Quick Guide to Grow Sprouts at Home
Living food, unlike processed food, has an endless list of benefits for our bodies. They are rich in vitamins, amino acids, proteins, iron, magnesium, calcium, antioxidants and much more, and smaller quantities usually get you really full when you eat while giving you flavor by the minute!
The transformation the seed goes through while germinating triggers a lot of changes on its composition that do wonders for the body: the starch starts to break down so it’s easier to digest, as well as the enzymes that conform the seed. Once it has sprouted, it’s nutritional value goes up as well as the amount of vitamins available to the body, but if you need any more reasons to get on board soon as possible just find out how easy and satisfying it is to grow them.
First Steps
If you’re a gardening beginner, you can start with sunflower seeds, lentils or alfalfa, which are the simplest ones to take care of. This process can be shared with kids and the elderly, as it is safe, simple and fun. Begin with a glass jar, the bigger the better, and buy seeds that are guaranteed organic. You can prepare a lot of jars and then alternate their germination, so you’re never out of sprouts once you’ve started. Throw away the damaged seeds and put 2 to 3 tablespoons of seeds on the jar. Put water to the top and cover the jar with a fine piece of cotton muslin like gauze or tulle. Secure it with a rubber band, and make sure you use bottled or filtered water for growing them.
Germination
Once they’re prepared, you need to leave them overnight. The time for sprouting might vary depending on the size of the seeds, but alfalfa, radish and other seeds only need three to four hours to germinate. Other seeds like chickpea, soya seeds and mung beans will need more than 10 hours, so grow every type of seed separately. They need a moist environment with room temperature and no direct lightning, even though a little bit of sunlight might help. After they’ve grown, rinse them carefully and several times using clean water. If seeds are small, you can do it through the lid covering the jar, but if you’re rinsing sunflowers, chickpeas or similar, is better if you use a sieve. Leave a film of water in the jar to keep them moist and keep it in an angle to stop the water from stagnating, allowing the air to circulate.
Final Caring
Once they’ve germinated, you can prune them every day and leave them to keep growing. You only need to rinse the jar twice a day or more if it’s hot or you feel like the jar is drying out, remember they need to be humid but not saturated. For bigger seeds, is better if you put them in a plate after soaking so they can spread and grow even more, placing a glass lid over them to let the sunlight in. Try to get a radish plate with holes and a flat plate underneath to rinse them easily. Sprouted seeds need to be eaten shortly after the germination process, but you can keep them a little bit longer if you trim them and put it on the refrigerator. Make sure that when you rinse them, you also take away the husks, so they don’t go black on the bottom of the jar and don’t interfere with the space and development of the seeds.