I have been thinking about doing this, but haven’t got around to it yet. Looks fairly straightforward?

Laurie

Posted by: @tigerlily

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Looks fairly straightforward?

Easier than you'd think!

The most basic way is a mason jar with some kind of screen lid and a way to prop the jar upside-down at a 45-degree angle (to help with drainage). 

Most sprouts require the same care:

1. Soak the seeds (usually 1 or 2 tbls in a 1L jar) for 4 to 12 hours, depending on the seed. Basically overnight works.

2. Drain and rinse, then shake out as much water as possible. Set upside-down at a 45 degree angle.

3. Around 12 hours later, repeat step 2.

4. Depending on the sprout, and how much you want them to grow, after about 3-7 days of doing steps 2 and 3, you're ready to harvest.

I've got several jars going, but I dug up a bunch of old "easy sprout" containers I purchased way back in 2009, and have set a few batches up in those. The Easy Sprout jars make it much easier to rinse, drain, and get proper airflow. I just hate that they are plastic.

More advanced sprouts would be microgreens, which is basically like planting a small garden of grass in a tray (soil is needed). I'd love to do that (again), but with a soil-free method, and I'd rather not attract fruit flies to my kitchen this summer.

@veganostomy Wow, that sounds easier than I thought. Okay, I’ll give it a try. Where do you get your seeds? 

Laurie

Posted by: @tigerlily

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@veganostomy Wow, that sounds easier than I thought. Okay, I’ll give it a try. Where do you get your seeds? 

Laurie

The seeds we get are from Mumm's out of Saskatchewan ( https://sprouting.com/). This brand is pretty common in Canada.

My most recent purchase was from Well.ca (free shipping over $35), and they are much cheaper than the same seeds sold through Amazon.

Note that most places seem to stock the smallest bags of seed, which are usually 125g. This is a great way to sample them, and you'll get many jars worth from the smaller seeds. If you find a favourite, and eat them often, it makes far more sense to get the larger 1kg bags.

Good luck!

@tigerlily Harvested a few jars last night... that salad bowl on the right is quite large, and the sprouts in it came from two 1.8L jars! 🤣

@veganostomy Holy smokes, Eric! You could go into business! Okay, you’ve convinced me. I looked at the site where you get your seeds, and there is a lot of choice. What are your favourites? Thanks for sharing this info.

Laurie

Posted by: @tigerlily

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What are your favourites?

We are just getting back into it, so will still be sampling.

But broccoli would be the healthiest, by far. Mung beans are versatile. Radish gives a nice kick. 😂

Clover and alfalfa give you high yields, but alfalfa apparently can be risky with salmonella (?) I believe. There are ways to mitigate this, and risks are lower when you do it yourself using trusted seeds. But that one seems to be unusually high risk. Clover is a great alternative.

Their blends, like the sandwich booster, are also quite nice.

Just be sure to get seeds meant for jar sprouting, not tray or microgreens seeds. 

Thats brilliant, we can't get fresh bean sprouts regularly and they are really hard to keep more than a few day , lovely in a veg curry ,gives a beautiful crunch and love the flavour 

@tony-h Those thick, white bean sprouts you find in stores would be mung beans, but commercially, they are grown different from how I do them at home. If you look at some videos of people growing mung bean sprouts in buckets and things like that, it's mind-blowing just how dense and high-yield they can be!

The trick (which is hard if you're using jars) is to keep them under pressure to stimulate growth. Growing them in trays with weight on them, or packed tight really make them juicy!

I'll be trying a weighted method this weekend, as I expect more seeds (6kg worth!) to arrive later today. If you sprout mung beans just regularly in a jar, you still get good results, but very different from the packaged stuff.

Such an easy food to grow at home.

Honestly I am too lazy to grow my own but what a great reminder of the nutritional value of sprouts.  My local farm stands has micro greens sprouts, or they did last season, I will need to check them out.  

Thanks for the information.

Posted by: @cygo

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Honestly I am too lazy to grow my own

It's sooooo easy if you only have a jar or two. Maybe 30 seconds between the two of them, once in the morning and again in the evening.

I've been experimenting with my own custom blend, similar to the "sandwich booster" blends you can find being sold for more than the cost of the separate seeds. This way, I can tweak to my pallet preference, and then make a jar of it.

When a new batch needs to be set up, I scoop two tablespoons of my custom mix into the sprouting jar, give them a rinse, then soak for 6-8h. Then I'm on the twice daily rinse and drain for about 4-5 days before harvesting.

Microgreens are more involved, since you are dealing with soil, but even if you don't grow them yourself, they are such a great source of nutrition.