Having a selection of seeds and sprouting supplies is a great part of your survival strategy. Find out how in this article.
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Why Sprouts?
Sprouts are one of the most incredibly nutritious, affordable and easy to grow foods we have available. They are one of very few edible plants that can be grown with limited exposure to the sun, which is why sprouting should be an important part your survival strategy.
Sprouts are a living food.
Plant based foods in their original and uncooked form are what we call a “living” or “raw” food. Once any food has been cooked or heated, it loses essential vitamins and nutrients and becomes a dead food. Living foods still contain all the life giving nutrients (enzymes, oxygen, vitamins, nutrients and chlorella) that are absolutely vital to the proper maintenance of the human body.
Sprouting at home can help improve your health and provide fresh food during emergencies. In this booklet we will teach you everything you need to know about preparing, purchasing, growing and harvesting a year round organic sprout garden right in your own kitchen.
Nutritious
Ounce for ounce sprouts are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. According to Sproutpeople.com and Wikipedia sprouts contain:
- Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K,
- Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Zinc, Chlorophyll, Phosphorus, Niacin, Magnesium, Pantothenic Acid
- Trace Elements
- All amino acids
- Protein: up to 35%”
Sprouts are alkalizing to the body
Most modern diets are incredibly acidic, which leads to weak bone, fatigue, weight gain and an out of balance digestive system. Eating alkalizing foods like sprouts help to balance the diet and lead to better overall health.
Sprouting helps your digestive system
Sprouts help to neutralize something called phytic acid, an acid in your body that binds with minerals like calcium, iron, copper, zinc and magnesium. When phytic acid is bonded to those nutrients your body is unable to absorb them. Sprouts will allow you to absorb these nutrients better, which help nutrient absorption from any food that you eat.
Sprouts also help to neutralize enzyme inhibitors, allowing healthy enzymes to operate. Adding them to your regular diet can also help with the breakdown of complex carbohydrates and sugars and turn them into glucose molecules making them easier for your body to digest. It has been suggested that sprouts even deactivate a carcinogen found in grains call “aflotoxins”.
*Under certain conditions food borne illnesses can occur during the sprouting process. Although this is somewhat rare (like with raw milk) since sprouts are grown in moist, warm conditions bacterial growth can occur. However most sprouting seeds are tested for bacteria and as long you use uncontaminated seeds and use clean equipment and water and refrigerate your sprouts the risk of bacteria is almost 0.
More on Sprouting Nutrition
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/sprouts.html
Nutritious
Sprouting kits and seeds are very affordable, particularly if you obtain seed from a farm store and buy in bulk. Some stores have 20 lbs of seeds for about 20 dollars; remember that a few tablespoons can fill up an entire jar with sprouts. A small package of live sprouts can cost 5 dollars or more at the grocery store.
Simple
Growing your own sprouts requires very minimal effort to get started. It’s easy, quick and fun. Get the kids involved and make it part of your routine. With a few minutes a day for 3-5 days you have a week or more worth of sprouts. See easy how growing your own sprouts can be.
Eco Friendly
When you sprout, or grow anything yourself, you are helping the environment by reducing the amount of energy and thereby reducing the amount of carbon emissions that are needed to bring food to your table.
Survival
Sprouts are a great survival food. Most stored foods loose nutrients over time; additionally cooked foods lose a great deal of the initial nutritional value. Sprouts are a quick and cheap food that can supplement the rest of your food storage.
Great post! Thanks for the info. Where can I get everything all in one package?
Just thought you might be interested in our experience with 9-year-old sprouting seeds … that SPROUTED.
See it at http://www.internet-grocer.net/sprouter/htm
WOW! That is amazing! No one can grow "terminator" GMO seeds! Hold onto some of those seeds – you may need them in the future. Go to: Organic Consumers Association AND World Natural Health Organization (WNHO) for great info plus history of Monsanto!
My two favorite packages are the Food Storage Sprout Kit
http://www.handypantry.com/product/FSSK
and the Burpee Seed Sprouter
GardenGirl,
Not sure who you're responding to, but the sprouters we sell (which will NOT sour your sprouts) are at http://www.internet-grocer.net/sprouter.htm and can be ordered at
http://www.internet-grocer.net/store/cart.php
Best regards,
Bruce
Great article/PDF. I'm going to try sprouting again; we already like sprouts on salads and sandwiches (avocado, cucumber, and alfalfa sprouts with mayo, tomato optional, on multigrain bread, yum!)
