How to Grow Sprouts

Growing Sprouts the Easy Way

Include sprouting seeds and beans in your emergency food storage program . Sprouting is the ultimate survival tool!

If you are ever in the position of having very little food, you can multiply what you have--by sprouting! Even if you failed to plan ahead. All you will need to get started are the common everyday items that I have listed below!

Photo courtesy of Allison Felus

Simple Sprouting Equipment

You can learn how to grow sprouts too—-in just a few minutes. Here's what you need to get started...

• Sprouting jar – it can be a clean mayonaise jar or a quart canning jar.

• Fabric or screening - Cut a 4” square of (clean) screening (as in window screens), nylon stocking, nylon netting (like that used in wedding favors) or another loosely woven fabric. This will be used to cover the top of the jar.

• Heavy duty rubber band or a metal canning ring - Use this to hold the fabric or screening in place on top of the jar.

Sprouting equipment and seeds are quite inexpensive, so it won't take much money to get started!

How to Grow Sprouts
Basic Sprouting

1. Measure the seeds or beans – Measure 1 tablespoon of small seeds like broccoli, radish, or alfalfa seeds. For larger beans, use 2-4 tablespoons. Wash the seeds and remove any broken seeds or beans and any small stones or foreign objects.

2. Place the seeds in the jar. Fill the jar ½ full of warm water. Cover the jar with your fabric (or screening) and let the seeds soak for 6-8 hours in a warm location.

3. Drain the sprouting seeds well by turning the jar upside down. Leave it (upside down) angled at about a 45 degree angle in your dish drainer (or another safe place, so it doesn't fall and break) for a few minutes. This is to get any additional water to drain out of the sprouting jar.

4. Rinse the sprouts in warm water again. Repeat the draining process again.

5. When the water has drained thoroughly, place the sprouting jar in a warm dark place. This could be in a kitchen cabinet, or, on the counter (covered by a towel). The temperature is important, so find a nice warm spot to place the jar.

6. Rinse and drain your sprouting seeds 2-3 times a day, using the process above. Always make sure that you drain the new sprouts thoroughly, as they can sour if they are too wet.

7. Do the above until the sprouts are as big as you like them. Experiment with this a bit. Sprouts are very tender at first (48 hours) and they become more “chewy” as they get older (4-5 days). Sprouted seeds and beans have their highest vitamin content at 2-3 days old. Just don't let the sprouted seeds become little plants, as they will then be tough and woody.

Photo courtesy of Dan Means

When you have grown your sprouts, eat the whole thing—seed, sprouts and roots. They are full of nutrition, and the sprouts that you produce can be 25 times as much volume as the original sprouting seeds you started with. And, the nutrition multiplies with growth, as well.

Store your sprouted seeds in the refrigerator. This will slow down the growth and keep them fresh, so that you can eat them before they get tough.

As you can see, learning how to grow sprouts is really quite simple. Make sure you include sprouting seeds in your food storage plan. And practice now, so that, in the event of a pandemic quarantine , you will already know how to sprout!

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