How to Grow Your Own Sprouts

Sprouts are amazing... and so satisfying and easy to grow on your own. They also often scare people, maybe because they have a pretty small window of time when they're perfectly fresh. This can be particularly true, and maybe a bit slimier, when dealing with the bigger sprouts. I have only tried two different kinds thus far: mung and alfalfa. I actually wasn't able to eat the mung bean sprouts - I found they matured at different times, leaving some a bit passed their due date and some just sprouting (I welcome comments on how to avoid this).

So, for now, I'm sticking to alfalfa- which is the kind of small, crisp sprout you would use to top your salads, wraps and sandwiches. You may have come across a small, rather expensive container in a health food store. I purchased 1/2 cup of dried seeds for just over $1.00, and decided if all I had to do was add water and rinse consistently, it couldn't be anything but profitable to explore. Two tablespoons of seeds exploded to fill a mason jar over a couple of days, and I knew I would never go back. The important rule to follow is accurately portrayed in the following quote from a Doctor Yourself website: "Once a day is not enough for taking vitamins, brushing teeth or rinsing sprouts."

What you need: 

1 1/2 tbsp small dry sprouts
1 mason jar
1 piece of cheesecloth, mesh or screen top
1 elastic
Water
1 dark cupboard
1 windowsill (for smaller seeds only)

What you need to do:

Soak about 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp per 16 oz mason jar overnight in a dark cupboard. Cover with cheesecloth or mesh and secure with elastic, or use a screen top specially fitted to a jar for this purpose. Drain in the morning, and rinse.  Return the jar to the cupboard and lay on an angle.

Every day, rinse and drain them at least twice to clean and add moisture. The more pressure in the water, the better- since this will allow the sprouts to separate from each other and add oxygen.

For smaller sprouts, such as alfalfa, radish, fenugreek or clover: keep it out of sunlight until leaves begin to appear (approximately 4-6 days). When they do, place the jar in sunlight to allow green leaves to develop. Remember to keep rinsing them twice daily. They will only need the sun for 1 or 2 days, and watch to make sure you don't want too long to transfer them into containers.

For larger sprouts, such as sunflower, soy, mung or garbanzo: you will not need to transfer to sunlight.

Actual time for germination varies depending on what seed you're using, but with alfalfa I found within 4 or 5 days I was transferring them into the sun.

When they're ready, place them in containers and keep in the fridge. These are best if consumed over the next couple of days when they are the most fresh. 1 1/2 tbsp of dried seeds yields about 3 cups of fresh sprouts.