My kind of gardening!

[dreamshark]

Being too lazy, too impatient, and too dirt-averse for gardening, I decided to tackle a simpler form of growing my own food. Besides, I was at the coop for the first time in a long time and there were the alfalfa seeds. We used to grow sprouts back in the days when we were so poor we were gathering windfall apples and making our own tofu, but it's been such a long time that I had to look up how to do it online. I'd forgotten how easy this is!  The hardest part was finding a canning lid and a piece of screen for the jar top. Once you get past that hurdle, you just soak the seeds overnight, drain them, and then rinse them 2 or 3 times a day until they turn into this. Voila! Instant vegetables!

But whoever wrote the instructions suggesting 2 tablespoons of alfalfa seeds must REALLY love sprouts. Cause 2 tablespoons expands into about 2 quarts of sprouts once you dig them out of the jar and give them room to breathe. And I don't think these are even full grown yet, but I was afraid the jar would explode if I didn't get them out of there. 

Comments

[davidwilford]

I used to eat bean sprouts back in the day and might try them again now. Munch.

[dreamshark]

That would require mung beans, of course, instead of alfalfa. The coops carry both.

[quadong]

Wow. Now I want to try this.

[bibliofile]

Would your kids eat them? Or have they encountered sprouts at all?

[quadong]

I don't think they'd eat them by the handful, most likely (although I wouldn't rule it out), but I think they'd eat them. They're reasonably flexible eaters. I don't recall if they've had sprouts, but knowing my mother, probably.

[dreamshark]

I was surprised to discover that Thorin really likes alfalfa sprouts. He says he likes them on sandwiches (as do I).

[minnehaha]

I Too am sprouting. I did mung beans a while back and have now acquired broccoli seeds in order to sprout them. The health benefits of broccoli sprouts get a lot of good press.

My friend Kelley (known to many as Mrs. BeamJockey) has a lot of very positive and intriguing things to say about broccoli sprouts. She inspired me to try them.

If any reader needs a canning ring for a regular or wide-mouth jar, I have zillions and can share. I use cheesecloth in place of a piece of screen. I also put a sticky note on the microwave to remind me to attend to the sprouts every day.

K.

[spiderplanet]

Do you have a photo of the jar you've been growning them in? Or one from somewhere on the intertoobs?