Growing sprouts on a small budget

With just a few pennies and a few minutes a day you can have a very healthy serving of very yummy vegetables every day.  You don't really need to buy those kits with special jars and special lids with the "right" size holes in them for sprouting. 

I live in Ohio so the gardening season doesn't last as long as I would like.  Because there are more than 6 months without ready-to-pick fresh produce growing in the garden, I like to use sprouts in the winter.  I can't afford to buy sprouts in the store so I grow my own.  Even with the cost of buying the seeds, there is significant savings involved in growing your own sprouts.   $30 worth of seeds bought online, this includes shipping, will last more than a single winter for me.  I buy them separately and mix them in a pint jar.  They are kept in the freezer.  So for pennies a day you can have a daily serving of the freshest veggies possible.

Since I have canning jars available these days, that is what I use for growing my sprouts.  I simply cut the end out of knee high nylon stockings to put over the jar, then screw the ring on over the stocking.  If you only have the small mouth jars that is ok, the only difference between them and large mouth jars is that you have to pull the finished sprouts out, but it is an easy thing to do.

This is a small mouth quart jar with a square cut from a nylon stocking held on with a canning ring.  I stretch the nylon as tight as I can.

Alternatively, if you don't have canning jars, you could use jars that have been emptied of other stuff like peanut butter, mayonnaise, pickles, salsa, etc.  Only use the ones with plastic lids unless you have proper cutters to cut a metal lid.  I wouldn't want to use a metal lid anyhow, it could cause a cut on your fingers or hand.  Use a good sturdy knife to cut around the edge of the lid, cutting the top off and leaving the ring to hold the stocking on tightly.  I have used one of my ginsu knives on plastic lids.

Also, instead of a ring or other type of lid, you could use a strong rubber band to hold the stocking in place on the jar.

To begin, measure out your seeds and place into the jar, put in water to more than cover the seeds, cover the jar, and give it a shake.  I use a little less than 1 tablespoon of seeds in a quart jar.  Leave the jar sitting upright for about 24 hours, then rinse several times and set it upside down to drain.

Most directions I have read say to rinse your sprouts three times a day.  As far as I am concerned, that is the minimum requirement.  I keep my sprouts upside down on a saucer on the kitchen counter or in the dish drainer, I do dishes by hand so the drainer is usually on the counter top anyhow.  Every time I go to the kitchen, no matter what else I need to do there, I give each jar a rinse.  My sprouts grow in around 5 days.  I use a blend of red clover, alfalfa, broccoli, radish, and fenugreek.  You should find a good source for your sprout seeds and choose your own custom blend.  I buy mine from mountain rose herbs.  They are organic and kosher certified.

 

A jar in the dish drainer.  There is a north facing window here so there is no problem with direct sunlight from that one.  There is also an east facing window so I cover the jars at night with a dish towel before I go to bed so they won't get direct sunlight in the morning and become overheated in the jars.

Some directions say to keep the jars in the dark away from sunlight.  This is fine for the bigger bean and pea seeds that you want blanched white for those special recipes.   For the smaller seeded varieties, you should keep them on the counter where they are exposed to light but not direct sun.  This will cause the little plants on the outside to have green leaves, at this point they are loaded with nutrients including chlorophyll.  

This jar is about a day away from readiness :)

As you pour the water from the jars, the water might stop flowing, this is because of the nylon stocking.  It is holding back the water, just lightly slap the stocking with your fingers to release the surface tension and the water will flow again.  It works best when you hold the jar at an angle instead of completely upside down.

To have sprouts every day I keep two jars going at the same time, one is a few days behind the other.  Sometimes it happens that they are both being "harvested" on the same day but that is ok, the sprouts will last for a week or more if properly stored.

To store your sprouts, first you must rinse out the seeds.  I simply put the sprouts into a big mixing bowl, cover them with water, swish them around and pull them apart to loosen them up.  Then I hold onto the sprouts and pour the water with the seeds into a wire strainer.  Swish and drain several times until there are no more seeds left behind.  The seeds in the strainer go into the compost heap.  You want to get all the seeds out because they will start to spoil before the sprouts will and cause the sprouts to start spoiling.  Besides, I don't like running into a seed when I am eating my sprouts.

