SPROUTS
Did you know that sprouting grains, legumes,
and other seeds can give you many times the nutrients that eating them
in cooked form does? When they are sprouted, they are actually
providing you with a source of fresh, whole food and are actually more
like vegetables and greens! Our survival in hard times and the
maintenance of the health of our families is much more likely if we
have available to us a source of fresh foods, which sprouts provide.
It used to be the case that half the sailors
on long
sea voyages would die of scurvy; but when Captain James Cook gave his
crew sprouted beans on a regular basis, not a single man was lost to
scurvy on his first 3-year long voyage!
Here
are some amazing facts about sprouts:
• They grow in any climate with only a
little
water.
• They rival both beef and
store-purchased
produce in nutritional value.
• They mature in 3-5 days and may be
planted at
any time.
• They require neither soil nor
sunshine.
• They equal the vitamin C in oranges
and
tomatoes.
• They have no waste and are easily
digested.
• They can be eaten without processing
or
preparation.
• They last several days without
refrigeration.
• They are low in calories and are a
complete
protein.
• They have been used for 1000’s
of years
as both food and medicine.
• THIS IS A WAY TO STORE SOMETHING THAT
IS EASY
TO STORE AND WILL GIVE YOU THE EQUIVALENT NUTRITION OF FRESH VEGETABLES
AND
MEAT!
Almost any seed, grain, or bean can be
sprouted for
food, and they produce many times their weight in food. Only 1
lb. of alfalfa seeds will produce 8 lbs. of sprouts! What you
have to make sure of is that the seeds, grains, or beans have not been
treated in ways that kill the life of the seed, “the
germ”. If they have, they won’t sprout. Many
friends of mine have tried to sprout their storage wheat with varying
success. You'll have to test your own storage grains to see what
will and what won’t sprout. Hard red winter wheat seems to
store very well. If a grain won't sprout, it still has calories
and can be made into things like bread, but its nutritional value has
decreased with the death of its "germ". I suggest that you hold
onto your grains, even if they won't sprout, until the time comes that
you are replacing them with something better.
When I finally got around to trying to
sprout, I
couldn’t believe how easy it was. I just got out a
wide-mouth mason jar, poured in 1/3 cup of mixed (assorted) sprouting
seeds that I had just gotten from Walton Feed, put on my medium-sized
sprouting lid that I got at the Good Earth (local health food store --
set of 3 sizes for about $4.25), filled the jar with water (starting in
the morning), let it sit on the countertop until dinner time, poured
the water out through the lid, rinsed them a few times, and then rinsed
them about 3 times a
day. In 3 days I had tons of sprouts, and by the 3rd or 4th day
the
whole jar was stuffed with them. They were so delicious. We
were eating them plain, on sandwiches, and in salads. This
assorted bag of sprouters included:
adzuki beans, red and green lentils, mung beans, peas, triticale,
spelt, hard red wheat, and soft and hard white wheat.
How
to actually
do sprouts is so simple. JUST:
• Soak
small seeds for 4-6 hours and larger seeds for
8-12 hours.
• Then
start rinsing them with lukewarm water and
draining them
well 2-3 times a day for 3-5 days,
keeping them moist but
not soaked.
That’s it! Some do better in the dark than in the light,
and the longer they grow and/or more sunlight they get, the stronger
they taste. When they get to the point where you like them the
best, put them in a bag in your fridge and eat them up! A general
rule is to let the teenie seeds like alfalfa and broccoli sprout for
a few days until their tales are long, and let them be in the sun the
last couple of days so that they green up. They taste
great.
Bean sprouts get stronger and more bitter the longer their tales get,
so I just let them sprout until the tales are barely visible, and then
EAT THEM! They stop growing as soon as you put them in the fridge.
Here’s a list of recommended seeds,
nuts,
grains, and beans for sprouting: adzuki beans, alfalfa seeds,
almonds, cabbage seeds, chick peas, clover
seeds, corn, cow peas, fenugreek, green peas, lentils, millet, mung
beans, mustard seeds, oats, radish seeds, rye, sesame seeds, soybeans,
sunflower seeds, triticale, watercress, and wheat.
You don’t have to have tricky
equipment,
although the little plastic mason jar lids are wonderful, but even a
towel, nylon stocking, or strainer will work! Just
anything that your seeds can be in and drain through is great.
**Be careful not to leave sprouts out so long that they are growing
bacteria. Rinse well before eating.
-- A great book on sprouting is: The Hippocrates Diet and
Health Program, by Ann Wigmore.