Germinations

Living in the city, my idea of eating local was to shop at the local butcher's, baker's, neighborhood fruit and vegetable store or the Korean grocer rather than the large supermarket. I firmly believed - and still do - in supporting small businesses in my community. Our apartment was situated in the junction between Little Italy and Korea Town and we were in walking distance of Kensington Market, so we had plenty of small shops to chose from. The fruit & veggie store on the corner of Bloor and Manning was just awesome - it carried ultra cheap berries year-round (you could get two cases of strawberries for $4 in the middle of winter!) and seasonal eating never even occurred to me then as everything was always available. I very rarely was concerned about how far these foods had traveled before being offered to me for sale in Toronto.

With my new-found consciousness of food production and recent attempts at eating locally grown, seasonal foods, fresh local produce is virtually non-existent at this time in our rural area. This is why I decided to grow sprouts.

 

Growing sprouts is super easy! You can purchase sprouting seeds at the Bulk Barn, or order them online from Mumm's or Sprout Master. All you need is seeds, glass jars, screen material and elastic bands. (All these items can be recycled: re-use your tomato sauce jars, the elastic bands that come with your veggies, and pantyhose or garlic sleeve for screening.)

First, soak the seeds overnight:

After that, all you need to do is rinse and drain your sprouts twice a day and within 3 to 6 days, you've got fresh sprouts to eat!

I've grown (clockwork) hot mustard sprouts (great in sandwiches!), red daikon radish sprouts, crunchy pea and lentil sprouts and alfalfa sprouts.

Sprouts can be used in sandwiches, salads, stir-fries and many other recipes and they are highly nutritious, abounding in vitamins and proteins. Not to mention how delicious they taste. And you can't get more local than when the food was grown in your own kitchen!