Winter Kitchen Gardening

[digitS']

I thought awhile about which forum to put this in. The admin can move it if'n they want.

This was the year I was supposed to grow mung beans in the garden . I can think of a few excuses but probably no one wants to read them .

I have grown them as sprouts in the kitchen and seed for that is readily available. More successfully, I have grown alfalfa sprouts. I don't know off-hand where I can get them with cream cheese in a deli sandwich. DW has taken more interest in cream cheese lately; alfalfa sprouts on the kitchen counter will be a natural progression .

Sprouted grains in bread can be delicious! I've never made it . Researching Essenne bread was more discouraging than helpful; an additional ingredient to our favorite bread recipe makes more sense. When I'm in for the alfalfa seed, wheat should be on a nearby shelf.

Something I would like to try this winter is soybean sprouts from my little garden crop that I've had the last several years. Once again I have more dry seed than I want after harvesting too little as edamame. Tofu is just tofu much fooling around ...

Here's something the experts say (link) about soy sprouts, however: "There is probably a reduction of soybean trypsin inhibitor activity during sprouting. . . This reduction is probably of little practical significance since the sprouts must still be cooked to give them their best flavor and texture."

Antinutrients are in just about all legumes but soybeans seem to have more than their share. Heat changes that and I have been a little surprised that it doesn't appear to be a lot of heat ... I don't think I've ever had soy sprouts in stir-fry but I've got the seed . Another idea is deep fat frying. I bet that's good but I'll have to think about the healthfulness of that. Still ...

Sprouts this winter? Something herbal growing in the kitchen window??

Steve
who has grown a kit of button mushrooms in the basement without much bother

 

[thistlebloom]

Somewhere I got out of the habit of growing sprouts.
But it's so ridiculously easy, and could certainly qualify as gardening, right?
I think then, that growing sprouts could make one a year round gardener!
Yeah, growing sprouts sounds good! I'll have to put seeds down on my grocery list.

Do you just use a jar Steve, or do you have a more high tech way of growing them?

 

[digitS']

That's what I've done, @thistlebloom , the quart jar with the cheese cloth.

It may be that this is a problem for the mung beans. The narrow "neck" of the things was supposed to be a sign that they didn't grow well. This happened more than once. They certainly were not nice and plump. I'm wondering if they were piled too deep in the jar. I blamed seed quality at the time.

It may be a good idea for me to get a sprouter to see if I can do a better job. I had thought that if they did better I could get more involved with the process.

The alfalfa sprouts did fine and I miss having them.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

A problem I had with a quart jar and wheat sprouts was trying to get them out once they had sprouted. I was probably too generous with the dry seed. They get all jammed together and you have to reach in with a tiny pair of tongs to rip a serving out of there. They're so good just by themselves though. I could just eat them out of hand as is.

 

[curly_kate]

Are mung beans the fat ones? I LOVE those, and Kroger doesn't sell them anymore because apparently there was an ecoli outbreak with them years ago. We have a seed sprouter, so I may need to try that!

I'm going to see if I can keep some spinach going on the windowsill this winter. We'll see how that goes.

 

[digitS']

Mung beans are supposed to be the fat ones, Kate.

Yes, there was another "contaminated sprouts" story around here, lately. Maybe it is a good reason to grow our own.

Ya know, that contaminated spinach story out of California a few years ago. Feral hogs got some of the blame for that ... shoot ...

@Nyboy had that recent thread on what we'd do if it came down to production or starving. We decided that having food production handled by professionals and in distant states was a good thing ... well yeah! Compared to starving .

Steve