Showing posts with label Sprouting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sprouting. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

THE MODERN VICTORY GARDEN CHALLENGE

What??? I thought I was through with these things. I mean over the years I have taken prt in buy nothing new challenges, freezing my ass off challenges, saving my urine challenges, etc.- Most of these put on by the Crunchy Chicken. But I was perusing my blog the other day and grew reminiscent (and add the fact I am retired now and need a project) for the Independence Day Challenge, put on by Sharon Astyk. It was such a great tool to use to learn more about self sufficiency, and preparing one's self to become more independent. The trouble is it seems to have vanished over the years, so I thought "Rob we need to bring this back". So here it is, The Modern Victory Garden Challenge!
 THE MODERN VICTORY  GARDEN CHALLENGE:
 
1- Grow your own- means grow your own food be it from a huge multi-acre farm/garden, or a backyard garden or even a few pots. Maybe just some sprouts grown indoors. Just grow something!

2-Repair your own - from a brken shovel handle to rebuilding a tractor, repair it yourself and share

3- Learn something NEW! learning a new technique or something to help your garden grow. Could include but not limited to learning seed starting, recipe to cook something or new way to preserve food

4-Eat It! Share how you eat your homegrown food!

5- PRESERVE IT! Share how you are preserving your home grown food. Could include home cannin freezing or dehydrating

There you have it. Sounds pretty easy? I will post monthly and hope you all will join in!

Rob's Independence Day Posts from the past!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Sprouter- Pro's and Con's


I have been using my new fangled Sprouter I bought some time back. I was never planning on buying one, how ever I was at a local store and she had one at a reduced price as she said there was a crack at the top of one of the trays. Honest to God if there is I can't find it. My sporuter is a Northrup King brand, but I have found out it was made by the same folks who make the Victorio Sprouter. In fact the instruction booklet is from Victorio. So this year I give up the use of mason jars with my home made sprouting lids, and use a real sprouter. And I can say this about it:

PROS
  • Easy to use,
  • makes three great trays of sprouts,
  • easy to clean out.
  • Great to use if you are going to need a butt-load of sprouts
CONS:
  • I find that certain types of sprouts do better in the Mason Jar like Chick Peas and Beet sprouts. The sprouter is great for smaller seeds like alfalfa.
  • Jars in General allow you to re-use a jar for divine purposes, like growing sprouts. And they are free. In fact you can set up a pretty nice sprouting operation with the use of free jars!
Anyway, I will continue to use the sprouter. And maybe I will grow to really, really love it. But I miss seeing my old jars with sprouts growing in them.

Friday, January 15, 2010

No Space Gardening


Live in an apartment or condo- want to grow some fresh veggies? Have no room?
There are many answers for folks with no room to garden. Some of these links are local Seattle links, the rest everyone can use!

1. P Patches- Contact your city on info for community gardens, for a small fee, you may be able to rent a garden space

2. Urban Garden Share- In the Seattle area, Folks with room to garden who, for a small share of the garden bounty, or in some cases for free, will let you garden in their space: as of 10/8, there were over 10 gardens listed in the Burien area http://www.urbangardenshare.org/

3. Container Gardening- Great way to grow some veggies with a limited amount of space. If you have a balcony or terrace, you can grow a whole assortment of veggies to help supplement your food budget

My vertical garden

4. Try making a Vertical Wall garden- simple to make, just take a hanging shoe organizer, fill some used paper coffee cups with potting soile plant a few seeds in each one and Voila! a garden that not only gives you fresh veggies and herbs, but looks pretty good hanging up on your wall. Good info on making your own here
5. Try growing sprouts- Growing your own sprouts is fun and easy if you follow the six rules of sprouting:
1. Rinse often (2-3 times/day).
2. Keep them moist, not wet.
3. Keep them at room temperature.
4. Give them air to breathe.
5. Don't grow too many in one container.
6. Keep them in a dark place.
The first step is choosing which seeds to sprout. The standard sprout is the alfalfa sprout. This is the sprout often served on salads and sandwiches and your favorite restaurant or deli. However, there are many other seeds that make excellent sprouts, each with their own flavor and nutritional composition. You can sprout barley, broccoli, buckwheat, cabbage, fenugreek, garbanzo, green peas, lentils, mung beans (found in Chinese food), radishes, red clover, wheat, soy beans, sunflowers and more.
About Seeds
I have bought regular lentils and beans from the store; and they have worked fine. However, must add the following: Always use seeds packaged for sprouting. Buying bulk seeds and grains may seem cheaper than seeds packaged for sprouting, but they may not be worth it. Unless they are packaged as high-germination spouting seeds, only a portion of them will sprout. The ones that do not sprout, will likely ferment and spoil the batch. Do not use seeds meant for planting. They are often treated with chemical pesticides, fungicides and mercury coatings. Also, do not use seeds that have molds growing on them. Molds produce toxins which can cause food poisoning.
Growing sprouts in a jar:
The easiest method is to grow sprouts in a glass canning jar. Any size jar will do. To provide plenty of fresh air, cover the top of the jar with muslin, cheese cloth or nylon mesh screen and secure with a rubber band. You can also buy specially sprouting lids designed for this purpose.
Step One: Soaking
For a quart-sized jar, put 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons of small seeds (up to 1 cup if using larger seeds like green peas or garbanzo) in the sprouting jar. Cover top of jar with cloth or sprouting lid and rinse the seeds in warm (not hot) water. Drain and refill so that water is about an inch above the seeds. Let the seeds soak 8-12 hours (overnight). Protect from light by covering with a dish towel or placing in a cupboard.
Step Two: Rinsing
Rinse 2 to 3 times per day for 2 to 3 days. After thoroughly draining the rinse water, lay the jar on its side to spread out the seeds. Do not expose to light. After 2 to 3 days the sprouts should be filling up the jar.
Step Three: Removing Hulls
After 2 to 3 days the sprouts will have thrown off their hulls. To remove the hulls, place the sprouts in a bowl and run cool water over them. Most of the hulls will either float to the top or sink to the bottom making them easy to remove. (Note: not all seeds have hulls.)
Step Four: Harvesting
Rinse sprouts in cool water and remove any remaining hulls. Drain in a colander, but do not allow the sprouts to dry out. Place in an air-tight bag leaving room for air circulation. If your sprouts need to develop chlorophyll or carotene there is one final step. (The seed package directions should tell you whether greening is necessary.)
Step Five: Greening
Once the hulls are removed, place the sprouts back into the sprouting jar or into a clear plastic airtight bag. Put the sprouts in indirect sunlight. It takes about a day for the chlorophyll and carotenes to develop. Once the sprouts are ready rinse, drain, and eat, or refrigerate.
Storing: Sprouts will keep for about a week in the refrigerator if you rinse them once every day or two. Be sure to keep the sprouts from freezing as they are frost sensitive.
Seeds are easy to store. Put them an a glass jar with an air-tight lid and keep them in a cool, dark storage area. They will keep for a year or more.

