Sprouting!

[therawmichelle]

Those are some nice sprouts, Mr Raw!
In all honesty, i started sprouting by accident. I had left some chickpeas to soak in the fridge and "forgot" them there and lo and behold, less than 2 days later, they had sprouted some very nice little spouts. :)
Seeing this, i immediately threw out the water, rinsed the chickpeas and allowed them to sprout a bit more before i turned them into a very lovely raw hummus. My mother told me that she would sprout grains by covering them with moist cotton wool and that they'd eventually germinate. I don't own a sprouter right now, so i just sprout things the traditional "water and jar" way. it doesn't always work well, but i'd say it works about 80% of the time.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

l'll tell you a little story about how sunflower greens got discovered by the modern world.

The re-discovery of the modern world's second most potent discovered land food - sunflower greens
In the 1960's Ann Wigmore started sprouting sunflower seeds without the shell on and had good success. ln the later part of the 1960's Viktoras Kulvinskas joined forces at Hippocrates Health Institute as co-director.

One day Vik ordered a 100 kg sack of sunflower seeds, but was disappointed to discover that the shells hadn't been taken off the seeds. So he sat there and attempted to shell all the hundreds of thousands of sunflower seeds one by one. After spending many days doing it ole Vik got sick of it and carried the sack of seeds to the compost to throw away. A week later he came to compost some more stuff and had discovered thousands of small greens growing all over the compost, it was then he woke up that they were sunflower seed greens. From that day HHI started sprouting sunflower seeds on soil and the rest is history.

[MysticTree]

l'll tell you a little story about how sunflower greens got discovered by the modern world.

The re-discovery of the modern world's second most potent discovered land food - sunflower greens
In the 1960's Ann Wigmore started sprouting sunflower seeds without the shell on and had good success. ln the later part of the 1960's Viktoras Kulvinskas joined forces at Hippocrates Health Institute as co-director.

One day Vik ordered a 100 kg sack of sunflower seeds, but was disappointed to discover that the shells hadn't been taken off the seeds. So he sat there and attempted to shell all the hundreds of thousands of sunflower seeds one by one. After spending many days doing it ole Vik got sick of it and carried the sack of seeds to the compost to throw away. A week later he came to compost some more stuff and had discovered thousands of small greens growing all over the compost, it was then he woke up that they were sunflower seed greens. From that day HHI started sprouting sunflower seeds on soil and the rest is history.

Isn't it astonishing that anyone would throw out good seed. I would have thought he'd have given it to the birds or sown the seeds for the flowers at least. Still a guess a good thing came of it.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

Viktoras gives the most inspirational health foods talks l have ever heard on youtube. The man appears to know everything. Even Brian Clement looks up to him. Sure Vik comes across as a loon and is hard to understand, but he has a special magic that can't be equaled. The true father of the health food movement. Vik gave us truth, and it works!

[Th3Boss]

l wish. Even if l could, l wouldn't unless l was a properly qualified scientist or had the money to pay experts to let me know if it was safe to consume. Best to just buy it from the shops. l believe growing your own algae could be dangerous.

Sense asking you I found this website where you can get everything you need to start growing your own

http://www.algaelab.org/

[SunshineMN]

Hey, cool link there Boss. I bookmarked it for future reference. I'd love to grow my own some day! Thanks. :)

[PansyLo]

Where do you buy things to sprout?

Things like beans, cashews etc? I've bought alfalfa before but I would have no idea where to buy other things to sprout...

I saw packets of ready done mixed sprouts in the super market but it said they were for stir fries and had to be cooked. Is this true or could you just buy a ready made bag, rinse them and eat raw?

[MysticTree]

Where do you buy things to sprout?

Things like beans, cashews etc? I've bought alfalfa before but I would have no idea where to buy other things to sprout...

I saw packets of ready done mixed sprouts in the super market but it said they were for stir fries and had to be cooked. Is this true or could you just buy a ready made bag, rinse them and eat raw?

Yes you could eat those raw.

Lots of health food stores and seed catalogues sell seeds for sprouting. Small quantities in packets are good for seeing if you like something - then if you do you can buy larger quantities which is more economical.

Lots of things like mung beans, lentils, quinoa and chickpeas can be bought in a regular store and they will sprout.

It's just a seed doing what it is actually destined for - growing.

Things to watch for:-
anything pasteurised - they won't grow
broken seeds - they wont grow and they will rot thus spoiling the ones that do grow.

[PansyLo]

^ This may sound dumb but what sort of things will sprout from the store? At the super market these things are either tinned or dried. Can you soak dried beans/lentils/chickpeas etc and they'll grow? Are they even raw?

[MysticTree]

Can you soak dried beans/lentils/chickpeas etc and they'll grow?

Yes. They will grow.

[Traceyraw]

Lentils are pretty easy to sprout and make a nice salad with carrots. They are crunchy and yummy.

[PansyLo]

Waitrose have a great selection of things that will sprout. They also do packs of already sprouted things so I'm quite happy with starting there.

I'm going to try and sprout some alfalfa this week.

[Joanna.K]

Ive been sprouting my own alfalfa and adzuki/lentil/mung/chickpea mix for about a month now. After reading through this thread and seeing pictures i feel im not doing a great job ><
Does this chickpea look "right" and safe to consume? :S

Am i perhaps letting them sprout for too long? I keep them in darkness for 3 days straight, and then 2ish days of indirect sunlight. Rinse 1/2 times a day.

[PansyLo]

^ That looks like it's been sprouted for too long.

I've haven't sprouted most thing but when I have eaten chickpea sprouts they're always just starting to visibly sprout. You should try eating them earlier.

[DebB]

Ive been sprouting my own alfalfa and adzuki/lentil/mung/chickpea mix for about a month now. After reading through this thread and seeing pictures i feel im not doing a great job ><
Does this chickpea look "right" and safe to consume? :S

Am i perhaps letting them sprout for too long? I keep them in darkness for 3 days straight, and then 2ish days of indirect sunlight. Rinse 1/2 times a day.

This is what mine look like: