the best sprouter?

[Clare]

What is the best sprouter/way to sprout? I am considering the EasyGreen. So far I have simply used the jar method or a colander, but my family loves the sprouts I have grown (yea!) so I want to consistently grow a bunch of them with as little effort and space as possible. I have heard of those hemp bags and wondered about them, too...

[Aleesha Sattva]

i've heard the jar method is the cheapest and most effective. what i do to assist with sprouting is put the jar in my dehydrator for up to 12 hours... although i've only done wild rice with this method (and soften some goji berries) but i would think you could do any type of sprouts.

won't hurt to try though.

[FloridaPatty]

When I took the certification course, the instructor used bowls. Alissa's directions for sprouting in her book call for bowls. The cute sprouters you buy are nice for small batches of sprouts. Which may or may not be good depending on what you do with them.

I'd say - start with bowls. Wide ones instead of deep ones. Save the money for more sprouts.

[Clare]

Hmmm, yes, cost is a factor. It would take a lot of sprouting for the EasyGreen to pay for itself in sprouts...I am also thinking about trying wheat grass trays, but wondering where to put them all while sprouting!

[jacsam]

In Alissa's DVD she does it right in a ceramic bowl and covers it with a paper towell. You really don't need to have sprouters to sprout.

[BubbleHead]

What is the best sprouter/way to sprout? I am considering the EasyGreen. So far I have simply used the jar method or a colander, but my family loves the sprouts I have grown (yea!) so I want to consistently grow a bunch of them with as little effort and space as possible. I have heard of those hemp bags and wondered about them, too...

Hemp bags are easy to use. But there's a better way. I use two automatic sprouters I purchased from a woman in South Africa. She has them assembled in the U.S. She also provides plans for making your own, as the parts are easily available. Check out here Web site (URL below).


http://eatsprouts.com/

[Arky]

Before you go for an EasyGreen, I definitely recommend you take a good look at what Val has to offer at EatSprouts.com!

I have found that I can expand my sprouting setup very easily, as much as I like, and very economically, whereas, if you go the EasyGreen route, you have to pay full whack for a whole new sprouter each time you want to expand your sprouting setup. Considering how tiny an EasyGreen is (I bought one myself and sold it before I used it, because I saw what Val was offering), I think they are very overpriced. I'm not saying you necessarily need to sprout loads and loads of stuff, but if you want a decent shot of wheatgrass 5 days a week, along with a few sunflower sprouts etc., then one EasyGreen is going to be woefully inadequate for your needs.


J.

[Clare]

Thank you! I will check it out. I see that there are also plans available to build your own. My husband is very good with that sort of thing and would love to do it. Maybe I will buy my birthday Excalibur in April through them and get their plans first...

[Arky]

Yes, Val's sprouters are extremely easy to build - I built all of mine, partly because I live in the UK and it would be prohibitively expensive to have a completed sprouter shipped to me (Val lives in S.Africa but her business partner, Dan, ships all the sprouter items from the USA), but mostly just because I wanted flexibility to choose my own containers and nozzle arrangement. I don't know where you live, but here in the UK, I have found the most suitable and robust containers to be those from the 'Really Useful Box Company'. I think Dan uses containers from the Rubber Maid company, with specially commisioned growing trays, from another company. Whatever the case, I just wanted to reassure you that the sprouters are easy to build and use. Instead of buying just the plans, I'd recommend you buy one of their 'Basic Mist Kits', since it saves you the hassle of sourcing all the different individual components from various suppliers, with little or no net saving, after you've chased around to get them all. You can save money simply by going the kit route, sourcing your own container and trays, and putting in the building labour yourself.


J.

[Clare]

I really appreciate your input, Arky.

I also read another of your messages somewhere about balancing fruit intake and filling in calories with more veggies, sprouts, etc as opposed to fat or fruit. This is my current dilemma. I am only about 3 months raw, and still use a raw egg and some cod liver oil every day (holdover from my Weston Price raw milk-chugging days). I feel better than before raw, probably because I'm consuming way more greens.

Still, though, I feel like I need either a ton of fruit or some avocado/nuts every day to be "fed". Everybody feels differently about which is better...Sorry that you had to experience health problems to figure it out for yourself.

[Arky]

Clare, just a 'heads-up' - while I am one individual who very much understands and appreciates W.P.'s contribution to the literature on diet and health (in fact, I myself did not appreciate the true significance of fat-soluble vitamins, until I read his work), I'd ask you to bear in mind that, on this particular board, Alissa asks that the discussion be steered towards raw-vegan dietary choices.

That being said, if you feel you need to include, in your diet, the non-vegan items you mentioned, then I would hate you to feel that this is necessarily frowned upon in raw circles, per se'. It's just that this particular board is run by someone with a vegan philosophy, so I suggest refraining from mentioning non-vegan foods on the board, even though you may choose to eat them. People come to raw-food for many different reasons. Some are not vegan, but see the value and logic in eating a raw diet, and, unless they are particularly intrepid, naturally find that eating raw guides their food choices towards only plant-based sources. Others are already vegan and simply choose to eat less of their vegan foods cooked.

Personally, I feel there are rational arguments to support the consumption of a variety of different diets and everyone is entitled to follow whatever path they are happy with. However, I do feel that some diets are not as health-promoting as others, possibly due to lacking one or more essential nutrients. The raw-vegan path, in my opinion, ticks more boxes than most, but is it perfect in the longrun? Maybe. Maybe not. We must all use our own individual judgment when deciding where the truth lies, in any sphere of life, and often it lies, in segments, in a number of different paths ;). You seem pretty switched-on and open-minded to me, so I'm confident you'll make some sensible decisions - I did, as you mention, learn some hard lessons, myself, but I avoided a great many other possible pitfalls, and let's face it - every adversity is a potential teacher, if we are open enough to treat is as such. As is probably obvious from other posts, I prefer to keep an open mind rather than confine myself to the boundaries of dogma or any one philosophy; consequently, I contribute to this board due to my interest in raw foods, rather than for any other specific philosophical agenda.

On the subject of not feeling full, it is no secret that, as a race, we have (particularly over the past 100 years) grown more accustomed to eating soft, calorie-dense foods. Therefore, when one moves over to consuming a mostly raw (and natural) diet, it can take some time to get used to the fact that such foods are remarkably low in calories and thus need to be eaten in considerable quantity in order to reach necessary daily calorie intake - that's why our body's crave fibre on a modern processed food diet - eating a teaspoon of psyllium to compensate isn't really the answer when you finally understand just how much plant-based fibre bulk we evolved to eat on a daily basis!

In short, I dare say you will learn to consume more 'bulk' on a raw food diet, simply by necessity, but far from being unusual, this is actually normal, in the truest sense. What is vital, in acclimatising your body to the increased dietary bulk, is to ensure you have strong enough digestion to handle this, so do make sure you occasionally check that what leaves your body does not still look the same way it entered - if it does, you may have weak stomach acid or your pancreas may be struggling, for whatever reason, to secrete sufficient digestive enzymes. Just something to look out for. As you may already be aware, Vitoria Boutenko discusses this a bit in her book 'Green For Life', which is clearly written sincerely and is a fairly good read.


J.

[vivctfem27]

SOmeone posted a manual on how to build a unit for sprouting, I am just wondering what is so special about the unit. Does anyone have the unit and feels it is diff than when they were using bags, glass or bowls?? The link state no mold problems, I believe it was called automatic sprouter and its someone from sa, anyone know anything?

[Arky]

vivctfem27, I'm not clear on which sprouter you are asking about. Can you be more specific, please?


J.