Instant Harvest

by Monica Brandies

Too hot to even pick vegetables outdoors? You don’t have to. Nor do you have to do without during the heat of summer. You can plant a crop in your kitchen that will mature in three to five days and give you fresh, crunchy and delicious vegetables at a fraction of the cost.

Growing sprouts is easy, quick and fascinating. It’s a good project to do with kids, too. My oldest children were in high school by the time I got an assignment to write my first booklet — about sprouts. I had already learned how to sprout seeds in jars so that they multiply greatly in both bulk and nutrition. The first time I made two quarts, and son Mike ate them up before they could grow as long as they might. So after that I hid them in the cupboard until they were ready. Good thing sprouts grow well in the dark until their last day, when light turns the tiny leaves green with chlorophyll.

I didn’t sprout seeds much in the summer in Iowa because we didn’t have A/C and sprouting is best done with temperatures not much above 80 degrees. But most of our houses are now cool enough, even in summer.

I was fascinated to read about a family that lived for six months during a layoff on $104 worth of seeds, well sprouted. That was a few decades ago, but it was a very clever way to feed a family in hard times. All members stayed quite healthy, though who knows how happy?

My children were not so happy with my new project since I had three weeks to develop a booklet full of new recipes. They had always liked sprouts as snacks, in salads, in our favorite Chinese casserole and on toasted cheese sandwiches. But within a few days, they were checking everything.

“Be careful,” one would warn the others. “Those scrambled eggs might have sprouts in them.” Sometimes they didn’t find them because I sprouted the soy beans or
garbanzo beans, then dried, roasted and
ground them. Coarsely ground, they taste like nuts. I put lentil sprouts in the cream cheese spread and in potato salad. Soy sprouts hid in chicken liver sandwich spread, and ground ones in meatballs and oatmeal cookies. Roasted garbanzo sprouts were chopped in muffins and cakes, and even made a good nutty ice cream topping. Catherine was a baby at the time, and I put some in her baby food.

I used to wonder why Grandma insisted on soaking her soup beans over night. Now I do the same, then rinse the seeds once or twice the next day so that many of them have just a small sprout. Then I make bean soup just as always. It tastes the same, but is much more nutritious, less gaseous and cooks in an hour instead of five.

Why sprout? Because the seeds are nutritious, delicious and inexpensive to begin with, and they increase from two to ten times in volume, depending on when you eat them. The process of germination turns the fats and starches to vitamins, sugars and proteins, making the seeds more digestible, less fattening and many times more nutritious.

Just put some whole seed — beans or lentils from the grocery store, untreated sunflower seeds or rice — in a jar, about half a cup to a quart jar. Add a pint of water and let it all sit for several hours or overnight.

By morning the seeds will have swollen until they are double in size. Next, pour off the water. Rinse the seeds with tap water, hot or cold doesn’t matter. Take a square of nylon net, the bag that onions often come in, or any mesh material and put it over the top of the jar. Hold it down with a rubber band or with a canning rim. It is good to let the water stand for a minute or two so the sprouts soak it up well. Then drain off all water.

I leave the jar tilted upside down between rinses, which should be repeated at least twice a day, preferably three or four times. By the second day the seeds will be sending out tiny sprouts that will grow until the jar is full. You could also put larger seeds in a colander and rinse right through, but leave plenty of room for expansion.

All this can happen on your kitchen counter or in the darkness of a cupboard. After the third day, begin watching for tiny leaves. When these appear, set the jar in the light for several hours so the leaves can make chlorophyll and turn green. After this, replace your mesh with a solid lid, refrigerate and use the sprouts in tossed salads and casseroles or on sandwiches.

Sprouts are delicious. If you have any left after several days in the refrigerator, they can be kept in the freezer for a few months. They will lose their crispness, but be fine for adding to cooked dishes.

© 2013 Monica Brandies. Originally published in Florida Gardening, Jun / Jul 2013. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Resources
Burpee, (800) 888-1447, www.burpee.com

E.O.N.S., Inc. (954)382-8281, www.eonseed.com

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, (877)564-6697, www.johnnyseeds.com

Sprout People, http://sproutpeople.org

Where to Get Seeds

• You can save seeds from your garden as long as you aren’t using any poisonous sprays.

• Most of the whole seeds you buy at the grocery have not been treated and do fine for sprouting, as long as they are reasonably fresh.

• Some seed catalogs offer sprouting seeds as well as planting seeds. If you use regular seeds, be sure they have not been treated.

• Health food stores offer a good variety of seeds that can be sprouted.