I tried for years with the Mason jar method and often had problems, but I've just bought (very cheaply) one of those multi-tray sprouting systems and it works better than I could hope – and takes up very little space.
The top tray of my worm farm works GREAT for sprouts! And the worms get what we don't use.
I feed the worms, the worms feed the soil, the soil feeds the plants, and the plants feed me!
WHoops, forgot to say, the top tray is covered in Hessian (Burlap) fabric that is kept damp to keep the worms from getting too dry, the seeds spread under the fabric will sprout right through it
http://www.MyMimsies.etsy.com
Ch-ch-ch-chia!
ok, but what if you run out of seeds.How do you take this a step further and creat more seeds? or is that not Practicle?
Evidently, NOT!
That's one reason I chose not to grow them…..
Storage is a problem can't be dehydrated, and can't be re-hydrated, but, they do grow fast!
ALSO: Like Chinese food, you can eat a couple of pounds, but in 15 minutes you'll be hungry again!
No substance, just water!
Not much of a diet, albeit a supplement, I guess.
Evidently, NOT!
That's one reason I chose not to grow them…..
Storage is a problem can't be dehydrated, and can't be re-hydrated, but, they do grow fast!
ALSO: Like Chinese food, you can eat a couple of pounds, but in 15 minutes you'll be hungry again!
No substance, just water!
Not much of a diet, albeit a supplement, I guess.
Great article on sprouts and sprouting. One more great home sprouter should be mentioned here. The Easygreen Sprouter. I own 2 of them myself. Having been a commercial sprout grower for a number of years these are the best and easiest home sprouters available. The sprout quality is superior to other growing methods.
Very interesting design there! Thanks for sharing. I bet it does really well with wheat grass.
It is a cool sprouter. I've grown a lot of wheat grass in the Easygreen with dirt and hydroponically and it does an excellent job.
Sprouts are fantastic! Fresh right now food that can help with any sort of ailement! Here is a thought on keeping the sprouts fresh and free from mold or fungus: go to Freshwater Organics they have a powder that is made of "food grade" fossilized diatoms. Sprinkle on growing sprouts! Also great for you too! Tasteless and helps you stay healthy! Inexpensive. Amazing! Good info: FreshwaterOrganics.com/What is DE?, or look at USES FOR DE and "Detox"…DE: Diatom-aceous earth! Keep Sprouting and Stay Healthy
Wow. thats an interesting way to look at Sprouting. I am a big fan.
Thanks for all the great advice and suggestions!
Thanks for the excellent content! I just wanted to let you and your readers know that you can win free, non-gmo organic seeds by simply sharing a sprouting YouTube video or a sprout recipe on our website at this link:
http://www.easygreen.com/drawing-contact-form
Thank you for sharing your tips with us. So much helpful info.
Like this articles :)
I got a graphical manual on bean sprouting which can be download/read for free at this link:
http://www.advancedfarm.com
The manual is based on your guide here. Thanks
[…] You can sprout your own seeds in a glass jar. This could be fun. Instructions here. […]
[…] to absorb chlorophyll which accounts for the green color and further develop their nutrients. The Survival Spot makes the very good point of that sprouts make a good survival food since they need such minimal […]
I tried to download the sprouting pdf but I got, "Sprouting guide could not be downloaded because it could not be found –error 404." Just got the email so the link must be bad. Any ideas? Please email me at: daleawagner@yahoo.com. Thanks, Dale
Great post !
Sprouts are great healthy food .Always loved them.
Found a few tips in your guide very interesting.
Good stuff will be waiting to hear more from you.
Hi! This article is packed with great information! I first got interested in sprouts when I realized the benefit for preparedness. You can always have a fresh supply of nutritious raw vegetables if you have seeds and water, and it doesn’t take up much space. I use the Easy Sprout sprouter. It really is easy to use. You can read about it and see pictures at http://thesafehealthyhome.com/how-to-grow-sprouts/ I first learned about it from the Sprout People website.