It's a somewhat dreary but not very cold Spring day in Southern Connecticut. Everything is budding and blooming, and the wooded areas are spray-painted with that beautiful, impossible to replicate, bright Spring green that simply makes you happy to be alive. Soon the leaves will deepen in shade, and be a whole different splendor of lush, summery hues. But right now, the buds seem suspended in midair, as if floating around and through the trees, and I can't help but soak it in with child-like wonder, if not particularly imaginative language.
The growing world around me has got me thinking about sprouting. For those of you, like me, who are beginners on this journey toward good health, sprouting is probably a new concept. We're all familiar with packaged alfalfa or mung bean sprouts in the produce department; I love to include these in a salad or perhaps a hummus wrap. Most of us are probably less used to the concept of doing it ourselves, but I'm given to understand it's not only easy but cost effective. In fact, sprouted grain, beans, buts and the like can yield up to 30 times the original volume. It's simply a mattter of soaking, draining, and vigilant rinsing/moistening, and of course time.
I put a sprouted quinoa dish on the menu for last week, and according to Allissa Cohen, they should take about 3 days to sprout, and one cup of grain should yield about 3 cups of sprouts. It's over a week now, and I'm only just seeing little tails growing out of my quinoa. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Perhaps it's the cooler ambient spring tempuratures..perhaps its the humidity, perhaps its the quinoa rebellion, but they're taking a long time and certainly havent tripled in volume. I'm wondering whether or not hanging them on the dry side of the shower curtain might help, since at the very least it gets warm and steamy in there on a daily basis. Any expert sprouters out there with advice, I'm more than open.
So there's a learning curve, and probably it has a lot more to do with patience than I would like to acknowledge. But, I am committed to not simply writing about my successes on this blog, since I believe that doing so would be ultimately discouraging to people in the real world, trying as I am to take their wellness to a higher level. My mother remarked the other day, upon tasting a new dish that I found especially delicious, that I "love everything" I prepare. This of course prompted me to share the disaster that was "Zippy Tomato Soup" or as it should be known "Onion-Tomato Death Gargle." The point is, it doesn't all come easy, but it's worth sticking to it, and the exploration, successful or not, can be full of all manner of insight.
I am including a couple of links to sprouting resources, since at this point, you're better served with the wisdom of others on this matter. I do know that in terms of the health benefits, aside from being tasty, beginning the germination process takes nuts, seeds, and grains to a higher level of nutrition and ease of digestion by neutralizing the enymes inhibitors that exist in dormancy.
Primal Seeds
Sprouting Chart
Health Benefits of Sprouting
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