Sprouting

Hey Lupus Girl ask and ye shall receive.

I went to the local health food store this weekend and was talking to my husband about sprouts, I was sad that I didn't see sunflower seeds to sprout and a woman who was shopping said if I was looking for any seeds to sprout, there was a company she ordered from on line called Sprout People at http://www.sproutpeople.com/ I looked at the site this weekend and they have a whole lot of seeds and information and recipes etc.

Of course you can go to the store and get any regular raw grains/dried beans and you can sprout them. Never sprout nightshade veggies as the plants/ greens themselves are poisinous!
"Living on Live Food" by Alissa Cohen has a VERY extensive section on sprouting. You can usually find it at your local library.
In the winter in NY (winter's coming already the last 4 days we had 40 degree weather- not usual for this time of year..) you KNOW I'll be sprouting!

You do need a little counter space and after the sprouts germinate a little natural sunlight

I use a stainless steel sieve and a stainless steel bowl(Never Use Aluminum because of contamination) some people use plastic but it depends how you feel about that(I don't like plastic and try not to use it)
1)I soak the seeds for the recommended time
2) then drain and rinse them
3) rinse and drain 2-3 times each day(you must do this or the sprouts can grow mold)
4)when grown to desired length, rinse drain and refrigerate(they only have a short shelf life so eat them quickly)

In Living on Live Food Alissa Cohen tells the dry quanity, the yield, the soaking time, how many rinsings/day, sprouting time etc.

Try your hand as long as the seeds are alive it's easy to succeed at this!
You can also grow the sprouts in soil, much of wheat grass is grown this way.
Alissa says to use the hard wheat berries fr growing wheat grass.
Have fun managing your kitchen micro farm!