I have been growing and eating sprouts for several months. I saw a video last winter about how easy it was to grow sprouts in a jar. No dirt needed, just a mason jar with a screen lid turned upside down so it can drain after you rinse the seeds/sprouts with water. The video and the articles that I read about sprouts said that they were very nutritious.
I even went through an online course on how to do it. It was short and easy and the guy touted all the health benefits to be gained by eating plants before they get very big. It was kind of goofy but made me want to give it a try.
I had grown sprouts before but it was in a tray of dirt. It worked but it was messy and smelled bad by the time the sprouts had leaves big enough for me to cut off and throw in the eggs I had for breakfast.
I had another couple of packets of broccoli seeds so I ordered a screen lid and gave it a try. The attempt failed. I think it was because of a coating the seeds had on them, so I did some more research and found "sprouting seeds" on Amazon that didn't have any coating. The claim was that they would grown and be ready to eat in 5 to 10 days.
I ordered alfalfa sprouting seeds and gave them a try when they came in. The screen kept the seeds in the jar and I ran water into and out of the jar twice a day. The seeds sprouted and grew and after 10 days I tried them in my eggs. They were delicious!
After a few batches of alfalfa sprouts I ordered some broccoli sprouting seeds and they worked the same way. Different color sprouts and a little different taste but same thing.
Next I ordered mung bean sprouting seeds. I did this because we were watching the sitcom "Mr. Kim's Convenience" on Netflix and they talked about mung bean pancakes being a popular Korean breakfast. The mung bean seeds sprouted faster and after 10 days they were too leafy for my taste. After a couple of iterations I settled on mung bean sprouts at 5-6 days being ideal for me. They had a sweeter taste and crunchier feel because they were bigger plants than the alfalfa and broccoli.
After a couple of months of mung bean sprouts I wanted to try different lids and seeds. I ordered some radish sprouting seeds and enjoyed the purple color of the sprouts. They were also faster and were ready to use in my eggs after 5 days. The radish sprouts were too spicy to eat alone by added delicious flavor to my eggs the mornings I had them.
I continue to enjoy mung bean and radish sprouts. When we went to my daughter's house for a few weeks I took my sprouting jars and seeds and grew a couple of batches while we were there. It was fun to have the routine of rinshing and draining the jars each morning and evening and awesome to add the crunchy nutrition of the sprouts to my eggs while we were there.
Growing sprouts has been a fun and easy way to add some home-grown nutrition to my diet. Not sure how long I'll continue to do this but it sure is fun!
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#plants #nutrition #garden #hobby
