Vegetable sprouts

[Barefoot Instincto]

In the last couple weeks I've really gotten into sprouts. Knowing the dangers of beans and grain, I decided to steer clear of them, even as sprouts. That means eating only a few varieties, but I'm fine with that. I grow kale, broccoli, broccoli rabb, and cabbage. I like to only grow the fast ones (5 days) not the slow ones (10 days+), so it limits me a bit further.

I started off with many ordinary cups, and hauled in a decent bit, but with bad drainage and a lot of spent time. Then I moved on to a proper sprouting jar, and got lots more this way. For Christmas I got a 3 tiered sprouter. At this point in time I have the 3 tiered sprouter, and four regular jar sprouters. This allows me to grow about 400-500 grams of sprouts per day if staggered and timed right. I just got the setup up and running again properly, so I started my really big harvests only a couple of days ago, but will now have a large steady supply from here on out. My set up cost me a mere 60-70 dollars, and I won't have to replace them for a very long time, likely. This amount of sprout per day only costs me about 40 bucks per month, or a bit over a dollar per day, and it'd be considered a very large salad.

I eat lots of vegetables, but the thing is, vegetables aren't that great. I can say that I almost never enjoy large amounts of raw vegetables, and most types out there just don't taste that great and are very fibrous or hard. My instincts feel as if they're telling me that they're not something I should really be eating, considering the living, growing food alternatives out there. Sprouts on the other hand are very enjoyable and feel so much more proper to be eating.

I've come to accept that sprouts are the absolute ultimate in vegetable nutrition (at least compared to the dead plants people eat). I don't think that anything short of picking something while its alive and growing from the forest or from a garden and eating that food stuff while its molecular processes are set forth in growing can compare. Simply because the whole "living" factor pushes them up to such higher, healthier heights that matured, dead, and stored vegetables just can't match.

For the cost of about 40 bucks per month, and over 400 grams of sprouts with only 5 minutes of work per day, and its superior nutrition to any other plant food we have available (and in such numbers for so cheap) I don't see why I shouldn't pretty much exclusively eat sprouts as the vegetable component of my diet (including other soaked nuts and seeds like sunflower). That along with a meal each of land animal and fish, and a filling meal of one type of fruit per day seems simple, nourishing, and ideal. I have aspirations of not only health, but attaining a powerful, fit and functional physique. It's starting to feel like I'm well on my way.

Does anyone else here eat large amounts of sprouts per day? I'd like to know your experiences with them. My intake has really only just begun to be so high, and I'm eager to see the results of long term dietary use. From what I understand, sprouts are a complete protein, with up to 20-30 percent of the matter being as such. In a 400 gram sprout salad per day, 80 grams of that or more could be super bio-available protein. It could potentially cover the majority of all protein requirements, along with some help from meat. We're also able to turn some of this into (I'd assume very high-quality) essential fats as well. Not to mention its easily near the very top of the list when it comes to antioxidant qualities.

[TylerDurden]

In the last phase of my raw fruitarian diet period, I went in for sprouts big time, making them c.80% of my diet. They did have an effect, just not anywhere near as much as with raw animal foods, so I discontinued them once I switched to RVAF diets. However, my memory of sprouting was that it was dirt-cheap, by contrast. I just used closed petri dishes and mostly went in for watercress as I'd heard bad things about alfalfa.

Hmm, perhaps I should readd sprouts back into my diet.

[jessica]

i recommend microgreens over sprouts.  i think sprouts still taste as if they arent totally out of the anti nutrient stage.  i think micro greens have the advantage of uptaking nutrients from sun water and soil.  i think they are a lot easier to grow, or at least i prefer growing them and think they are less likely to go back or get moldy. i also think they taste better. here is one of my favorites. 

http://www.sproutpeople.com/seed/sunflowergreens.html

back when i worked on a raw vegan farm(haha i know!) we grew a whole green house specifically for and full of delicious microgreens and sprouts, on another farm i worked for we did cilantro and chive microgreens for restaurants and sunflower and pea greens for the market...yum!  when i lived at both of these places my intake was super high and i felt it beneficial to my health. 

[Barefoot Instincto]

I think I do get them to the micro-green stage. I grow them to 5 days, which basically turns them into a bed of little inch long very green plants with a huge root system (if grown in my 3 tiered sprouter). At this stage they do seem to have a better, cleaner taste, as opposed to the earlier stages which is noticeably less pleasant the earlier they're harvested.

Is the requirement for the definition of a micro-green that it be a specific length and a dark enough amount of green? Or does transplanting them to soil mean this?

[cherimoya_kid]

I always get a very fast and strong taste change with sprouts, which says to me that they're not particularly good for me.  I do enjoy fenugreek sprouts, though, but I still get a pretty fast taste change with them.

[jessica]

with micro greens you only "sprout" them for a limited time, so that they have a little root nub sticking out, then you plant them under a thin layer of moist soil and keep them in the dark to help them grow leggy and tall above the soil, when they have reached the desired maturity and height you allow them to green up in the light.  you harvest by trimming them just above the soil with scissors.  this is best for things like kale, radish, chard, dill, fennel, cilantro, parsley, corn, sunflower greens, pea greens,  i havent seen it done with alfalfa.  each plant has its own specifics and you observe and learn a lot as you go how to raise each crop.  that sprout people page has a wealth of free information

[Barefoot Instincto]

Yeah, I've used that site often recently. Maybe I'll try micro-greens in awhile.

