Growing Sprouts in My Kitchen Garden

Reader Contribution by Claire E
Published on November 13, 2012
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Our garden is dead. I tried replanting it for a fall harvest, but that didn’t work, so now that frost has come it’s empty until spring. I shall outwit nature, though: I’m gardening in our kitchen cupboard.

Sprouts are extremely nutritious, and I think they’re very tasty. They’re also easy to grow; they need darkness and very little space. The cupboard is perfect. We chose broccoli, alfalfa and radishes, because broccoli sprouts are said to be very nutritious, alfalfa sprouts very mild, and radish sprouts very peppery. I’m looking forward to the radish sprouts the most.

More or less following the instructions in the book The Backyard Homestead by Caroleen Madigan (Storey, 2009), we sterilized three small glass jars (a half-pint canning jar and two peanut butter jars). Into each I placed one teaspoon of seeds, on the assumption that that many sprouts is enough for a sandwich. If you need more sprouts than that, increase the amount of seeds, though you may need larger jars.

So that air and water can get to the sprouts, the lids must be replaced with pieces of cheesecloth, folded over to keep the seeds in. We screwed the canning jar’s band on top of the cheesecloth, and used a rubber band to hold it on the others. By myself, I could put the rubber band in place, but then I couldn’t quite get my fingers out without pulling the cheesecloth with them. Personally I think that if you have two people, the rubber-band method is just as easy, but if you’re alone you should definitely go with canning jars.

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