Grow your own sprouts -- it's easy!

Sprouts got a bad reputation during the recent ecoli outbreak in Europe (see my previous post, "e-coli Outbreak"). It seems that sprouts are a food that can easily be contaminated with ecoli because they have a lot of surface area and are rinsed in water frequently, and that water may have been contaminated by animal waste. So even though the sprouts are innocent, being plants, they can carry ecoli bacteria (which comes from animals) on their surface. It's difficult to wash off ecoli; you only need one microscopic bacteria to survive in order to sicken someone.

Don't give up on these protein-rich, crisp and crunchy vegetables! You can easily grow your own sprouts with just a jar and a packet of seeds. Try it in the winter when nothing else is growing for the ultimate satisfaction, but it will work any time of year.

I use mung bean seeds because I like the big, hearty sprouts they produce. I ordered my sprouting seeds from a catalog -- I just added it on to my garden seed order to avoid paying extra shipping. It was $1.95 for a 4 oz. bag, which will make about 6 - 8 batches of sprouts. I think you'll pay about that much for a single container of sprouts at the supermarket, so your investment will pay off at 6 to 1! It doesn't cost anything to sprout the seeds, you just need any old recycled glass jar.

Day 1: Put 1 or 1.5 tbsp of seeds in the jar and cover with cold water. Soak overnight.


Day 2 - 4: Dump out the soaking water. Twice a day, rinse the sprouts in cold water and dump out the water. The seeds should stay damp and not dry out completely. Some directions say to use a wet paper towel or cheesecloth over the opening of the jar, but I never have.



Each day, more of the green seed coverings come off and get dumped out with the rinse water.


Day 5: Yummy sprouts waiting to adorn your salad! Refrigerate in a bag when they're ready to eat.