How to safely sprout your own seeds

In the dead of winter, it’s hard not to crave the fresh taste of something home grown. With my garden covered with several inches of snow, it’s downright impossible to have any fresh fruits or vegetables out of my yard. Fortunately, there are ways to grow certain plants and other items in the comfort and warmth of a kitchen.

I’ve been researching sprouts and growing your own at home for an article. As such, the kitchen now hosts two Mason jars with seeds in various states of sproutiness, and we’re waiting and watching with baited breath. The sprouts seem to be growing like, well, sprouts, and look like they might be ready to eat.

To sprout your own, you don’t need any fancy equipment
– just a jar, some cheesecloth and seeds (purchase seeds for sprouting at a health store). Add 2 tablespoons of seeds to a jar and cover with about 2 inches of water, then cover with a piece of cheese cloth and secure with a rubber band.

Place the jar in a spot that will not receive direct or indirect sunlight. Rinse the seeds twice a day with cool water: add clean, fresh water to the jar for about 10 seconds, then shake and pour out the excess water.

Keep rinsing twice a day and, after a few days, the seeds will start to sprout. When you see leaves growing on the sprouts, pour the sprouts out into a large bowl and rinse with cool water, skimming off the hulls that have risen to the top. Put the rinsed sprouts back in the jar and keep rinsing twice a day.

After about a week, the sprouts are ready to eat. Keep the jar of sprouts in the refrigerator, and use within a couple of days for optimal freshness. Try them plain or use them to add crunch and a fresh burst of flavor  to salads, sandwiches, stir frys, or omelets.

Note: Unfortunately, everything seems to come with a warning label these days. The CDC website reports that:

Sprouts may be contaminated during seed production, germination, sprout processing, or consumer handling and preparation (5,6). On the farm, sprouts seeds may become contaminated through the use of untreated agricultural water, improperly composted manure as fertilizer, excretion from domestic or wild animals, runoff from domesticated animal production facilities, or improperly cleaned harvesting or processing machines (5,6). The association of specific seed lots with illness suggests that seeds are the most likely source for this and most other sprout-related outbreaks (4). Conditions suitable for seed sprouting also are ideal for increasing pathogenic bacterial counts by several logs.

Source: CDC