Does anyone have experience sprouting seeds to eat?

Peter 44 - May 2, 2022

Advice

In the spirit of trying to eat more healthy, I want to consume more vegetables. There are many vegetables though that I just do not like or don’t sit well with me, and I get sick of the others pretty quickly. I’ve also heard that the same head of lettuce today is less nutritionally dense than that my grandparents ate because soil is losing it’s minerals. The idea of sprouting my own seeds and eating those may be the way I can eat as little vegetables as possible but still get the nutrition I need. Don’t sprouts have a ton of nutrition per ounce compared to a full grown vegetable?

I’ve seen them talked about with survival groups often as a way to get fresh veggies without having to go outside, have sunlight, or even put in much work. Could be a good SHTF nutrition supply.

Does anyone have experience sprouting their own seeds? I see there are two methods, using trays or in a mason jar with a mesh lid. 

Also, where are cheap places to buy spouting seeds?

Thank you all!

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Any viable seed will sprout. Sprouts are a great way to use wheat, beans, whatever without cooking. The tradeoff is some fewer carbs, starch is there to power the plant initially until it can start photosynthesis, so it uses some to get going.

I looked just now and can’t find a direct comparison of nutrition of wheat sprouts vs flour (all measure the sprouts sprouted but I want to compare them at pre-milled, pre-sprout weight)

The protein in sprouts is said to be more palatable and some other nutrients may be preserved that are destroyed in cooking.

Sprouting is a way to use seed without a mill, just pound them into a mush and cook—or just sith in the sun to dry. It’s called essene or Ezekiel bread.

All sorts of grain are available in bulk from Azure Standard online. Supply is spotty right now. I went to pick up my order yesterday and there were more folks there than I had ever seen before. I had felt bad about ordering too much so only bought 200#, other’s weren’t so shy and hauled off easily 10x as much.

 

I don’t do sprouts but I have grown amaranth, which I consider to be the best prepper crop someone can grow.  I do know lots of folks sprout amaranth for a bed of micro greens.  The best part is, if you were to grow a few plants, you would have all the seed you would need for sprouting.  Each amaranth plant can produce up to 200,000 seed.  No need to purchase seed.  Grow your own.  Here is a pic of some amaranth sprouts.

Here is Copperhead amaranth ready to be harvested.

 

Yes, I liked sprouting best with green lentils:  https://www.trueleafmarket.com/collections/wholesale-sprouting-seed/products/green-lentils-organic-sprouting-seed?variant=4804897177641.  Also try garbanzo beans if they are not too expensive.

 

I saw that trueleafmarket.com recommended as a good organic see source. Good to get a second opinion that you like it as well.

Do you use a tray or jar when sprouting your lentils?

 

Thank you everyone for your comments and recommendations. I am going to start out with some seeds/beans I have here at home and see if I even like this process, and then I’ll probably expand to lentils and amaranth per your recommendations.

From the little research I did since posting this topic, a few people have said that the jar method is less likely to mold than then tray method that I pictured up above. 

Here’s what the jar method looks like:

You buy the lids that have a mesh and screw them onto existing mason jars. 

And here’s what I gathered on how to do the jar method:

1. Day 1 – soak the seeds overnight in a jar full of water
2. Day 2 – 4 – in the morning drain, fill, drain, spread seeds along sides of the jar so they don’t clump. Repeat at night. Ready to eat on day three or four.

 

I use exactly this method to sprout in jars and it works well. Easy and low maintenance. I haven’t had a lot of luck with lentils so far. They sprout but it takes a long time for them to sprout enough that I would want to eat them. I like sprouted seeds much better (broccoli, alfalfa, kale, clover, mustard).

 

Here’s an update to my week long attempt to sprouting garbanzo beans. I started out taking a salsa jar and cut a hole in the lid for ventilation and secured a piece of cheese cloth to act as a screen.

On the first day, I soaked the beans in warm water overnight.

Every morning and night I would rinse off all the beans twice, empty out the water, and spread the beans out along the side of the jar to air out. I rotated the jar throughout the day too so they wouldn’t be sitting in water.

A few developed 1/4 inch sprouts, but after a week of doing this they don’t seem to be getting any bigger and are starting to stink. So it was a failure.

I need to try this experiment again with a smaller sprouting seeds like alfalfa and will update again when I attempt that.

 

I know that amaranth sprouts much quicker than your beans.  Last week I added 5 or so amaranth seeds to a few little pots, to transplant later into the garden.  Within 4-5 days, they all had sprouted and were about 1/2″ tall.

 

So the garbanzo beans were a bust, but alfalfa worked great!

I started soaking a tablespoon of alfalfa seeds on Wednesday night and on Friday they started sprouting.

By Sunday they were doing quite well

And on Monday they had a little bit more growing to do, but I was just too excited and so I just had to have some. Quite a lot for 1 tbs of seeds right?

This beauty is made with turkey, cheese, spinach, mayo, mustard, and the beautiful sprouts! It was a neat experience to pull out some freshly grown produce and put it on my sandwich. It added a ton of flavor, texture, and probably nutrition. I definitely found a new hobby and prep.

 

Congrats!  Very cool!

 

I am using a small sprouting tray and bag of mixed sprouting seeds while traveling/camping in our converted bus. So if I can do it there I can do it anywhere and it’s so easy. I buy fresh groceries once a week and start the seeds then. When all the fresh food is eaten then the sprouts are ready. This way I always have fresh greens.

 

Those look fantastic! Where do you get your mix from?

Hope you travel safe, that sure sounds like a great adventure you are on.

 

Apology for the late response. I use Nature Jims Sprouts Salad mix