Talk About Sprouting

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Daring had a great idea on one of her posts to plant wheat grass for Easter. I thought it would be too late when we planted ours on the 14th but look how tall it is after only 9 days! I've planted grass seed before and it took forever to grow. This was much easier.

Now we get to start eating the healthy stuff!

Doesn't those look tasty? One of my goals this year was to learn how to grow my own sprouts. We all love sprouts around here and watching these little babies grow is so much fun for all of us. They take a little bit of tender loving care because the seeds have to be soaked and then rinsed several times a day. Our first batch of alfalfa sprouts grew perfectly.

But the next batch went moldy for some unknown reason. One of the kids might have rinsed them and not drained the water out properly. I don't know. In the mean time we were also sprouting mung beans. Their little tails just kept getting longer and longer and they tasted so good when we snuck a few here and there.

Then one day they turned purple, sprouted wings (leaves) and that was the end of the fun. Hello nasty and bitter! I guess it's on to round two with the mungs.

So I broke down and bought new doodads. Sprouting trays. We will soon find out if it was a good investment in my family's health and future or if we'll find them in the donation box after I've stored them for a sufficient amount of years without using them.

Two sprout trays aren't enough for all the sprouting we want to do so I am going to make my own sprouting bags. You can buy them at sproutman.com but of course I'm too thrifty for that. I have to order my own fabric, spend time sewing them up, ruin a bunch of seeds finding out that mine don't work for some reason, and then order the bags from Sproutman. That's just how I like to do things around here. Or I'll buy the automatic sprouter. That thing is cool!

Another note: After buying my sprouting seeds I ordered a new book called Nourishing Traditions which says eating too many raw sprouts is not good for you. They should be cooked before eaten. Also,

There is only one seed we do not recommend in sprouted form (or in any form) and that is - surprisingly - alfalfa! After mung beans, alfalfa is the variety of sprout that has caught on in the health food world. Unfortunately, it seems that all the praise heaped on the alfalfa sprout was ill advised. Tests have shown that alfalfa sprouts inhibit the immune system and can contribute to inflammatory arthritis and lupus. Alfalfa seeds contain an amino acid called canavanine that can be toxic to man and animals when taken in quantity.

See what I mean? How are you supposed to eat healthy when you don't know what healthy is? Who are you supposed to believe? I am needing some direct revelation from God here.

What are you talking about this week?

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