by Erik Krause
I started sprouting when I was exploring foods which I had not used before. It struck me as odd that while it's almost impossible to find a prepared food that does not contain wheat, I had no idea what wheat was like on its own. I had never seen it and knew nothing about it aside from flour. And there are so many other grains, barley being my favorite. I purchased "Sproutman's Kitchen Garden" by Steve Meyerowitz, as it has a bit of information on basic sprouting techniques in addition to other techniques like fermentation, dehydration and juicing. He has many recipes which are very foreign to my previous experience. He promotes the idea of "Extending human life, not shelf life", which sounds good to me.
I have used the ubiquitous alfalfa sprout as a salad condiment for a long time, but I'd never sprouted grains before. With the increase in its popularity, sprouting supplies are now easy to find at health food stores. Wheat, barley, garlic, onions, broccoli, radish, alfalfa and sunflower are just a few of the usually available seeds. I have seen bulk sprouting mung beans. Some seem to vary according to season. I have rarely seen soft wheat at the grocery store. I decided to start with wheat.
I got some cheesecloth and used quart jars at first. It's amazing how much the sprouts expand as they go about their business. After having to pry them out of the jar, I decided to pick up some stackable sprouting trays. They were fairly inexpensive and provide a little more room for the plants to grow. They are also easier to rinse. The disadvantage is that the drain holes are small enough that they will hold a fair amount of water. I dealt with this by putting the trays in a dish drainer at a slight angle with a small strip of paper towel under the bottom edge. The paper towel will wick water out of the tray and allow it to drip and drain. The holes are also large enough for un-soaked alfalfa seeds to get caught in them. For this reason, I always soak the seeds in a jar prior to putting them in the trays. Some still get caught, but cleaning them out isn't that hard.
To care for the sprouts, I rinse them three times a day: first thing in the morning, after work, and then again before bed. They would probably do fine with only two rinses, but since I live in a dry climate, I like to make sure they stay hydrated. But it is still important to drain them well and let them breathe. It is amazing how alive these seeds are -- just a little water converts an apparently inert seed into a living, breathing plant.
Little roots show up quickly, followed shortly by a blade of grass that heads up for the sky. After seeing the single blade of grass per seed, I looked at the lawn and 'weedy' grasses with new amazement. That would take a lot of seeds to match. As the wheat sprouts mature, the roots start intertwining and after a few days will start to look fuzzy. At first I worried it was mold, but after examining my crop of sprouts, the fuzziness seemed to be a feature of the roots. They are just trying to get a grip in soil, although they also develop a good sod if you let them get beyond the sprout stage and turn into grass.
One fun recipe from the Sproutman book is his sprout bread. It has a minimum of one ingredient: wheat sprouts. Using a champion juicer as a homogenizer (with it blanking plate installed), you put sprouts in the feed tube and get a dough out the other end. That was a surprising result. After forming the dough into small loaves, you can use an oven on very low heat or a dehydrator to make the bread. It is amazingly sweet, and incredibly dense. You would NOT make a sandwich with this bread, but it is a delightful addition to a meal. It stores well in the freezer. It's probably a good idea to coat the bottom of the bread with sesame seeds, or some other mild seed of your choosing since the bread is incredibly sticky and can be hard to remove from the baking or dehydrating equipment.
Sprouting the grain has a strong effect on its nutritional content. Starches are used to build plant material, more protein, and other goodies. This reduces the overall carbohydrate level, while greatly increasing the protein content. It also seems to reduce the amount of gluten, even in the sprout bread. A friend of mine was curious about trying the bread, but as she is somewhat allergic to gluten, she was nervous about it. She tried a small portion, which if it were a standard bread product would have caused her to become congested. She had absolutely no allergic reaction to the sprout bread, and was actually very happy to be able to enjoy the taste of wheat. She might have reacted to a larger piece, but then the bread is so dense that she found her small piece to be satisfying.
All in all, it is simple, fun and very tasty.