It was late summer and I just wanted to grow something, anything. It was too late to plant seeds outdoors. I’d been thinking about growing alfalfa sprouts for years, but thought it was too complicated. It turns out it is easy, fun and best of all, fast.
Sprouts can be grown on your kitchen counter top in a quart canning jar with a mesh screen or even a piece of pantyhose stretched across the top. Use a canning screw top or a thick rubber band to hold the mesh in place. The point is to be able to drain water out of the jar, but keep the seeds inside.
If you want to spend more money on the project, all manner of sprout growing equipment can be found on the internet.
Seeds for sprouting can be purchased at most health food stores, by mail order from garden seed companies or over the internet. I bought a pound of seed the first time, and that is going to last for a very long time!
Some of the kinds of sprout seeds available are alfalfa, clover, radish, broccoli, sunflower, mustard, onion, mung bean, soy bean, and lentil. For my first time, I bought a mix of several kinds of seed.
Here’s what to do. Put two tablespoons of seed in a quart jar and fill the jar about half full of water. Soak the seed for 8–12 hours. Drain the water out through the screen top. Every 8–12 hours for five or six days, rinse the seed by running water into the jar and swishing it around before draining it out again. To keep the seed from clumping together, roll the jar a bit so the seeds cling to the jar sides.
The sprouts will germinate by the end of the second day and get bigger each day. It is not necessary for the jar to be in the sun or even bright light. On the last day, though, set the jar in the sun for 15-30 minutes so the sprouts green up. If the sprouts are clumped tightly together, loosen them with a fork or your fingers before setting them in the sun so the light can reach more of them. Refrigerate the sprouts after the sun treatment.
Ideal growing temperature is 70 degrees, but my house isn’t that warm and they grow just fine. Lower temps result in slower growing sprouts while higher temps make them grow faster. When the room temperature is very warm, be sure to rinse the sprouts every eight hours. Warm air and the heat produced by the growing sprouts themselves can encourage the growth of disease organisms. If you smell an “off” odor, discard the batch and start over in a clean jar.
Sprouts are highly nutritious. They provide vitamins A, B, C, E and K, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, carotene, chlorophyll, amino acids, trace elements and protein.
Leave a Reply