Sprouting for kids

In our large family, we all have jobs to do. On bedroom cleaning day for example, Blair strips the beds, washes the sheets and remakes all the beds in the house. John vacuums all the bedrooms, and Kate dusts. Christy organizes the closets and bookshelves and Rose takes charge of straightening drawers and under the beds. Everyone does their own picking up and putting away all the stuff that accumulates on shelves and floors. Of course, we have to communicate with each other and work together because some jobs can’t get done until others are done first. As the kids grow, they get new jobs that reflect their increasing skills. Sometimes additional jobs will be taken on for pay, like cleaning carpets, or for creative expression, like making a new dried floral arrangement for the dresser.

Working in the kitchen is a great place to learn age and capability-appropriate tasks. You might have more of a mess cleaning up after, but imagine the pride on your four-year-old’s face when he tells Grandma that he made the cornbread. Sure, he only poured in your pre-measured ingredients and helped stir, but it was “his” cornbread. You’d better believe he’ll eat it, too!

Making sprouts is something we have done for years, and it’s one of the kids’ favorite first jobs. Here’s a photo essay featuring Rose. She can do this job all on her own now. I just say, “Rose, would you please start a cup of wheat (or red beans, or whatever) sprouting?” and she’s off! (We use this same process for sprouting beans, but use gallon jars instead of quart-sized.)

First, she assembles the ingredients she will need: grain or beans to sprout, a scoop to get them into the jar, a mason jar, a square of cheesecloth large enough to fit over the jar’s mouth, and water. Today’s starts are wheat berries.

Needed supplies

She pours the wheat into the jar,

Wheat berries into jar

puts on the cheesecloth

Cheesecloth on

and the lid,

Screw on that lid

fills the jar with water, and puts away all her tools.

We only use "good" water for the initial soak.

The next morning, she pours off the soaking water (if we have houseplants, I use the soaking water to water them because the water is full of nutrients)

Pour off the water

and rinses the sprouts in lukewarm water. The idea is to simulate a warm, spring rain. This water gets poured off as well.

Rinse the sprouts

Then she sets the jar on its side and covers it with a towel, simulating the dark of being “planted” for the seeds.

"Planting" the sprouts

She will do this every morning and evening until the sprouts are as long as the seed or bean that is being sprouted. Once the sprouts reach this point, we decide what to do with them. We can steam them lightly and add to soups or salads. Part of this batch will be put in a bowl on top of we paper towels in the sun to turn green. Wheatgrass is a nutritious juice and is enjoyed whole by cats, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Sprouts before, and after 3 days in the sun

The rest of our batch this time will be dried in the oven and ground for flour. Rose covers a cookie sheet with unbleached parchment paper,

pulls the sprouts out of the jar,

Out, darned sprouts!

and spreads them evenly.

They will sit in a warm oven (150° or less, to preserve enzyme content) for about 12 hours before I put them through my mill.

That’s all there is to it!

This post is part of Prevention Not Prescriptions and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.