Grow your own Fresh Sprouts and Micro Greens

Throughout the year I am always able to produce my own delicious spouts and micro greens for my salads. It does not take much to make a batch of sprouts. All you need is a Mason jar, some cheese cloth or tightly woven netting, some of your favorite seeds to spout (see list below) and fresh water. In a couple of days you will have more sprouts that you can eat. They are fresh, nutritious, chemical free (use organic seeds for sprouting) and they last longer than the sprouts that you buy at the market because they are fresh.

You can go online and get all the sprouting and growing information you need. Also, you can purchase a wide variety of seeds specially for sprouting and micro greens,

Growing micro greens (small salad greens) is just as easy! For this you need any type of plastic planter, peat pots (coconut variety works great too), or dirt free growing pads (that you can buy on the internet for growing and sprouting seeds) the dirt free pads are great because your micro greens are clean and dirt free and all you have to do is pic and eat them. Keep them watered and in a sunny window or deck and voila! micro greens. They can be eaten as young sprouts or let to mature into small lettuce leaves. I usually have several batches started at different intervals so I can keep a fresh supply to harvest.

Some great seeds for sprouting include: Radish seeds, broccoli seeds, clover, mung bean, garbanzo beans, mustard seed, alfalfa, fenugreek, lentil, soybean (bean sprouts), oat, wheat, maize (corn), rice, barley, rye, kamut, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, sesame, sunflower, almond, hazelnut, linseed, peanut, broccoli, cabbage, watercress, mustard, mizuna, radish, daikon (kaiware sprouts), rocket (arugula), tatsoi, turnip, and these are just a few of hundreds of varieties.

Micro Greens: carrot, celery, fennel, parsley, onion, leek, green onion (me-negi in Japanese cuisine), spinach, lettuce, milk thistle, lemon grass, mesclun, bok choy, beet, radish, lettuce, kale, cress, sorrel, arugula, chard, basil, cabbage, kohlrabi, amaranth, purslane, and these are just a few of hundreds of varieties.

*NOTE: All the sprouts of the solanaceae (tomato, potato, paprika, aubergine or eggplant) and rhubarb cannot be eaten as sprouts, either cooked or raw, as they can be poisonous.