1. Mung Bean
2. Flax Seed
3. Wheat Berry
4. Sunflower
5. Lentil
6. Adzuki
This is a very exciting list indeed. As you may have already read, Mung Bean sprouts were my first sprouts I had ever tried to grow. And they grew beautifully. So I was quite confident that they would do well the second time around.
What were the results?
I really only got about a 50% acceptable yield. And as I had to travel for about 40 hours out of the house, the watering regime really tried some of the seeds. For example, take a look at these:
This is what happened to the Wheat Berry sprouts. They sprouted but because my watering regime suffered, they then grew blades of Wheat Grass!
I counted this as a "Win-Win" because I always wondered if I could actually grow Wheat Grass simply in my own home without any fancy growing system. For there are many out there. And the photograph testifies that you can grow Wheat Grass simply but starting the sprouts and then stop watering for two days.
Good to know!
So, in lieu of the fact that I don't really have healthy Wheat Berry sprouts, what shall a raw food enthusiast (albeit beginner) do?
As this is a sprouting adventure, I first decided to find the sprouts. As you can see, they are quite small. Not the way they should be but skipping the 4-times-a-day watering schedule will produce rather anemic looking sprouts every time.
Being the enthusiast at heart type person I am, I felt they were just beautiful never-the-less. For you see, this is life. Life-giving, Alive-food and it is amazing that where there was nothing, with a little water, life happens!
Tell me if you don't think this is utterly amazing, life-engaging, exciting and tantalizingly wonderful?
Well, my apologies to the lovely Ann Wigmore, I don't have a Wheat Grass Juicer. In fact, I don't have a juicer of any kind. If you have read my blog at all, you know that all I have is the amazing Vita-Mix.
So, from the incubational canning jar to the no less amazing...
... Vita-Mix! That's right! I can't juice but I can LIQUIFY! And that is what I did. Of course, being the happy raw vegetable fan that I am, I added the Wheat Grass with Wheat Berry Sprouts and Wheat Berries into my lovely mid-morning mix!
So... what else is in it you as? This is not a major all-out mix but here is what I put in it.
I am down to my last carrot so in it went! Yummo! Love carrots. Loved them more when I was a boy in the sixties because they had a larger flavor profile back then. I am told that all carrots these days are GMO's. What does that mean?
According to Wikipedia:
A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered
organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered
using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known
as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources,
which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This
DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes.
Transgenic organisms, a subset of GMOs, are organisms which have inserted
DNA that originated in a different species.
So, like it or not, we all live in a brave new world, where the bottom line is king, production is queen and the princes are their servants. Us? Well, we are the fodder of the earth, as it were. The paupers, the indigents, the consumers. So our word is rarely heard.
Do we have alternatives? There are many but are they accessible to us? Could we go to ECHO and buy us some seeds from the old carrot days? Not likely. Could be find some hermit in northern Canada who will sell some to us? Not likely. But there MUST be a solution...
Back To The Vita-Mix Mid-Morning Yum Yum
What else did I put in the mix?
I found some small, fat zucchini at the Roseville Flea Market. The produce section there is amazing and with a patient eye, you can find all kinds of good buys of healthy and fresh vegetables and fruits.
Raw broccoli is a gift. A pure gift. You know, once you try raw vegetables, get off of soft drinks and sugar, you learn how sweet these vegetables truly are.
For example, broccoli. Cooked in a Vietnamese garlic sauce - well, they are out of this world. Those lovely florets hold all kinds of seasoning. But raw, these are so sweet and the florets taste like a mini forest.
And who knew zucchini was so sweet RAW? I sure didn't. Seeing yet another plate of fried zucchini on my plate only evoked disappointment. However, the vibrancy and liveliness screams in raw zucchini.
Do you want to know another secret that raw food enthusiasts already know? CABBAGE is like SUGAR!!! Raw cabbage is so delicious you can eat it like an apple. And don't talk about gas! I never get gas when I eat cabbage raw. That's right! Why? I don't know. Cooked, it's lovely and gassy. That's the truth.
In fact, cabbage is on the top ten list of gassy foods. Too bad they don't talk about how wonderful it is raw. Yeah Baby!
Now, craving sprouts, I saw a bag of fresh sprouts at the market and decided I just needs some plump sprouts for my raw veggie liquifying (I call this juicing and need to apologize to any whom I may have misled. Until I get a juicer, just interchange my terms here.) and consumption!
These are lovely and I eat them all the time. Yes, I prefer to eat them from my sprouting garden but this BIG SIX project didn't go so well.
And do you know what kind of sprouts are found usually in these bags at the market?
You Guessed It! Mung Bean Sprouts! The most commonly available sprouts in North America. Why? Hardiness has to do something with it.
So I also added bell pepper (which tastes NOTHING like cooked bell pepper, by the way), into the mix. It's fresh and lightens up the flavor profile. Also I added my wheat grass mix.
I can see celery in there too, which I ran out of as well. There is some 100% grape juice, some other juices and a hint of soy milk. And away it goes!
Here is it in process. Setting the Vita-Mix on low and easing the dial upward, this is what you get. See all of the carrot and zucchini pieces? You won't for long as they all will, in essence, liquify.
Here is how much celery I put in. I don't care if the celery leaves are in there. Or how clean they are or how perfect looking they are. It's all in the mix of raw veggie fun!
SPROUTING WOES
So how about the other sprouts. I don't have all the photographs. They were lost on another computer but I can include some that I found.
You can see that the sunflowers never really got off the ground and when they did, they sprouted and went to leaves. Still, they were yummy!
Also, the Garbanzo beans really didn't do well.
What Did Well?
The Wheat Berries, Flax Seeds and Lentils. The Mung did well but not as well.
What is the lesson? Water, water, water, water.
4-times a day like a little daycare, you must keep these guys wet. I also found that once the Flax started sprouting through the cheesecloth, there never was enough air flow to keep them healthy.
I AM NOT DISMAYED!
Still, what a wonderful set of lessons to walk away with. Air flow is key. So perhaps it is time for me to visit the local co-op, pick up what seeds they have that I can't find elsewhere and also some hard plastic grated lids.
So there will be more sprouting, more reporting, more testing, more tweaking and more joy. That is what happens in the process of learning to grow large, healthy sprouts!
Have Fun Sprouting!
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