After a good rinsing, let your sprouts drain very well before storing them in a lidded bowl or a zip lock bag.  Excess moisture is an enemy to stored sprouts.  Sprouts will mold if there is too much moisture on them when they are stored.

I use my sprouts every day on sandwiches, or as a salad with a little vinaigrette on them.

Each variety of seed you use in your mix will give you some very healthful nutrients in your diet.  Many of them fight free radicals as well as having specific health benefits due to their vitamin content. 

New toy

I bought myself a Christmas present for the garden.  It is an Earthwise TC70001 11-Inch 8-1/2 Amp Electric Tiller/Cultivator.  I tried it out today, Dec. 3rd.  It is over 55 degrees and earlier it was not rainy but now it is.  

This tiller worked great, I am most happy with my purchase.  It was on sale on Amazon.  

Here is a little patch that it tilled up in just a few minutes.  I could have kept going but the garden needs to be cleared of the piles of dead plant material first.  The tiller can't be used on long vines or branches because they will wind around the axle.  I will save the tilling for spring.  At least I know it works like a charm.  I love it.

My plan for early spring is to till the entire area then cover some parts of it with the old hay I have waiting.  This will keep the weeds from growing, then I will remove it to the compost heap, or to mulch tomatoes or other plants, when I want to plant.  The areas that will have wide spaces between rows like the corn and pole beans will be left uncovered.  These will be regularly tilled throughout the summer to help keep weeds down, along with a little hoeing.  

The garden will be expanded next summer to 50' X 25'.  This should be enough to supply one person with vegetables for a year, and then some, weather and pests permitting. 

 

Growing sweet potato slips for next year's crop

Since sweet potato vines are pretty, in my opinion, I am going to grow them in a pot this winter.  My indoor greenhouse is still set up so they will get enough light in there.  I will plant them outside in the spring when the time is right.  But first I will have to grow the vines so that there will be a lot of leaves.

Wherever a leaf joins the stem, there is a place where the vine will send out roots if it is in moist soil or even if it is just placed in water.  It only takes a week to grow roots long enough to support the little plant.

Sweet potatoes will produce several crops of slips.  Here is the beginning of the first set of slips.  I got three from this batch.

Here they are after sticking them in water and growing the roots.   I picked off the leaves that would be under the soil when they are planted, leaving the ones that would remain above the soil even though where they join the stem will be under the soil.  Where the leaf joins the stem is where the roots grow.  

This is the same sweet potato with new sprouts on it, there are 6 this time.  Note the line marked on the side of the jar.  This allows me to keep the water line consistent.  The water gets changed daily.  

Here is the pot with 3 plants in it.  I think only two more will go in here.  Then I will have to start a new pot for the rest of the sprouts.

As the vines grow, naturally there will be more leaves.  In the spring, when it is about a week before planting time, I will cut the vines from the pot and lay them in a shallow pan of water to sprout.  There will be roots at every joint of leaf and stem.  Each leaf will make a new plant.  When I am ready to plant them out, I will simply cut the vine between the leaves to get the individual plants.  I will either sell or give away the extra ones. Or maybe I will just re-pot them and keep the vines going.

Planting garlic and growing sweet potato vine

A couple of weeks ago I ordered some bulbs of a thin neck garlic variety for my garden.  They sent 4 nice big bulbs.  I just finished planting half of them.  That made a 10 foot row with approximately 24 possible plants for next summer.  If this variety grows like the one plant I had this year that means I will have somewhere between 48 and 72 bulbs of garlic next summer.  And that is if I don't get the other two bulbs planted.  Vampires beware LOL  I can't wait until I can make a garlic braid out of it to hang in my kitchen.

About a week ago I took one of my cured sweet potatoes and put it in a jar of water, suspended with 3 toothpicks.  There are a few little sprouts on it now and some roots as well.  I will use this to get plants for next year's garden if I can keep it alive.  It is in my eastern kitchen window.

Update:

After three weeks of growth that sweet potato has some new healthy roots and 3 healthy shoots.  When the shoots reach 5-8 inches, depending on how many leaves there are on the vine, I will detach them from the potato and root them, then plant them in a pot to grow over the winter.

