Anyone grow their own sprouts?

[skm]

What kind do you grow? How do you use them? Where do you buy your seeds - particularly organic seeds?

I've gotten hooked on sprouts. I'm eating them in everything - in place of lettuce, added on top of chili, into sandwiches, etc. My mom gave me a countertop sprouter with stackable trays and so far I've only sprouted the alfalfa seeds and lentils that she gave with it. I'm looking to branch (sprout ;) ) out and try others. What's your favorite?

[hunter]

No but DH is dying to try it. He wants to do mung beans, which are what you get when you buy "bean sprouts" at the market, but I haven't been able to find them expect frozen, and those didn't sprout. I think we'll do some sprouts as a science experiment for the kids, just in a jar. If DH knew they made counter top sprouters, he'd run out and buy one for sure!

[skm]

The countertop sprouter is really cool. I know they make several kinds. Mine is called a "Kitchen Crop Sprouter" I think. It has several plastic trays that siphon water down through each level and keeps just enough water in each tray to sprout stuff. All you have to do is twice a day pour water in the top level and dump out the excess that collects in the bottom. The cool thing is that, with different trays, you can either stagger "planting" days to get usable sprouts one day at time or you can sprout several different types of sprouts at the same time. You don't have to use all trays at once, though.

After some brief online searching, I found a place called Mumm's that sells all kinds of certified organic sprouting seeds and some sprouting equipment. I may try buying from them. I didn't realize you could sprout so many things until browsing their site, so maybe my Whole Foods store has more sprouting seeds to offer than I thought.

[hunter]

Hey thanks! I was thinking about looking online to see if I could order mung seeds for DH -- his birthday is coming up, he'd be giddy over that, I think! I'll check that place out.

[GaiaChild]

the kitchencrop sprouter does sound pretty cool. I've never done sprouts , I remember reading that alfalfa sprouts from the store will sometimes have salmonella (i think it was that, though now I wonder...is salmonella only found on meat products??) Anyway, when I was pregnant I craved them but there was a recall off the shelves a my grocery store because of the bacteria and it turned me right off of them again.

I would definately be interested in sprouting my own and I'll check out the sprouter...I love watching things grow :)

[CaliforniaHippie]

I love sprouts too but I rarely get them because of the bacteria. I believe it is Salmonella Gaiachild.

I wonder if that risk would go down if you sprout your own.