A while back Food Bloggers of Canada put a call out for bloggers interested in doing a ten day sprouting challenge with A Vogel Canada. I figured, why not? So I threw my name into the mix and was pretty excited when I got the email telling me I was in.
Why so excited about growing sprouts? Well, mainly because of The Kid. You know, my kid that won't try anything new unless its wrapped in bacon or coated in sugar? Or even better bacon wrapped AND sugar coated? My theory is if she watches it grow she will be more likely to eat it. Don't get me wrong, we plant lots of things in the garden and have a pretty good yield every year, but the issue with that is it takes - so - long - to - grow.
The kid eats chives out of the garden as soon as the snow melts away and the tiny green shoots pop up, so I'm betting on sprouts as a good way to get some extra green in to all of our diets, and since we have such a short growing season and long winter out here in the Edmonton area, how great would it be to grow a little greenery over the winter on my counter top?
First thing in the morning - day one. We unpacked the sprouter, picked which seeds to sprout (we were sent four packets of seeds to choose from and the sprouter has three levels). The Kid chose: radish, alfalfa, and a mix called Fitness Mix (it looks to be a mix of mung beans, radish, and alfalfa).
I wasn't sure if we were supposed to soak the seeds or not, so we didn't. Worse case scenario we start again in a few days.
DAY ONE
Who loves gravity? Watching the water move from tier to tier.
Seriously, this thing is pretty cool! I'm already thinking about how I can use this with my Girl Guides this fall, seems like an excellent STEM activity (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
DAY TWO
Not soaking the sprouts has not caused any trouble and they are growing just fine
DAY THEE
Still sprouting nicely! I think in about two more days we should be able to harvest and see if the Kid will eat them.
We did have a small hiccup with the sprouter one morning, the first layer didn't want to drain the full way (which means the next two layers weren't getting their daily watering). I tilted the sprouter to help get the water through, I'm wondering if the smalled radish seeds were blocking the red draining gadget and just needed some help moving out of the way.
Stay tuned for more Sprouting news over the next week!
Love it! This is so neat. I need to get myself one of these, it looks like such an easy way to sprout.
Posted by: Profoundraincloud.wordpress.com | 06/22/2013 at 05:17 PM
It is really cool! Can't wait to actually use the sprouts in a day or two!
Check out Valerie's blog (from cheeseaplooza) she's giving a mini sprouter away
http://www.acanadianfoodie.com/2013/06/20/the-biosnacky-sprouter-challenge-june-20th-to-july-30th-2013/
There are 10 bloggers giving the mini ones away, she's the only one I know of so far, but you might be able to find the others by looking through #bioSnackySprouts on twitter.
Posted by: Shift Mama | 06/22/2013 at 05:50 PM