I want to share with you a little experiment that I have been working on: sprouting! Just so you know, the title is not meant to be condescending. I, more than anyone, fall into the "dummy" category when it comes to growing anything. My black thumb does not seem to apply to these delicious darlings, so I'll give you a little tutorial based on how I did it.
I always buy my sprouts at the farmers market, but have always been interested in doing it myself. I pay $3 for a little bag of something that would literally cost me pennies to grow myself, it just didn't make sense! Then I was talking to a friend of my mum's recently who made me realize how easy growing your own sprouts actually is and she gave me everything I needed to get started. Thanks Liz!
I'll just say right off the bat that this is the way I did it and it worked for me, but there are other ways of growing sprouts that may work just as well or even better (tips are always appreciated!)
Sprouts are really easy to grow (trust me, I am notorious for my black thumb, but I managed to make these work), but you will need a few things first:
Materials:
- Sprouting seeds (some of my favourites are fenugreek, lentils and mung beans, most of which you can purchase at bulk stores)
- Mason jar (although, almost any jar will work as long as the opening isn't much smaller than the rest of the jar)
- Mesh screen (You can buy mason jar lids with this built-in or just cut your own and fasten with a thick rubber band)
Instructions:
- Take about 2 tbs of seeds and rinse them
- Put seeds in a jar, fill it with water and place mesh screen on top
- Leave seeds to soak in water overnight
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| Day 0 - First putting them in water to soak overnight |
- In the morning, dump out water through the screen (it will be cloudy and gross at this point) and rinse seeds
- Shake as much water out of jar as possible and leave upside-down (you may want to place the jar in a bowl and tilt it on its side to avoid letting seeds sit in water; sprouts like to be moist, but not sitting in liquid)
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| Day 1 |
- Rinse sprouts morning and night and follow the same process of leaving jar upside-down to avoid pooling at the bottom
- Repeat the last step for 3-6 days, depending on the variety of seed and how fast they sprout (use your own judgement, I felt mine were ready after 4 days, but yours may have a different timeline)
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| Day 2 |
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| Day 3 |
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| Day 4 - Ready for harvest! |
- Once sprouts are ready for harvest, dump them onto a paper towel and leave them for about an hour or pat them dry
- Transfer sprouts to a container and keep them in the fridge until you are ready to make an epic salad or wrap (or just eat them by the handful, I could do that all day long)
Let me know if you have anymore questions! Feel free to email me or leave a comment.
Happy Sprouting!
