BEING UPDATED - pics to be added!
​Tips for successful sprouting

• Keep your sprouting containers clean. Between sprouting sessions it is always important to wash them well. Hot soapy water should do the trick.
• Start off with a small amount of seeds. It’s better to make a new batch frequently than one large batch that will go off before you’ve managed to eat them all! ½ cup of mung beans will grow and fill a litre carton with sprouts!
• Air circulation is important for healthy sprouts. They need to breathe, so don’t shut them away in a cupboard and forget about them or close the sprouting jar with a lid which shuts out the air completely. If you haven't got a proper sprouting jar or lid with holes, you can use a regular jar and cover with a piece of cheesecloth or fabric. If you haven't got fabric, just cover the jar with a piece of kitchen paper and hold it in place with a rubber band. Alternatively a little strainer over the top also does the trick nicely.
• Rinse well, drain well.
• Always drain your sprouts well between rinses. Soggy beans and seeds don’t grow well.
• When the tails start going brown and unpleasant, you may have left them too long. 
• If they smell even remotely unpleasant, throw them away​. Fresh sprouts should not smell bad. Some seeds, such as broccoli, kale and red cabbage, have a strong sulphur smell (as you would expect from cruciferous plants), but they shouldn't smell 'off' or offensive in any way.
• When the sprouts are ready, give them a wash in a bowl of cold water with a splash of apple cider vinegar, then rinse well and spin dry in a tight-mesh salad spinner. Your sprouts will stay fresh longer if you store them correctly.
• Personally, I grow what I can eat without having to store them in the fridge. I'd rather have 3 jars on the go started at different times, that way when I finish one jar, I have another one almost ready. If you do store them, make sure you store your sprouts as dry as possible, in the fridge, in a closed container. 
• If you buy 'proper sprouting seeds', you are very likely to get a good yield as the seeds have been selected specifically for sprouting. Some beans sprout well even if they're not 'proper sprouting seeds'; the mung beans and lentils I buy for cooking always grow wonderfully, whereas some other beans and seeds etc, such as adzuki and quinoa, can be problematic. If they've been heat-treated (this is often the way with quinoa), they're enzyme dead and will not sprout. By the way, if you're interested in sprouting quinoa to make rejuvelac, check out this video!

Sprouts and microgreens

How to grow sprouts

Easy mung bean sprouts

How to grow microgreens

Have fun, experiment and let me know how it goes!
Or join me and other likeminded ladies in my Facebook group, The Plant-based Way to share successes and questions!

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