Can beans sprout while in the fridge?

[Misty*Mountain]

Perhaps this is a stupid question... but I am new to this whole sprouting thing, and I was just wondering if beans can sprout while they are being refridgerated. The reason I ask is because apparently we have a mice problem in my house (I learned this the hard way when I discovered droppings in my beautiful mung bean sprouts just as I was about to use them for Pad Thai :mad: :eek: ) so leaving my beans out on the counter to sprout is not longer an option! The only safe place is my fridge. . .will my beans still sprout there... or is it too cold??

[JinxieKat]

They really don't sprout well in the fridge. They will eventually sprout, I know this because when I do sprouts for my parrots I really only soak the seeds for 24 hours then drain well and put in the fridge. When I get down to the bottom of my sprouter, in about three days, the bottom sprouts will be sprouting. How's that for a tounge twister!

Have you thought about getting some of the sprout bags? You can use the nut mylk bags in Alissa's store as sprout bags. You just put the seeds in the bag, dunk the bag in water to soak, then you can hang them up out of mouse reach. When you rinse you just rinse through the bag.


Jinx

[Misty*Mountain]

grrrrrrrr :( :eek: i'm so frustrated about this mice situation

[nikilee1]

I used to have a mice prob, and then I moved.
But I used to have a fridge that stood alone on the wall any those little suckers used to climb us the coils in the back, and then I got smart and put a long heavy board against the wall on top of the fridge. The mice could still climb the coils but they could not get on the top, I put lots of wonderful goodies up there. Just make sure its heavy enough so they can move it and longer than the width of fridge. Plus it is lots of extra storage space

hope it helps
niki

[juliebove]

I had mice when I lived in NY. I had an apartment and there were mice and rats everywhere. Ants too. What I wound up doing was buying wooden bread boxes and putting things that wouldn't fit in the cupboards in there. A friend told me that the only safe things to put on lower shelves of the cupboards were things in bottles, jars and cans. And no plastic jars. Mice can eat right through plastic.

Another thing I did was to put some food on a small card table in the center of the kitchen. My kitchen didn't have a lot of cupboards or counter space, but it did have a lot of floor space. Mice can climb up a lot of surfaces, but apparently not the slick metal legs of a card table! And it was far enough away from the counter that they couldn't jump onto it. They never got into the food there at all.

Do you have a cat? Mice often won't come in where there is a cat. Or if they do, they won't come back. We do have a cat, so the exterminator was rather surprised that the mouse came in to begin with. I might not have even noticed that one had been in there, but I had bought a package of English Muffins and had left them sitting out on the counter to take to my Mother In Law's house the following day. I walked into the kitchen that night and noticed that a huge hole had been chewed into the plastic bag and there were crumbs on the counter.

Now my mother in law had problems with mice in her house and I knew they were getting in through the stove. And when my grandma had mice, they got in through the stove. So I opened up the drawer at the bottom of the stove and sure enough, I saw a rapidly moving blur and heard the little guy as he scurried back out. The exterminator found droppings behind the stove.

I immediately took action then, securing everything I could. Moving things around and looking for droppings. We never had any more mice after that. That one must have left and never come back. Perhaps he noticed the cat. She sure noticed him! She was sitting right in front of the stove and acting very agitated.

Of course I don't know what kind of kitchen setup you have. If you don't have the room to set up a card table, could you use a small metal stool of some sort to put the sprouts on? It would have to be far enough away from anything the mice could jump from to get up there. And it would have to have slick metal legs so they couldn't climb up it.

[Shivananda]

Yes, they will sprout in the fridge, but much more slowly. Matter of fact, when you grow sprouts on the counter and then put them in the refrig, they continue to grow, slowly, slowly.

Are you sure you don't have anyplace safe? How about in your oven, or in the wall cabinets? Mice usually can't get in there.

[Indi]

How about making a hanging shelf.

I made one using a plank, thick cord and a couple of fixings to fix to the ceiling.

I just cut two lenghts of thick cord, looped it twice around each end of the plank (Not too close to the end to give plenty of stability) then fixed it to the ceiling.

If you position it away from objects that the mice can leap from, im sure this would work. Cheap too!

I did this because i had a lot of plants that were suffering from lack of natural light in a flat i used to own.
I placed the shelf close to a window and that solved the problem.
It was very sturdy and took a lot of weighty items.
I just stood on a chair to water!

Good luck

[LearningTogether]

We got some giant rats and once we got our cat they were gone! She never even caught one, they just disappeared.

I'm not sure nut mylk bags would make a difference. I think a rodent would chew right through them.

I used to not be a cat person. But, she has really grown on us and she is best friends with out dog. But, she really likes sprouts and she keeps getting into my lentils. So, I'm going to have to get some of those sprout lids ;)

You really need to check for holes. Places might be under the sink or around washer/dryer vents. You buy this foam stuff in a can and spray it in the holes. It expands as it dries. You can buy humane mouse traps and then set the mice free somewhere far, far away. Don't poison them because if any cats or dogs come around at all they can eat the poisoned rodents.

[Crystl-jade]

Actually, I have also done this experiment and Yes, they do sprout in the fridge and better yet... they taste fresher, too. The reason is because they are keeping cold and have a much less chance of spoilage then if they were left out of the fridge to sprout.

Great question, btw :)

Give them a couple extra days, depending on the kind you use. This reqires some patience, but well worth it if you want really fresher tasting cuisine.

I just use a heavy duty zip lock bag (the freezer type). They sprout wonderfully and all you do to rinse them is fill the bag up, shake it, then let the water pour out the almost-zipped bag. This makes is so easy. When they are done sprouting to your likeness, just drain the water in the manner I explained above, then zip- close the top and store them in the fridge until ready to use.

Easy schmeasy :)


Crystl-jade.