Last month I listened to something  on the radio (Quirks and Quarks science talk show, very good) that explained a bit about the Higgs boson. Even though something may look like a particle, even at its smallest, its not. Its a field. Everything around us, and the universe itself, is just one big Higgs field. Inside of this Higgs field that is our universe, you have vibrations like photons, electrons, and elements. Depending on its frequency, its molecular structure vibrates along this field in particular ways. That's all anything ever is, vibrations in specific sequences and frequencies like stringing a guitar. When a guitar is strung, the unseen world around you is filled with amazing symmetry and motion. Vibrational patterns spread through the universe. We, and everything around us, also runs on this principle of vibration. Some things are just heavy enough to create a big, consistent vibration, like our bodies. But the efficiency of that vibration, with its naturally (but actually unnatural) chaotically arranged unordered molecular state (in orderly chaotic universe terms) can be improved with growing-as-you-eat-them plants. Nothing is more ordered than the spark of life in a food when it comes to nourishment. Sprouts are the highest source I can conceivably think of that I have a large, easy access to on a daily basis.

I've come to understand that sprouts have the highest density of bio-photons, which are extremely small light fields that we can use for our well-being. Inside the cells of every living sprout that gets eaten is the spark of life vibrating with incredible beauty into this perfect little flower that we can then absorb into our body vibration to improve its quality.

[Barefoot Instincto]

I'm wondering if I could grow and harvest enough to sell on the side. I figure if I can grow 1000 grams a day, and sell it at 3 dollars per 100 grams, after cost of seed that'd net me an amazing 750 dollars per month, or a whopping 9k per year?

Do you guys think this is a viable thing? Looking for motivation here. I work at a bike company (Formerly Norco, now Live to Play Sports). So I think I could drum up some interest at work. It wouldn't be hard for just 1 family to split up 1k gram of sprouts for just a single day!

I'm thinking I could grow enough sprouts to have that much to sell, plus a lot for me and my mother to consume on a daily basis with 4, 3 tiered sprouters. I could harvest 12 batches of 300 grams every 5 days, or roughly 36 batches per 2 weeks. I think I could pull in an extra 5k per year at the very least, best case scenario at this level of growing 7k. If I can, maybe I could expand that to 10k a year one day.

I feel really excited at this notion, and feel it is a very viable thing for me to be doing. Growing sprouts is so darn easy, yet the product is very desirable by a lot of people even if they don't want to grow it themselves.

[Nora]

I've been eating the very small young weeds in my yard instead of buying seeds and growing sprouts. I put up to 3 kinds together for a salad, or just eat them on the side like a garnish. I also have some culinary herbs in my yard that make it through the winter just fine, so sometimes I mix a few of those in as well. This is working out really great for me.

[jessica]

its super viable, i think about it all of the time.  do you have a local health food store of farmers co-op?  if they are legit about local they may be able to sell for you.  if you feel confident enough you can also just sell your knowledge and set up sprouting classes.

also i would suggest doing pea and sunflower greens for this too, they are so much easier then sprouts once you get them down, you would just need space for flats and a goof light source.  also look into ag seed companies for seed sources instead of those that specialize in just sprouting seeds and you may be able to get a better deal and larger quanitities of seeds

[Barefoot Instincto]

Thanks for the advice Jessica! I think I will just charge 2 dollars per 100 grams instead of 3 for now, to make it more affordable. It seems like a goal of 10k a year could be really do-able! It'll require more like 42 growing basins, but I do have the space, and the time!

Sunflower greens seem like a very cool idea! I watched a video on youtube yesterday of a sprout grower yielding huge quantities in only a few days. I think once I have a good following I may bust those out.

[Barefoot Instincto]

I went out and bought more sprouters today. Now I have 15 basis, able to grow 90 crops a month at at least 200 grams each = 18000 grams! If I can sell at this rate per year I can make a good extra 4k. All of this in literally a tiny fraction of my kitchen space. The stack ability of the sprouters I have makes it possible for me to one day grow as much as 100 basis or more, producing 600 crops a month and 120,000 grams! I may be able to make more than a 2000 dollar profit per month off of that if I had the demand!

My figures are likely off by some because I haven't done exact measurements. Regardless, I can see it being a lot. I would need at least 30 people buying 1000 grams a week every week.

I'd be just as happy with slashing that in half and still making a boatload while only servicing around 15 people.

[van]

from someone who does his share of sprouting,,  you might try and see or discover the 'stop' the body has with each sprout.  For instance it's hard to eat many sunflower sprouts all by themselves.  With a dressing or with avocado etc. the stop isn't really apparent. 

[jessica]

van have you ever had sunflower greens? its totally different then just the sunflower seed sprouted. its the actual immature above ground growth of the plant.  they are super tastey but only have a small window of time in which to harvest them.  i can definitely taste when these plants are still protecting their life with whatever chemical antinutrients they contains, but at the correct stage of growth they taste creamy and green.  i am not a huge fan of sprouted seeds or nuts, i think if you are going to eat seeds or nuts, even soaked and sprouted, that they should still be roasted .   i dont think of them as a source of nutrition and should be used if you have no other source of calories.   i do agree that things like sprouted alfalfa seeds give a pretty good stop, as such i am not a fan of sprouts and its why i really try and turn people onto microgreens.

[van]

Jessica,  I actually meant to write Sunflower Greens, not sprouts.  For me, after a few, by themselves, they are,  well kind of hard to describe, but not pleasant.