SPROUTING: QUESTIONS / time, as well as a substantial amount of counter

or shelf space. Another option to consider is an

ANSWERS
automatic sprouter; more expensive but possibly
easier. One can grow large quantities of (short)
by Tom Billings
sprouts using the cloth method - simply use
larger bowls and cloths.
The material below consists of questions and
answers on some common situations that may
Q: The price of sprouting seeds at the health
arise in sprouting.
food store is very high. How can I get seeds at
lower cost?
Q: I use a commercial, plastic, multiple tray (type)
sprouter, and I notice that sprouting rates are
A: Buy in bulk, in 5 pounds (2.5 kg) or larger
uneven. I find that pre-soaking the seeds,
containers. Here in California, bulk seeds are
overnight, helps promote even sprouting.
readily available in health food stores,
Comments?
supermarkets, and by mail. For example, bulk
wheat ("berries") range in price locally from
A: Due to their design, uneven soaking, hence
$0.29 per pound (non-organic) to $0.65 per
uneven sprouting, can occur with these
pound (organic); 1 pound = approx 0.45 kg. You
sprouters and thus pre-soaking the seed is a
may have to search for bulk sources in your
good idea - separate, even soaking promotes
area.
more even sprouting.

Q: I remove the hulls from my alfalfa sprouts, by

Q: I want to grow large amounts of sprouts, so
swishing the sprouts in a large bowl of water.
as to increase the % of sprouts in my diet. I
How do you get rid of hulls?
typically grow sprouts for 3-5 days in the tray
sprouter. Any suggestions for increasing
A: Hulling is generally not necessary if you eat
production? The tray type sprouters seem too
your sprouts when short; however removing the
small and limited to produce large quantities.
hulls is a good idea for alfalfa and clover greens
(as the hulls will spoil and decay in the sprouter).
A: First I would note that you are growing
The method you describe - swishing in water - is
sprouts for 3-5 days, so they are relatively long.
pretty much standard.
You can eat sprouts when they are short, and
that is an easier approach. Now, to your
Q: I find grain sprouts to be tough, fibrous, and
question: Ann Wigmore suggests using 7-10 half
sometimes bitter (except wheat which is usually
gallon jars (~2 liters each - large jars) for a large
sweet). Suggestions?
scale sprouting setup. She discusses this in her
book, "The Sprouting Book". Certainly 7-10 large
A: These problems are greatly reduced if you eat
jars serviced 2-3 times per day will require some
the sprout when the root shoot is about the
length of the soaked seed (1-2 days sprouting
time for most grains). Also you are not limited to
grains and pulses: try sunflower seeds, sesame
seeds (eat when short - can be bitter when long),
almonds, fenugreek, soaked nuts, and so on.
Q: What sprouts do you consider to be staples
for the diet?
A: Depends on your tastes. My staples are
wheat, mung, sunflower, sesame, oats (for
sprout milk), almonds. Also eat soaked walnuts,
other soaked nuts on occasion.
Q: What changes in nutritional content occur
when seeds are sprouted?
A: This is a rather complicated topic; Viktoras
Kulvinskas discusses this at length (with lots of
data) in his book, "Sprout for the Love of Every
Body".
Q: I find that legume (pulse) sprouts give me
flatulence. Is this due to the legume skins?
Comments?
A: The skins are not the major source of gas in
pulses; in India some pulses are skinned and
then cooked (dahl) and they still produce gas.
This topic is addressed in some detail in the
article "Enhancing the Digestion of Sprouts".
Basically, the easiest way to reduce flatulence is
to add anti-gas spices and digestive aids; see
the mentioned article for more information.
Side discussion. In the veg-raw posts, I
described lentils as a 'coarse' food. This
produced a discussion on the properties and
nature of lentil sprouts. Portions of that
discussion are as follows.
Re: meaning of brown lentils being coarse food.
I interpret it as meaning that it is coarse in
