how to eat local in the middle of winter? sprouting!

homegrown mung bean sprouts

It’s the middle of winter, temps are freezing and there’s less than 7 hours of daylight each day, but it’s still possible to eat fresh local green stuff everyday. “How?” you ask.

Sprouting

and not just bean sprouts either. You can sprout all kinds of seeds to get your fresh local green fix and it’s really inexpensive too! Here’s a list of some of the seeds we’ve sprouted:

mung beans (pictured above)
alfalfa
broccoli
clover
radish
lentils
chia

It’s really simple too. All you need is a glass jar with several lids that have different sized holes (to accommodate various sizes of seeds as well as the different growing stages of the seeds).  Basically, you start off soaking your seeds  for a period of time, after which you transfer them to a mason jar. You will rinse (and drain) them several times and day for a period of time (depending on the type of seed), the average length being 3 days. Keep your jar indirect sunlight (mung beans can actually sprout in the dark) until the end when, if you want green leaves, you can stick it in a sunny window.  Just follow the package directions for the type of seeds you are using for soaking and sprouting times. How easy is that? Plus, it doesn’t get any more local than your kitchen window, right?

I get my seeds & supplies locally, but if you don’t have a natural foods store around, here are some online sources:

Mountain Rose Herbs
Handy Pantry Sprouting

Mountain Valley Seed Company

High Mowing Seeds

mung beans are what bean sprouts come from.

mung beans soaking.

sprouting lids. I got mine locally, but there’s plenty of places online to buy them.

soaked my mung beans overnight, placed them in a jar & now they need a dark corner and rinsing & draining for 3 days.

ready to eat! i add them to soups (miso soup, yum), salads and sandwiches.

5 comments

  1. It always seems to me that there is a collective consciousness around bloglandia! Just last night I pulled out my sprouting seeds and jar so I could do just this!

  2. Yummy! I am raw vegan so sprouted things are definitely something I can eat, and it would add some variety… I tried sprouting once but sprouted garbanzos are gross. I should try it again with fun seeds!

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