Sprouts

Akin to the feeling of connection and satisfaction we receive in planting and tending to a garden, growing sprouts or plant seedlings with the intent to nourish our bodies is wholeheartedly love infused.

Sprouting and growing sprouts, edible plant based powerhouses of goodness, on your kitchen bench or window sill is a deeply rewarding and fulfilling activity. An act of kindness, love and connection.

Yes… sprouting can be a rich and rewarding experience in many ways.

To grow and nurture something from the slumber of its seed, breathing life back into these dormant gems, to nurture them to life, intending to fuel your body, is as consciously cultivating as you can be.

Building upon ones connection to food in this mindful way, deepens your relationship to food and how you consciously nourish your body. Sprouting is highly fulfilling and not just for our physiological nourishment but also as an expression of love, of mindfulness, of creativity.

The nutritional bounty of sprouted plants

Sprouts are one of our most nutritionally dense plant foods, containing all the elements that a plant needs for life and growth, which in itself is deeply moving. As a seed sprouts, as it germinates, it resonates at its most vibrational and energetic point within its life cycle. Much like the energetic point and time of sunrise, when the light hits the horizon and wakes all the lands that the suns light and source touches.

In the early life cycle of a seedlings sprouting moment, there is a highly ordered array of chemical interactions and alchemy, of connection to the elementals of life here on earth. When a plant spouts, it is in a period in its growth cycle where there is a dense nutritional matrix made up of an array of specialised enzymes and compounds. These enzymes assist our digestive breakdown and assimilation of nutrients. They essentially make the nutrients that sprouts have to offer even more bioavailable than other plant foods. This in turn makes sprouts a highly, rich source of both macro and micro nutrients, protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants as they are effectively both abundant and bioavailable.

What can we sprout?

Most commonly sprouted plant foods that you be familiar with are alfalfa, sunflower, broccoli, beets, radish, mustard, mung beans, lentils, green pea, fenugreek, red clover and chickpeas. Popular grains to sprout are wheat, barley, rye, oats, wild and brown rices and buckwheat. Sprouting grains and obtaining their nutritive medicine means you can enjoy the nutritional medicine of these grains without the side effects for those who have difficulty in digesting the protein from some of these grains.

Sprouting and the enzymes that are activated in this process also works to neutralise the anti-nutrient known as phytic acid, which can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb minerals such as calcium, iron, and zinc. Through the sprouting process, legumes, seeds, beans, and nuts become easier to digest as the enzymes activated in this beginning of the life cycle, assists assimilation of these nutrients.

Sprouting increases many of the plants key nutrients, including B vitamins, vitamin C, folate, fiber, and essential amino acids, the key nutrients often lacking in milled grains.

Growing Sprouts

You can grow sprouts with minimal fuss and technique. Most importantly is the attention you can offer, loving daily care, curiosity and a willingness to give in order to receive. You need very little in equipment and of course some seeds or grains, of which you may even find lying dormant in the back of your pantry, such as some barley or some sunflower seeds.

You need a vessel or container to sprout in. A wide mouthed jar or mason jar can be a good start, with either a lid that be pierced with small air holes or some light cotton material like muslin. Alternatively if you want to give sprouting a robust go, you may source a specific sprouting tray/jar yet this isn’t necessary to get started. For ultimate sprouting, a nice sunny position in your home, on your kitchen bench or a window sill that is in a high access part of your home and some good quality water to soak and rinse your spouts daily is all that is needed. And of course loving attention!

There are a few exceptions to sprouting sprouts! Mucilaginous seeds or those that when soaked create a viscous and gooey substance, albeit soothing on the gut, tend to be tricky to sprout, especially in jars. These are best sprouted in trays and even planted in the garden in large clusters. Chia and flaxseeds are difficult to sprout in jars yet not impossible to sprout in the garden.

One legume you must not sprout raw is the red kidney bean. These little, moody, blood red beans contain a toxin when sprouted raw, that can cause nausea, vomiting and or diarrhoea for some. Quinoa contains a high concentration of saponins, which can also cause a strong allergenic type response for some. So some caution is needed.

Sourcing seeds and grains to sprout

You can purchase sprouting seeds and grains specially procured for sprouting purposes, yet there are some seeds and grains that you can use simply from your pantry stock such as sunflower seeds and dried chick peas, even brown rice.

Your local health food store should offer you a selection of specific sprouting mixes and these often go a long way and if stored correctly will last you 6- 12 months.

The art of sprouting

The sprouting process is lots of fun and is very simple. Here goes…

There are two main methods to sprouting: the jar method and the tray method.

We will be stepping through the jar method, which is cheaper and more accommodating for the tools you may have on hand and to simply get you started.

Step 1: Rinse and soak your seeds first in water.

Different seeds will require different amounts of water and differ in time to adequately soak. For instance dried chickpeas are best to soak over night, up to 12 hours, yet alfalfa or celery seeds being so small will only need a few hours. Pending on the size of your sprouting vessel, and your seed you are sprouting, will determine the seed quantity you will need. For instance a 500ml mason jar will adequately yield the sprouts from a couple of tablespoons of small seeds or 1/2 cup of larger legumes such as chickpeas. This is something to play around with and to learn with trial and error and practice.

Step 2: Drain and rinse your sprouts

Once you have soaked your seeds you need to give them a rinse and drain them. This is some loving care and attention you need to attend to up to a couple or even a few times a day. Depending on your environment, climate and type of sprout. If you have a sprouter lid, or have made a make shift one with punctured small holes, simply tip the jar and let the water drain out and rest it inverted in a clean bowl. If you are using the cloth method, remove the rubber band and cloth, and place a fine mesh sieve over the top of the jar. Invert it over the sink or clean bowl and let it drain. This can be fiddly getting the seeds back into your jar with the smaller seeds such as alfalfa and celery so letting them passively drain works best.

Make sure to adequately drain as much water out as you can, leaving the jar slightly inverted for some time will help to drain away the excess water.

Once the sprouts are all rinsed, I like to turn the jar in my hand so as many seeds as possible stick to the outside of the jar. This tends to yield a greater germination rate as the seeds aren’t clumped and competing for light.

Choose a favourable spot. It doesn’t need to have sunshine but it does help to have some filtered light and a place that you naturally are active within such as the kitchen bench, or a central window sill or table.

Step 3: Rinse, drain, repeat…attention, love and nurture

Now your only job is to tend to your sprouts. Regularly checking in with them, making sure they are regularly rinsed and drained and upon spouting in the coming days that you handle them with care and compassion. A couple of times a day you should visit your sprouts and rinse them with fresh, cool water and then adequately drain. For most seeds, you will start to see little baby sprouts within a day or so. You can harvest and eat your sprouts at any stage. Keep on rinsing and draining until you get to the length you want, even munching on them as you go.

Step 4: Harvest, store, and eat your sprouts

Once your sprouts are robust and at a matured enough stage you can harvest and store them for daily nourishment. Give them a final rinse and drain. Dry with kitchen towel or air dry before storing in the fridge. Be mindful that extra moisture will ruin your sprouts so keep them well stored or just get eating them and start a new batch with a different type of sprout this time.

You can eat your sprouts as they are, in a salad or part of a salad sandwich, in a wrap, as an accompaniment on your plate, in a frittata or even scrambled eggs, in your stir fries and even in your smoothies. Most importantly, enjoy your sprouts whole heartedly, love them, nurture them and receive their intended nutritional medicine.

“Food is thy medicine and medicine is thy food”… Hippocrates

The Plant Medicine of Sprouting!