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As we rinse the sprouts in the individual jars (by squirting a hose through the cheesecloth held over the containers' mouths with heavy rubber bands), each of the jars is briefly turned upside down over a large plastic bucket until most of the water runs out. (It's then an easy matter, in turn, to carry the bucket over to a nearby sump pump and empty it.)
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The jars are next placed back in their racks, where they're held tilted so nearly upside down that any remaining excess water in the containers can drip out of their mouths. These drippings are collected by a large sheet of five-mil plastic that is attached with staples and/or tacks to the underside of each rack's bottom shelf. And the plastic is positioned so that the drops of water run toward the center of each collection sheet . . . where a hole has been cut to drain the piece of plastic into a large washtub (actually a "wash and rinse" tub which was manufactured with a fitting and attached hose already added to its bottom). Needless to say, the drainage hoses from all the washtubs lead directly into our sump pump . . . which makes the "drip drainage" of our sprouting jars about as automatic as it can be. Much the same system is set up under each of the racks which hold our lentil sprouting trays.
Once we'd taken care of all our startup details, we were ready for what is actually the easiest part of our whole operation: the day-to-day cultivation of alfalfa and lentil sprouts.
This is a snap . . . as you know if you've ever tried it. Or to put it the other way around: When you soak almost any kind of seed overnight, rinse it, place it somewhere in the dark or semi dark where it can remain at a comfortable room temperature and stay moist but not wet, and then rinse that seed and drain it down to a moist-but-not-wet condition again at least two or three times a day . . . there's probably no way in the world to keep that seed FROM sprouting!
In our case, we begin each batch of shoots by soaking four ounces of alfalfa seeds per gallon jar and five pounds of lentils for each sprouting tray. (Since the alfalfa multiplies in bulk by a factor of seven and the lentils double in size as they grow, this gives us a mature crop weighing 28 ounces from each jar and 10 pounds per tray.)
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