Grow Your Own Sprouts In Three Simple Steps

If you read my post, 12 Reasons to Eat Sprouts (& Add Them to Your Family’s Diet), you’ll understand why I’m such a HUGE fan of these young, extremely nutritious little plants.

But the sprouts that you find in the supermarket aren’t your best option. First of all, store-bought sprouts aren’t always organic. And—when they are—they’re usually pretty costly.

Instead, you can enjoy fresh, organic sprouts at a FRACTION of the cost of store-bought by growing them at home. It’s simple, they don’t take up much space–and growing them will take fewer than 3 minutes a day.

I’m serious.

In this post, I’ll give you a primer on growing alfalfa sprouts at home. Once you know how to grow these, you’ll know the basics for growing many other types of sprouts.

 

1. The Items You’ll Need

You just need three items: a container, seeds and filtered water.

Container

You can grow your seeds in a simple wide mouth jar, covered with muslin or a sprouting screen. However, I’ve personally always used the Easy Sprout Sprouter because when I first began sprouting I had no idea what muslin was or where to get it. I thought it was this exotic fabric that would be difficult to get. LOL. I also wasn’t sure where I could get a screen.

So instead, I bought a few of the Easy Sprout Sprouters and called it a day. I don’t see how these sprouters are any easier than the cheaper option of the wide-mouth jar though, so it’s really just a matter of preference.

Seeds

There are SO many places where you can get seeds. Just make sure that they are unheated, untreated, non-GMO and certified organic.

Also, if you can get them locally, definitely do it–and avoid shipping costs.

Since moving from Los Angeles to rural East Texas, I buy just about all of my products on Amazon. But the last couple of times that I bought seeds there, I was very disappointed. So now I get mine from from www.WheatGrassKits.com (alfalfa, 16oz @ $8.37).

They’re the only vendor that I can give a recommendation, but do your own research and Google “Organic Sprouting Seeds.” If you find a vendor that you really like with comparable—or even better, LOWER—prices to WheatGrassKits.com, please let me know and I’ll update this post with their information.

Filtered Water

Don’t use tap water if you can help it. There are hundreds of chemicals in it. Ones that you don’t want in your body. If you don’t currently have a filtration system, check out an economical solution like the Brita pitcher that you can buy at any local discount store.

Once you have the items you’ll need, you’re ready to begin sprouting!

2. Three Easy Steps to Growing Your Sprouts

There are three steps to growing sprouts: Soaking, rinsing & draining.

Soaking

The first step is to soak your seeds. Pour some seeds into your container, then pour in filtered water. A good rule of thumb is 3 parts water to 1 part seed. Remember, though, that you can’t add too much water.

For your first harvest, just pour in 1/4 of a cup of seeds and 3/4 cup water.

After this first harvest, you’ll know whether that was a good amount or if you want to increase or decrease your batch size going forward. After pouring your water, use a spoon to mix your seeds to ensure that they are all covered.

TIP: Although I’m not a fan of buying seeds from SproutPeople.org due to their extremely high shipping costs (hopefully that’ll change), they have lots of great pages that give specific instructions, including rinse times, for certain seeds. This can be a valuable resource, especially if you’re interested in sprouting more exotic seeds.

You’ll want to soak your seeds for 8 to 12 hours. I just start my soaks in the evenings and leave the seeds soaking overnight.

Rinsing

8 to 12 hours after you began soaking your seeds, you’ll want to rinse them. Rinsing just means that you’re pouring about 2 to 3 cups of  fresh, filtered water over the seeds.

Draining

After you rinse, you drain. You want to ensure that you dispose of any water that your seeds didn’t absorb.

If using a mason jar, you can just tilt the jar enough so that excess water drains out. Another technique is setting the jar down horizontally and letting gravity do the work for you.

Again, your goal here is to rid your container of ANY excess water. If any remains, you risk spoilage.

If using an Easy Sprout, tilting or laying horizontally isn’t needed since drainage holes are built in.

Each rinse should take you no more than a few seconds.

Repeat Steps 1 through 3

You’ll repeat the process of rinsing and draining 2 to 3 times a day.

Then, in 3 to 5 days, your sprouts will be ready to harvest! (I like younger, more tender, sprouts the best, so I only sprout for 3 days before harvesting.)

3. Harvesting

On the last day of sprouting, you’ll want to forgo the rinsing, so that your sprouts are dry when you get ready to store them.

8 to 12 hours after the final rinse, your new plants are ready to harvest! Exciting, right? I think so.

To harvest, simply shake your new plants out of their container into a bowl. Check them to ensure they’re dry. If they’re still a little moist, you can gently blot them with a clean towel or else give them a quick spin in a salad spinner.

4. Storage

I store my sprouts in a glass food storage container with a lid in the refrigerator. Sprouts remain fresh in there for about 3 to 5 days.

Remaining sprouting seeds can be stored in any type of container in a cool, dry place and will last for YEARS.

I store mine in the bottom produce bin of our refrigerator.

Visit this page to see the shelf lives of specific seeds.

5. Quick Recap

1. Spoon seeds (1/4 cup) into container and add filtered water (3/4+ cup)

2. Let soak for 8-12 hours

3. Rinse with filtered water (do this 2-3 times a day)

4. Stop rinse cycles 8-12 hours prior to harvest

5. You’ll be ready to harvest in 3-5 days after soak day (So if you soaked on Monday, you can harvest as early as Thursday.)

**Of course there are exceptions to this. For instance, you might want to harvest one day earlier than suggested… OR one day later. You’re free to make your own decisions. These are just guidelines that will help get you started.**

 

I hope that you found this post helpful! If you found something unclear and would like some clarification, please comment.

6. Video Tutorial

Want to complement this lesson with a short video tutorial?

If so, here’s a video tutorial for sprouting that I think is pretty great.

Happy sprouting!