March Preparedness 2014: How to Grow Sprouts

How to Grow Sprouts *

Here are the sprout seed packages I bought at Whole Food.

I am adding 1 Tablespoon of seeds to each jar.  These are Alfalfa sprout seeds.

Place 1 to 2 Tablespoons of seeds into a 1 quart jar. 

Cover seeds with tepid water.  Sunday evening. Day 1

Cover jar with a porous fabric.  I used a layer of nylon from pantyhose stretched tight over the jar opening and secured with a canning ring on two jars. One layer of nylon from pantyhose stretched tight over the jar opening and secured with a small elastic band stretched tight on the third one and the last jar has four layers of cheese cloth secured with a small elastic band stretched tight. Let seeds soak for 8 to 12 hour.

Here is a close-up of the third jar.  Make sure the nylon is stretched tight or the water will not drain.  I like using the wide mouth jars best.

The elastic band works better than the canning ring, because you can pull the nylon after the elastic band in on.  It is hard to stretch the nylon, hold it tight and put the ring on.  Plus the ring will often make holes in the nylon.

Here is the jar with the 4 layers of cheese cloth.  This is the first time I have used cheese cloth and now after using it I have decided I like this method best.

Drain and rinse with tepid water.  Drain again. Rinse and drain the seeds twice a day with tepid water for 5 to 7 days or until the first set of leaves appear. Monday morning. Day 2

Lay jars on their side. Cover the jars with a towel away from sunlight and heat, but leave the top end uncovered so air can get in. I leave mine on the counter close to the sink so I don't forget them.  Some people place theirs in a cupboard.

Tuesday morning after rinsing and draining. Day 3

 Place the jars on their side and shake them so the seeds spread out. Tuesday morning still.

 Wednesday morning after rinsing and draining. Day 4

Thursday morning after rinsing and draining. Day 5

Shake the jars to spread out the seed/sprouts every day. Thursday morning still.

Friday morning after rinsing and draining.  Day 6

Shake the jars to spread out the seed/sprouts every day. Friday morning still.
These could have been left uncovered today, but I was in a hurry and out of habit covered them.

Saturday morning after rinsing and draining.  Day7

When the leaves appear, rinse and drain twice a day, but do not cover the sprouts.  The light will allow them to turn green.  Do this for another day or two. Saturday morning still.

Here is a close-up of the Alfalfa sprouts Saturday morning.

This is the next morning after leaving uncovered for 24 hours.  Sunday morning. Day 8
Rinse one last time and drain well.  They can now go in the refrigerator and will last about a week.

There will be seed hulls from most types of sprouts.  You can put the sprouts into a large bowl of tepid water and the hulls will sink or float, but most will come away from the sprouts.  You can remove them if you don't like them.  I wait until I am ready to put the sprouts in the refrigerator.  I pull out a section of sprouts.  Rinse them under running tepid water and place them in a resealable bag.  I repeat this until all the sprouts are out of the jar and in the bag.  Wide mouth jars are a lot easier to get your hand into to remove the sprouts.

After they are in the bag you will see more water.  Remove that water too.

I zip the bag closed except for the last inch or two and drain out the remaining water.  Finish zipping closed and place in the refrigerator.  Rinse and drain every 2 to 4 days.  They will keep at least a week.

They can be kept in the jars, but I find that they take up too much room and dry out too fast.

*These sprouting instructions do not apply to wheat, mung bean, lentils, and probably a few others I haven't grown.  More about sprouting them later.

Note:  March 8 and we are still eating fresh sprouts.  Today I added 2 layers of paper towels to one side of the bag and laid that side down.  The sprouts were wetter than I like them, but no water was draining out of the bag.