I was reading a very informative site about sweet potato growing.  It said to place a vine with several leaves in shallow water so that where every leaf joins the vine it is in the water.  Keep the water level constant and in a week there will be little roots at every leaf joint.  When the roots are long enough you then cut the vine between each leaf and you have your new sweet potato plants, or slips as they are called.  These can be planted directly in your garden.  It doesn't save time to transplant them to a pot then to the garden because they will have to go through transplant shock twice.  This will cause a set back in their growth.

I am Blessed by bounty

The beans and tomatoes have been keeping me busy these past few weeks.  To add to that, I went and bought a bushel of sweet corn and just finished canning it.  I got 20 pints, yippee!  :)

I now have equal to 9 quarts of canned tomatoes, approximately 30 dried and powdered tomatoes, 26 quarts of canned green beans and 20 pints of canned corn.

I have been looking through the ball canning book at the recipes.  This has made me want to make some of the yummy recipes I see in there so this winter I will be using the recipes that I pick out as a guideline for what I plant next year.

Yes I will plant corn.  Buying corn is the costly way to do it even though they only charge $3 per dozen or $17 per bushel and give you extra in case some are not good.  A 10X 10 plot will give me more than I bought this year so I might plant a 10 x 20 plot of corn next year.  That will give me some to eat fresh, give away and still be able to can more than there was this year.  It will definitely be an open pollinated variety, probably my old favorite, golden bantam, not to be confused with golden cross bantam which is a hybrid.  No hybrids in my garden if I can find an OP alternative.  I was planting golden bantam back in the 70's and 80's.

I am in the process of expanding the garden now by putting down cardboard and mulching it with grass clippings, mowed leaves, and old hay.  This makes the ground super fertile for next year as well as nicely killing the grass and weeds that are growing there.  I need to go to the dollar store and get some more of their boxes.  They break them down flat before they dispose of them anyhow so that is a great convenience for me.  All I have to do is be there on a day when they are stocking from boxes and have a lot of empty ones already on the cart.  They let me sort through them and take what I want.  I choose the ones that have only black lettering on them so there won't be any bad poisonous ink going on my garden.

That's all for today, there are more beans to break and can.  :)

Sweet potatoes

Today I dug under two plants and this is what I found by just digging with my hands, wearing gloves of course.  They weighed 4.8625 pounds.  The little one I found a couple of weeks ago would probably have tipped the scale to 5 pounds but I ate it last night.  It was soooo yummy :)  by far the best sweet potato I have ever eaten.

Using 8 foot long X 1" bamboo poles for trellises

I am very happy with the bamboo poles, they are strong and resilient.  At first I was skeptical when the slightest breeze knocked over my bamboo teepees.  But it turns out that after there is some weight pulling downward on them, they will not go anywhere.  We have had a few good windy storms since the trellises have been covered by beans and peas.  Every one of them were still standing after the storms.

Two of the trellises I built have a large load on them and they are still standing same as when I put them up.  They are the Italian beans/peas.  They look kind of wild, like pictures I have seen of kudzu in the south that has covered old buildings, automobiles, trees, etc.   These two rows were planted 3 feet apart and there is barely enough room between them to get in there and pick peas.  There is a canopy over the top between the two rows, made by tendrils from the two rows meeting and grabbing onto each other. 

Update:  First, I may have already added some of this information.  Forgive me if some of this is a repeat.  I have compared pictures of pea and bean varieties and have discovered that these are probably a variety of cow pea.  They look the same as pictures of cow peas I found on google images.

I wasn't going to plant these next year but I have changed my mind.  I picked all of them after they dried, then shelled them and they gave me about 4 pounds of shelled peas. An easy thing to do while watching TV.  And they are delicious.  

With the minimal amount of work involved in planting, harvesting and shelling these peas, I would say they are worth it in addition to all of the produce I gathered from my garden.  These are great for the occasional small pot of bean soup in the winter months.  With them in my diet, it is less boring.  What a treat they are.

Here are my Italian Fagolina cow peas in a gallon freezer bag.  As you can see, comparing them to the dime, they are very small.