digestive effect: potentially unsettling, tending to
produce lots of gas, the opposite effect of a
soothing food (like, for example celery juice with
lemon or lime added: that is a soothing food).
After eating lentils, you might "feel" them - not
heavy, but rough or coarse. These post-digestive
effects can be subtle, and you might not notice it
if you regularly consume lentils. By the way, I
find that if you eat lentils with turmeric and a bit
of cumin seed, it seems to digest much easier,
with less gas - that was the point of my post.
Re: possibility of excluding legumes from the
diet. If one excludes all legumes from the diet,
there are still a large number of grains and other
seeds one can sprout. However, most people
thrive on variety; a diet that excludes legumes
might be too limiting for many people.
Re: which types of lentils are easiest to digest?
The small green lentils are lighter and easier on
the system than the brown lentils. Also, small red
lentils are lighter than and easier to digest than
the brown. (When sprouting red lentils, be sure
to get whole lentils, not split ones.) It appears
that the smaller the lentil, the easier it is to digest.
Further confirmation of this comes from a batch
of very large green lentils I bought some time
ago - they were larger than brown lentils, and
also very heavy, very hard to digest.
Q: How can I sprout sesame seeds?
A: They can be sprouted using the standard jar
or cloth methods. Soak seeds overnight, then
allow to sprout in cloth or jar; I let sesame seeds
sprout for 1-2 days. For sprouting to occur, use
only unhulled sesame seeds; hulled won't sprout
(although you can soak hulled seeds overnight
then eat). Sesame seed sprouts get bitter quickly,
even in refrigerator. Recommend that sprouting
+ refrigeration time total be 1.5 days or less (2.0
days maximum), to avoid bitterness. (There is a
black sesame seed, and if you can get it
unhulled, it will usually sprout nicely. The
problem with the black sesame seeds is that it is
often difficult to tell if it is hulled or unhulled.)
Another note on sesame seeds - I tried an
"unusual" combination of tastes and found it very
nice: add 1 rounded teaspoon of whole
coriander seed (or fennel seed) to 1/3 or 1/4 cup
of dry sesame seeds, then soak and sprout as
usual (coriander/fennel probably won't sprout).
Then eat with a bit of raw honey - unusual, but
very nice (Ayurveda says coriander seeds are
good for the eyes and a digestive aid; they have
a mild flavor. Fennel is tridoshic - said to be good
for everyone, in moderation.)
Q: I live in a cold climate (Canada). How can I
increase the amount of sprouts in my diet,
without becoming ravenously hungry?
A: I have never lived in a cold climate; San
Francisco and Dallas are the
coldest climates I have ever lived in (grew up in
Florida). A few suggestions
come to mind, however. Try sesame sprouts, or
sesame and almond sprouts, for breakfast.
You can add fennel seed in the soak period, and
it tastes great! Another breakfast idea is (short)
buckwheat sprouts mixed with soaked raisins or
dates. Make sprout milk, including almond
sprouts, daily. Add ginger to your lentil and
mung bean sprouts when you eat them - tasty
and it is "hot" as well. Ginger also helps you
digest legume sprouts, and avoid/reduces
flatulence.
I find short sprouts, which are effectively
pre-digested seeds, to be more
satisfying to the appetite than long, greened
sprouts - which are a vegetable
and a lettuce substitute. So you might want to
eat both long and short sprouts.
Additional suggestions to increase amount of
sprouts in your diet:
1) eat mixtures of grains if you get tired of eating
individual grains,
2) add seeds to sprout mix for flavoring: mustard,
radish, fenugreek, fennel,
cumin, coriander, dill, etc. 3) make different
sauces or dressings for the
sprouts (for variety), 4) use seasonings:
seaweed, ginger, hot pepper,
whatever you might want.
One simple sprout dish is: rye sprouted with a bit
of fennel seed added, eaten with honey. It's a
