sprouting! – mung and alfalfa

 I come from a family of very skilled and super keen gardeners, so I feel like a bit of a loser that I have never managed to grow much successfully. I had a herb garden on my balcony when I lived Joburg — but it didn’t last long (perhaps not enough sunlight).

 Its my dream as well as a complete necessity to have a herb garden. This dream extends to growing vegetables (yes I am ambitious), and I have some lovely tomato seeds which I bought on Santorini that I am dying to get into the ground.  

Baby steps!

So I have started growing my own sprouts; with success so far and perhaps this will be the beginning of my horticultural journey. 

I started out sprouting in jars with muslin cloth and this worked well, but I have recently upgraded to a proper sprout maker. 

It’s really so easy, everyone should be doing it.  So far I’ve ‘grown’ sunflower, mung and alfalfa seeds and have black onion, sesame and poppy seeds on the go at the moment and intend to sprout anything else I can find to sprout. 

Sprinkle a few seeds in each layer of the sprouter (less is more) and then water the container daily.  Store in a warm place out of direct sunlight. It takes about 3- 4 days to reach full ‘growth’. Harvest and store in a sealed container in the fridge. 

 PS: My sister made sprouts whilst on the 5 day Fish River canyon hike – how awesome is that? One way to get some fresh ‘greens’ while you are away from civiliasation.