Sprouts – For Enjoyment Today and Sustaining Life in SHTF

I LOVE growing my own food.  I’ve been gardening and canning my produce for a few years.  As I learn and journey through self-reliance, I’m always open to and looking for ways to expand my options.  Sprouting seeds is my newest experiment and I am thrilled with the ease and outcome of it.  Now I know I will be adding more seed varieties to my long-term storage.  These are great for sustaining life in a SHTF world.  They are quick to grow and add a punch of nutrition when food might be scarce.

I will assume you are reading this article because you, like I had done, are researching to learn how to grow them yourself.  So I will address the simplest and basic’s for sprouting.  But I must lay out a couple of important points to give you some understanding.

What is a sprout?

Sprouting is the practice of germinating seeds to be eaten raw or cooked. Sprouted foods are a convenient way to have fresh vegetables for salads, or otherwise, in any season and can be germinated at home or produced industrially. They are a prominent ingredient of the raw food diet and common in Eastern Asian cuisine.

Eating sprouts is said to date back over 5,000 years.  Chinese physicians prescribed them for healing many ailments and disorders.  Even in the bible, sprouts are written about in the Book of Daniel.

What seeds to use

About any dry seed will sprout.  Dry seeds are not dead, they are simply dormant.  Soaking your seed will bring it to life and offer you some very healthy and delicious food in just 3-5 days.

Caution & Care

If not properly disinfected, all seeds have the possibility of carrying E. coli bacteria or other foodborne pathogens.  I was taught to disinfect my seeds prior to sprouting them by using a 2% bleach solution (1 tsp. bleach to 1 cup of hot tap water) for 15 minutes before allowing them to sprout.

This is how I started my seeds.  Because I was doing it for the 1^st time, I opted to use a seed blend that was pre-packaged.  Now I know that I can use about any kind of seed and will never spend $3.50 again.

You might have different equipment to use, but this is how I grew mine.   I used a 1 quart canning jar, ring and a nylon screen.  You can use cheese cloth or any other type of pourous top, but you will need to be able to rinse your seeds several times every day and they will need to be drained.

This is where I added 1 teaspoon of bleach into 1 cup of hot tap water.  I swished it around and allowed it to sit for 15 minutes.  (Note the cloudiness of the water) This protected us from growing seeds with E coli.  After 15 minutes, I ran clean water over it until the bleach was completely removed.  Then I started the sprouting process.

 

Here are the rinsed seeds, which are now covered in clean water.  The water is about 3 times the depth of the seeds and there is about 1 ½ tablespoons of Funugreek sprout seeds.  Allow the seeds to soak overnight or a minimum of 8-12 hours.  At this stage, keep the seeds away from direct sunlight.

RINSING

After soaking your seeds, you must now begin the rinsing and draining process.  You do not want your seeds to sit in water, but they must be kept very moist.  After rinsing the seeds well several times, I carefully poured out the water and gently spread the seeds out into this layer.

I then placed the jar at an angle to make sure the seeds were not sitting in water.  I’m still keeping the seeds out of direct sunlight.   From this point until harvest, you will need to rinse and drain your seeds this way four times a day.  Remember, the seeds need to be kept moist but not allowing them to soak in any pooled water.

Here is a close up view of the seeds beginning to give up their delicious sprouts.   This is only about 15 hours after I began.

Continuing rinsing and draining, you see the quick growth only 24 hours after beginning the process.

Day two after rinsing and draining four times each day.  You can see how it grows so quickly and it is exponentially larger than in the beginning.

Closer look after I drained and laid them out on their side making sure they are not in standing water.

Day 3 and they are perfect!  They are firm, crunchy and full of flavor.

This basket is the full yield of the 1-½ tablespoons of seeds I began only 72 hours ago.

You will do another good rinse that will remove the woody hulls.  I allowed them to drain completely and placed my sprouts in an airtight vegetable container.  They can be stored in the produce drawer in your refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

So you see how easy it is.  I now look forward to experimenting with many varieties of seeds and will expand it to be able to grow them from my 3 hens, too!  I hope this pictorial explains the ease of growing wonderful food on your counter right in your own kitchen.  Sprouts are great in soups, salads and sandwiches.  This variety has a strong flavor that I am going to use on my pizza this Friday!

Benefits of Sprouting

Sprouting Seeds for Food – Types of Seeds

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