Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Easy Sprouts!


If you love sprouts and want to have them available all the time, make them yourself easily, with very little space needed, in your very own kitchen!

When you purchase sprouts in the store they are usually overpriced, packaged, and after a day or two often get slimy or go bad very quickly.



We've been using the Sprout Garden 3 Tray Family Sprouting Kit (approx. $28 on Amazon) for the last 6 months and it has truly been a blessing to enjoy homemade sprouts daily and in abundance.

The sprouts we've been growing are Mung Bean, Alfalfa and Broccoli sprouts (seeds were also purchased on Amazon) and having them on hand to add to our daily salads has been a luxury...the best thing about homemade sprouts is that you know exactly where they came from and what went into them - just fresh water!

Sprouts are one of the most alkalizing, nutritious and easily accessible foods known to man, rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes.  A sprout possesses all of the energy, vitamins, nutrients and power that enables it to be transformed from a small seed into a strong plant.  At this stage its nutritional value is at its highest, and due to their size and taste you are able to eat hundreds of sprouted seeds at a time. In so many sprouts, you are eating the equivalent of hundreds of fully grown plants all at once!  Studies have shown that broccoli and other types of sprouts contain exceptionally high levels of a natural cancer fighting compound called sulforaphane (20-50 times more than in mature broccoli) which helps support antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E.

There's a lot of information available on the internet on sprouts and how to grow them, with plenty of methods and techniques, but after trying several other ways I found the Sprout Garden to be the easiest, quickest, most fun and rewarding. Kids can also help, it's so easy...you just have to water and drain them first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and within just a few days your sprouts are ready!  

Below are recent photos of ours...hope this inspires you to start sprouting!


Mung Bean Sprouts

Alfalfa Sprouts

Broccoli Sprouts