It is time to start growing sprouts again. They are the quickest way to get homegrown nutritional garden crunch into your diet at this time of year.
Back in 2014, I wrote about sprout mixes you can buy from Pinetree Garden Seeds in New Gloucester, and they still are available there. A recent email from John Scheepers, a Connecticut seed company, offers a multitude of suggestions for edible sprouts. Scheepers says mung beans and alfalfa sprouts are the most popular seeds for sprouting.
But to spice up the mix, you can use seeds from the regular catalog, including arugula, black turtle beans, broccoli, onions, peas, radishes and cress. You can get the seeds from any seed company you trust.
Clean the seeds and rinse them with tepid water. Cover the bottom of a quart-size jar with seed, and add three times the amount of water. Discard anything that floats. Cover the jar with screening or cheesecloth, and secure with a rubber band. Let the seeds soak for about a day, then drain the water.
After that, rinse and drain the sprouts daily, keeping them at room temperature, for about a week, depending on the seed.
Keep the jar out of direct sunlight, although most sprouts can benefit from some light for two days at the end of the sprouting cycle. After that, thoroughly drain the sprouts for about six hours, store them in a refrigerator and enjoy.
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