very nice combination! Quinoa, sprouted for 1-2
days, makes a nice salad base (eat with turmeric
to help digest the protein -
quinoa is very high in protein). Sprouted
buckwheat can be mixed with dried fruit, fresh
sweet fruit, honey, to create very tasty sweet
dishes.
Q: What sprouts do you consider staples, and
what is your experience with
them?
A: My staple sprouts are wheat, sunflower, mung,
sesame. I rotate among these for variety. I also
daily grow oat and almond sprouts for sprout
milk. Sprouts are 30-50% of my diet. For variety,
I also grow buckwheat, fenugreek sprouts.
Q: Any suggestions re: sprouting in the Summer?
What about mold?
A: If you have mold/bacterial spoilage, be sure to
sterilize all utensils (using
hot water, sunlight, or your choice of
disinfectant). Experiment with more/less rinsing -
see if that helps. Keep the sprouts out of direct
sunlight unless you are growing greens, and
then only when they are big enough. Direct
sunlight on jars/bags/trays can overheat the
seeds, reducing germination, and promoting
mold and decay.
Q: Any comments on sprouting success, batch
selection?
A: It can be useful to buy small amounts from a
bulk bin, test for viability
and suitability, then buy a large amount if they
are good. Recently I have had
real difficulty finding decent mung beans - 3
batches from local, organic
suppliers were simply awful - hard seeds were
20-50% of total! (The worst seeds I have ever
tried.) Anyway, I then obtained some
non-organic mung beans, from a local Indian
store, that sprout vigorously and have almost no
hard seeds. They're not organic, but I don't have
to spend an hour picking out hard seeds! So it is
a good idea to test first.
Regarding methods, I would suggest jars (or
trays) for greens; jars for rice,
corn, popcorn sprouts; cloth for almonds,
buckwheat, mung; for the rest jars or cloth give
equally good results.
Q: Any suggestions on hull removal for
buckwheat or sunflower?
A: You can buy buckwheat that is already hulled.
If you want buckwheat sprouts, you should use
hulled buckwheat. If you want buckwheat lettuce,
i.e., indoor gardening, then you should use
unhulled (black) buckwheat. Hulls should not be
a major problem with greens.
A recent article discussed sunflower sprouts and
greens. If you are growing
sunflower sprouts, removing the (inner, clear)
hulls is very important - your
batches of sprouts will quickly spoil if you don't.
To remove inner hulls, add
more water at end of soak period and stir - hulls
will float to top. Then pour
them off. You may have to repeat this process
3-4 times to minimize loose hulls. If growing
sunflower greens, you will be using unhulled
seeds (black or striped outer hulls). You might
have better germination/fewer hulls clinging
there if you blanch the seeds for a few seconds
in hot tap water (not boiling water, just hot tap
water), before soaking/pre-sprouting them.
Q: Any suggestions on how to handle
mucilaginous seeds?

A: Add in small amount to your alfalfa (say

15-20%), unsoaked, when alfalfa is a few days
old. To sprout them by themselves requires
special procedure - the clay saucer method. As
the sprouts are not so great, you might find that
it is not worth the trouble (also, flax, psyllium
sprouts can be highly laxative).

Q: What about fenugreek sprouts?

A: Fenugreek grows very quickly and is an easy

sprout to grow. If you let it
turn green it can be rather bitter, so you might
prefer it ungreened. Fenugreek is good for your
liver, according to "The Yoga of Herbs", by Dr.
Vasant Lad and David Frawley.

Q: My batch of sprouts spoiled? What went

wrong?

A: Most spoilage comes from: over-watering,

under-watering, bad seed (too low germination
rate), exposing the seeds to light before they are
big enough
to stand it (direct sunlight on jar can overheat the
seeds in the early
stages of sprouting), lack of cleanliness, failing
to sterilize media when a previous batch
spoiled, and so on. Some seeds are simply
prone to
spoilage: garbanzos tend to spoil quickly.