Sprouting

When people think of sprouts, they usually think of alfalfa sold at many grocery stores but sprouting is so much more. It means soaking raw organic seeds, grains, legumes, and nuts in water and rinsing them at regular intervals until they germinate or sprout.

I used to think only hippies did such a thing until I realized (at a later age) that my godmother was a sprouter and a wheat grass grower. And let me tell you, she was no hippie! Sprouting adds nutritional value to seeds and makes it "live" or "raw" nutrition. When I say that, I really mean that sprouting activates the enzymes which in turn causes the see/grain or whatever you're sprouting to start producing vitamins it needs for the growth. Sprouting increases the nutrition density of foods. Sprouted wheat has 28% more thiamine (B1), 315% more riboflavin (B2), 66% more niacin (B3), 65% more pantothenic acid (B5), 111% more biotin, 278% more folic acid (B9), and 300% more vitamin C than non sprouted wheat. Enzyme content might be as high as 40% more and fiber 300-400% more. WOW!!!! So you're gonna sprout now?

Sprouted grains are highly nutritious; they are the bomb! You can sprout just about anything: almonds, sun flower seeds, different kinds of beans, pumpkin seeds, alfalfa seed, clover seed, radish seed, buckwheat, pecans, walnuts, quinoa, melon seeds, sesame seeds, wheat, rye, spelt, oats etc etc etc. The list is long. Cashews are a little harder to sprout because they are heat treated. They won't germinate :( Also, most of they time you won't see any green growing from the seed when you're done sprouting so you'll just have to believe me that when I say that they are sprouted and ready to spread their enzyme goodness in your body.



So how do you do this? Simple! Let's take chickpeas, a.k.a Garbanzo beans for example, like in the picture above. Start with 1 cup dry organic garbanzo beans, rinse in filtered water and then put them in a quart size glass canning jar. Fill the jar with filtered water and soak for 8-12hrs. In the morning, rinse the beans and the jar, then put the beans back in without any water. Use cheese cloth to cover the opening of the jar with the screw lid. Set the jar on its side and come back a couple of times a day to rinse the beans. They will be ready to eat the third day.

In the pictures you can see my garbanzos the first and third days. Big difference! Enjoy sprouting, it really is the way to go!




PS. There is tons more info on the net!