Adventures in Sprouting!

I attended the Sprouting class at Lake Street Garden Center yesterday, and came home with a bunch of things. Among them were a sprouter and some seeds!

This is the brand of sprouter I got. They had another one, but I liked this one. I found out afterward that they have a website, and you can apparently get more individual trays to add to the system.

These are the sprouter trays, all set up. The instructions state to wash each part individually, before first use and after each set of sprouts.

I separated them so you could see them all. The bottom is solid, to contain any liquid; the trays have very narrow slits to allow water to drain while keeping seeds in. I was concerned that the alfalfa seeds were too small and would go through the slits but, as you'll see, this didn't happen.

These are the trays nested in two sections - one tray and the solid bottom, and the other tray with the slotted top (for airflow, I presume)

We were told in the class that you start by soaking the seeds overnight. I soaked both broccoli seeds (which are fairly expensive - 5 grams of seeds for $2.99, as opposed to alfalfa seeds at 50 grams for $3.99) and alfalfa, which are the sprouts I usually buy in the grocery store. I also bought seeds to sprout lentils and chickpeas.

These are the broccoli seeds, soaking in an 8-oz container (half-pint wide mouth canning jar).

I used just under a teaspoon of broccoli seeds.

These are the alfalfa seeds soaking in a regular half-pint canning jar (jelly jar). I used 1-1/2 teaspoons of alfalfa seeds here.

After soaking overnight, you empty the seeds into the sprouting tray and allow the excess water to drain off. These are the broccoli seeds. (The trays are 5-1/2" square)
These are the alfalfa seeds. I was interested to see how full the tray was - the bottom of the tray is pretty well covered! The instructions we were given said to use up to a tablespoon of seeds, and I used half of that (1-1/2 teaspoons - measured. In case you didn't know, one tablespoon is equal to 3 teaspoons). While I felt like I used maybe half or close to half of the 5 grams of broccoli seeds that were in the package, I didn't even make a dent in the package of alfalfa seeds (50 grams). I may be ordering broccoli seeds, if it turns out I like them, in bulk from the Sproutman website. (One of the ladies in the class recommended that one).

Here are the trays stacked up with the seeds in them. We were instructed to rinse twice a day (the guy conducting the class said he does it at breakfast and dinner) by pouring a cup of water through the tray, letting it drain, and returning it to the stack.

There was some discussion of sprouting times; most edible sprouts will begin sprouting in 1 to 3 days, and be ready to eat in 2 to 6 days, depending on type of seed. Some sprouts will taste different if they're left too long before eating, due to the development of chlorophyll. I took from the discussion that this is most likely to happen in legumes - lentils and beans. This can be mitigated by allowing them to sprout in the dark - in a cupboard or closet. He said you can also reduce a strong chlorophyll taste by putting them in the dark if that develops.

One inexpensive way to begin without a sprouter is a canning jar (he had one-quart ones) with a piece of cheesecloth held over the top with a rubber band. The main issue with this is that it doesn't have the same amount of airflow as a sprouting system. It might be worth experimenting with some leftover plastic food containers that might nest together (yogurt? hummus?) and either cheesecloth or maybe even plastic canvas (depending on the size of the seeds). I think something short and shallow would work better than something tall and narrow. I may try sprouting some wheat for the chickens. I've heard they love sprouts, especially in the winter when other greens are non-existent.