I got stuck one winter in the mountains of Idaho having nothing to eat but elk meat and pancakes (no syrup) for six weeks. ANYTHING green would have been welcome! The next summer I learned how to sprout alfalfa and Mung beans and kept bags of them around, just in case.
I remembered doing this just in a jar in my cupboard, but it’s been a few years, so I consulted with Wyzyrd on sprouting. Wyzyrd does it in a canning jar that he cut a piece of screen out over the top for under the ring (or you could just use a rubber band around the screen.
He said to let the beans/seeds soak overnight, rinse in fresh water, drain the water and sit it someplace out of the way for three days and you have sprouts! You don’t need much water and you don’t need light. When they grow to where you want to eat them, rinse and eat or refrigerate in a baggie. Good for about 2 to 3 days if refrigerated.
Sprouts are extremely nutritious, can be used with lettuce or as a substitute for lettuce or other greens, or eaten as is.
Or add to your cans of soup for volume to fill you up! All they need is moisture and warmth (room temperature is fine) and you will have fresh greens in 3 days. The seeds are usually small and keep a long time—excellent for long term storage!
And honestly, if you are actually being thoughtful about how you are storing food and working from some kind of survival food list, greens should already be a part of it.
Check out this simple sprouting package can be used with your wide mouth Mason jars, and contains: clover, alfalfa, radish, mustard, chick peas, lentils, and peas.
Sprout on!
I love sprouts! And they’re very expensive in the grocery. Store plenty of beans (a nice assortment is best) and you’ll always have greens handy – if you take the time to sprout them
You don’t need a fancy, expensive device for sprouting, either; as stated above, a simple mason jar with cheesecloth over the top will do the job quite well – or buy a plastic grid lid for this purpose; they’re not expensive.
Did you know you can sprout Chia seeds? Yep. They’re good for more than just “Pets” ;) And power-packed with nutrients! Yummy! Eat to live well!
Bev, Good article about the sprouts, however, I would like to hear more about your survival ordeal for 6 weeks on nothing but elk meat and pancakes. I am sure it wasn’t very humerous at the time, but I could not help but chuckle when I pictured you surving on elk and pancakes. What an odd combination.
Servantheart, I have read that you can use Chia seeds to grow sprouts. I guess it dosen’t hurt to laugh a little while we try to prepare and survive. I can picture a Chia Head in every room. ;)
LOL on the Chia heads in every room!
And, I, too would like to hear more about the elk-pancakes diet! :)
Oh J100,
Having lived in the mountains of Montana, Idaho, British Columbia, Kentucky, and now the bluffs of SE Minnesota, I have stories! That one was just a six foot snow fall, NOT prepared, and having to wait for a spring thaw. But Lordy,sometimes it feels like I have been through everything including having to shoot my way INTO the house!
Bev :)
Sprouts are the preppers’s garden in a cup. The beans and seeds used for sprouting keep for decades and are really a lot of food in a compact amount of space.
Very true. You could live off JUST sprouts, if necessary. You might get tired of them, but you could live off them for as long as you needed to do so.
Lets try this again – 3 comments so far failed, but so have a lot of emails, so I’m hoping it’s a wonky connection on my part.
For “green” sprouts/”chef-y microgreens”, fill a pot with moist potting mix, sow heavily with leaf lettuce, cress, radish, etc. seed, cover with kitchen cling wrap, and put them someplace warm and well-lit. In about a week, you’ll have ‘lil bitty greens’. Let them go another week or so, then either pick to thin (wash off the dirt) or cut them off with shears. Save a few, and transplant to your outdoor garden.
I won’t post the links to pictures, this time, in case that is what was messing up earlier comments.
Wyzrd, that sounds great! But, I was under the impression lettuce can not successfully transplant. Have you had success doing it, anyway? Just wondering…
Oops.. I missed this response – my apologies.
I never had much trouble with lettuce, really. The plants are a bit on the delicate side, but if you’re careful and pop out the biggest possible ‘rootball’ of soil, and fill around them, vs. just shove in a hole and push, they actually transplant pretty well :)
Cool! thanks!
Here is a neat tip that Dennis just gave me…
Bev, a real easy sprout setup is to take a canning jar lid, and cut a plastic needlepoint screen the same size, you can use any type of canning jar and one screen , about .50 cents will make a bunch…
Bev :)
An experiment to try and see what I was screwing up last week:
Some Radish sprouts I started last Thursday:
let’s try this again…..
Radish sprouts from last Thursday
Tactical hint: Don’t type comments while talking to your boss on the phone .. :(
So, what are you sayin’, Wyzyrd? Boss reminds you of radishes? No, don’t answer that! ;)