Roll the jar around, causing as many seeds to stick to the surface as possible, then lay the jar on its side. If the surrounding air is cooler than 70 - 80 degrees, the seeds will grow too slowly. Warmer temperatures encourage disease organisms. If you prefer growing them under warmer conditions, then rinse at least twice a day or more. If you are not rinsing enough, you'll smell a funky odor in the jar. At this stage it doesn't matter whether your sprouts have light or not.

Rinse the seeds at least every 24 hours with cool water. Just run the water into the jar, swirl the seeds around, then pour (strain) out the water and repeat. The idea is to rid the seeds of disease organisms and toxins that accumulate in the warm, moist conditions inside the jar. The picture on the top shows sprouting alfalfa seeds stuck to the side of a jar. The picture below shows the same jar. You can see that the small amount of seeds we began with now fill the jar with half-grown sprouts. At this point I poured half of the sprouts into another jar and continued rinsing them. Eventually both jars were full!

(Alfalfa Sprouts)

When the sprouts are big enough -- usually on the fifth or sixth day -- spread them out and let the sun shine on them a few minutes -- maybe 15 minutes, more if you want. This important step activates enzymes and makes the sprouts prettier by making their leaves greener. The brown seed-coats will have come off most beans. If you want, you can remove most of the coats by submerging the sprouts in water, then filtering out the coats, which tend to float to the top. Removing the coats won't change the taste or nutrition.

Eat the whole sprout. In salads, soups, baking or plain.

Alfalfa Seeds
3-5 days
 alfalfa sprouts are the most common sprouting seed

Almonds
24 hour maximum

Chick Pea / Garbanzo
48 hour maximum

Almonds and Garbanzo's may not sprout all the time.
Use anyway soft and un-sprouted!

Mung Beans
2-3 days

Green Lentils
2-3 days

Green Whole Peas
2-3 days


Natural Sesame Seeds

Sunflower

Sesame & Sunflower seeds soak for only 2 hours, sprout 24 hours maximum.

Hard Wheat Berries
2 days

Soft Wheat Berries
2 days

Buckwheat Grouts
(1 cup in quart jar, soak 15 minutes and drain)

Wheatberry and Buckwheat Groats rinse and drain every 10 minutes for 1 hour,
and then every 12 hours rinse and drain about 1 day until sprout is length of seed


Flavorful Sprouting Seeds

Add small amount to other sprouting grains for more flavor. Or use sprouts sparingly in dishes.

Anise Seed
2 days

Caraway Seeds
2 days

Dill
2 days

Fennel
2 days

Fenugreek Seed
2-5 days

Mustard Seed
2-4 days


Plate Sprouting

To sprout, place one layer on bottom of plate.
Mist 3 times a day for 24 hours maximum. Eat the whole sprout.

Brown Flax Seeds

Quinoa

Becomes bitter with longer sprout times.


Tray Sprouting

For grass or strait upright sprouts.
With the tray method the seed is not eaten, the grasses are.
This is how folks make wheat grass juice.  The grass is grown, cut and juiced.

Fill tray 1 inch deep with perlite (do not eat). Sprinkle seed upon the perlite.
Spray 3 times a day with water. Grow for specified days. Cut sprouts for salads, etc.

Buckwheat
5 days

In Shell Sunflower
7-8 days - Needs lots of water.

Hard Wheat Berries
7 days

Soft Wheat Berries
7 days
 

~Written and contributed by Susan Oshel who has grown and tasted all of these~