The Urban Homestead
So, with all of us being home-bound, a lot of us are taking up more domestic tasks like homesteading and gardening. My family and I put in a series of automatic drip irrigation 4′ x 8′ prefab. gardening boxes outside, and were able to harvest quite a bit of fresh organic vegetables this summer into the fall. We also live in a suburban/semi rural neighborhood, our subdivision allows us to have up to five backyard chickens with no roosters (too noisy for the neighbors around 4:30 am!). So during our isolation we became pretty good farmers and were able to harvest fresh, live foods and organic chicken eggs right from the backyard!
During the winter months I was missing all of the fresh vegetables decided to try to grow the most easy to grow indoor foods and that is… to start an at home sprout garden. There’s nothing that compares to eating food that you grow directly and that is still alive, it is so easy and you too could start your own at home winter sprout garden and have living food within five days! This is how to do it.
How to Sprout Seeds at Home
First and foremost you should purchase quality jars or sprouting trays. I make sure to clean and disinfect them really well before use. Make sure to buy well sourced organic seeds. Follow all safety guidelines and directions here.
You can buy jars here. You can buy high quality sprout seeds here or here.
I chose two different types, one was a protein mix and one was a five-part salad mix for variety:
5 Part Salad Mix sprouting seeds offers the tame and mild flavors of alfalfa and mung, the verdant and healthy sulforaphane of broccoli sprouts, and a spicy finish from radish and green lentil seeds.
Organic Garbanzo Beans, Organic Adzuki Beans, Organic Mung Beans, Organic Green Peas.
Clean and disinfect your container and then measure out the exact amount based on that container for each of the sprouting jars, it was only about 2 tablespoons of seeds per crop.
Then, you rinse the seeds and drain the water. Then, put in about three-1 parts more lukewarm water in the jars and let them soak overnight for about eight hours.
The next morning, drain out all the water and if you use the jars, they have a mesh filter for easy draining such that you won’t lose any of the small seeds.
Next, you will take the seeds and leave them overnight in a dark area like a cabinet. The sprouting process will actually occur in the darkness.
During the next two days, rinse and drain them 2 to 3 times a day thoroughly and set them, slightly tilted downward in a window to absorb a little bit of sunlight to enhance the chlorophyll. Be very gentle during the draining process as to not damaged the fragile sprouts that are just emerging.
In 4 to 5 days depending upon the sprouts, you should have a full garden that’s ready to eat! Store in the refrigerator at a cool temperature once they are grown, just like you would any other salad greens or sprouts. Voilà, a home winter garden of fresh greens!
Here are some innovative ideas for sprout recipes.
Image by Virtual Stylist from Pixabay