SPROUTING TIME

  It is amazing how much time it takes to feed a rapidly growing newborn! I feel like half of my time, day and night, go on having my boob in my baby´s mouth. Oh well, it will pass. I really need to enjoy these days while she´s still so tiny!

  Finally I found some time to start sprouting, like I do every Oestara. This year I found a nifty looking gadget, that is supposed to enable me to sprout without soil. I´ve always grown little sprouts/shoots in soil, the old-fashioned way, so I´m experimenting this new method now.

There is a container underneath for water, and on top is a grate for the seeds.

It sounds reasonable to grow sprouts without soil - the plants are eaten while so little that they would hardly have had time to grow roots and absorb nutrients from the soil underneath anyway. Seeds do contain enough nutrients and energy for the plant to get started.

These little seeds are garden cress.

  By this time of year, I´m so fed up with commercially grown salads and lettuces I buy from the store, that I really need a change in my salad menu. Baby sprouts offer a great variety and addition to my usual recipes. Besides garden cress I often grow pea and sunflower sprouts. I have even tried buckwheat a few times. It tasted great but I found it somewhat messy to pick out the shells, and the sprouts molded pretty fast.We´ll see how buckwheat turns out in this new tray system.

  I use sprouts in my usual foods like green smoothies and salads of course. But I also like to chop them up and sprinkle over pasta or bread. They go pretty much with anything, well except chocolate maybe...

  Sprouting is definitely an area I will continue to learn, by mistake undoubtedly.  =)  It is fun to see the miracle of life happening in my kitchen, and it feels like a head start to the coming summer season!