How to Sprout - A Simple Method

Sprouting at home offers you a much wider variety of health-giving foods than you can purchase at the store. The variety of sprouts you can create is nearly endless. Almost any seed, grain or legume can be sprouted.

Urban Gardening for Powerful Nutrition

Soaking and sprouting activates your food’s full nutritional potential making it more bioavailable (easily assimilated by all life forms). It enlivens the foods life force, removes enzyme inhibitors and increases protein and vitamins. When toxins and enzyme inhibitors are reduced, digestibility is increased. Eating sprouts during your detox will provide a powerhouse of energy-giving protein and nutrition while decreasing toxic buildup.

Growing Sprouts in a Jar

What you need:

• a wide mouth mason jar
• muslin, cheesecloth, screening or a special sprout jar lid
• a rubber band
• dish rack

1. Select a large enough jar. Seeds will expand at least 8-15 times their original size, grains expand 3 times their size, and beans expand 2 times (3 tablespoons of alfalfa seeds with fill a quart jar.)
2. Put the seeds, grain or beans in the jar and cover with mesh or cloth and secure with rubber band.
3. Rinse and drain several times then cover with purified water and soak, away from direct sunlight, for the amount of time indicated on our printable Sprouting Chart.
4. After soaking, drain water, rinse and tilt jar at a 45 degree angle in dish rack with adequate room for air flow and water drainage. Sprouts will spoil if they sit in water or have too little air.
5. Rinse 2-3 times daily to keep moist and follow the Sprouting Chart for the amount of time indicated. Alfalfa sprouts then need direct sunlight to start to manufacture chlorophyll.
6. Taste your sprouts at various stages of growth to see when they taste best to you – even a small growing “tail” is enough to activate superior nutrition in beans and grains. For seeds, harvest mature sprouts making room for the remaining seeds to continue sprouting – you can harvest multiple times this way.
7. Harvest your sprouts and store them in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Note: The conditions favorable for sprouting are also favorable for bacterial growth. So it is important to use clean jars and new cloth when sprouting, and to rinse the sprouts regularly.