Something new up, Courtesy of "Cheap Like Me" is Organic Acres, a CSA type garden where they do the work and the growing to your plans and their land; and in the Portland area- The Backyard Farmer, who will come and do your garden work for you-Both Cool Ideas.

Friday, February 27, 2009

WONDERS OF SPROUTING WINNER and a bit of junk art

Time to fire up Mr Random Integer Generator, and see who won the booklet:

Mr. Integar says winner is comment # 3- JAM- so jam if you send me an email at robj98168@yahoo.com and give me your mailing datails I will send you your booklet!
Also- have some old golf clubs and can't figure out what to do with them?Or have a golfer in your house and you think he needs to spend more time at home?- a little bailing wire and three golf clubs make a fun tripod for letting vines like sweet peas, snap peas or runner beans grow up on! Check it out!



Sunday, February 22, 2009

GIVEAWAY: THE WONDERS OF SPROUTING



Ok I mentioned a giveaway on Friday and here it is... The Wonders of Sprouting by Lucie Desjarlais. This is a pretty good little booklet on sprouting your own sprouts, only 27 pages and quick to read. There is a detailed sprouting table in the middle, with varieties, descriptions, hints , how to eat them etc, etc.

The basic rules apply, to enter the giveaway, just post a comment to this post. Winner will be selected by my old friend, Random Integer Generator on random.org; giveaway closes on Friday, Feb 27th, 2009 at 5pm.

Good Luck!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Gardening at The Grainery!

You know sometimes the answers are so simple, you feel like a real idiot when you find them. I know there are no stores that sell bulk items like beans and spices like at Whole Foods in my area. So I thought. I stopped into our local “health” food store today, The Grainery, and what did I find? Spices in bulk. Nutmeg nuts, chili powder, mustard in bulk! And a bonus I found sprouting supplies in bulk. They sell lids for the Mason Jars, sprouters, mung beans, seeds for sprouting in bulk, wheat grass juicers! Within walking distance of my house! I guess you got to get out in your neighborhood to see what’s there! Anyway, I happily bought some mung beans, broccoli seeds and a sprouting mixture of Fenugreek, Lentil, Kamut and Adzuki Bean. All this and I didn’t have to mail order nothing! Just take a nice walk three blocks from my house! They also sell food mills, dehydrator supplies, food storage supplies, and dried fruit! (Love those pineapple rings)
What surprises do you have in your neighborhood?
The Grainery
13269 1st Ave SBurien, WA 98168

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Sprouting - gardening inside

Delicous radish sprouts

Since my new founded interest in sprouting, I would dearly love to try one of those fancy sprouting systems sold online, But instead I madesome new sprouting jars. The easy answer is to use a meshy fabric like cheesecloth or some nylons and wrap around the top like in the second video. But, being a guy, I don't have nylons lying around and not about to go out and buy some Big Mama nylons. These are easy to make- don't buy sprouting jars or lids. Here is how I make mine. Take an ordinary mason jar. You need to buy some type or mesh or netting to use in place of the cap. I use plastic canvass, which is available at JoAnn's and I would imagine Michael's has them as well. Take a mason jar and put it on the plastic canvass lid side down-
Take a mason jar and put it on the plastic canvass lid side down- and a sharpie to mark the circle.
Then simply cut the circle out of the canvass. Now place it ontop of the mason jar and screw on the lid. There you have a sprouting jar in whatever size you need! For instructions on using your sprouting jar, go to sproutpeople or sprouting.com or best yet the cityfarmer.org.
Roger and Anna are a tad bit irritating but give good info:



Good info one making sprouting jars using cheescloth or nylons: