Sure you can make bars without a dehydrator! Even with just a food processor it's possible. The base is just dates and/or other dried fruit (you can use gogi, just process it in the vita mix or food processor or spice mill first) and nuts/seeds. Just like making pie crust, you don't need to dehydrate that either. Add in whatever else you want, green powders, bee pollen (if you use it), powdered mushrooms, herbs etc. A food processor is pretty good for this because it will mix everything way easier than you trying to do it with a wooden spoon (it gets very thick and sticky!). A few things you can add to get it to firm up more as you go along are ground flax or chia or liquid coconut oil (if you are going to store in the fridge, keeping in a pocket or other warm spot will soften up and get mushy).

You can add less finely ground nuts, seeds and dried fruit at the end for more texture as well. If you want to try spreading the date/nut/floax or chia mixture out on a baking sheet on top of parchment paper, add some of the other stuff you want in it and press it in, score with a wet knife, chill, cut, wrap, voila!

Nice one coco, my food processor i have just now is crap it wouldnt even blend the dates. Im hoping the vita mix i have coming can take care of that. I have some wicked recipes in mind so hoping i can get it to work.

Cheers for the info.

I have a cheap processor (maybe cost $30) that worked great for pie crust. Not sure how easy it will be to scrape that stuff out of the vita mix...

I just happen to have a sprout bag full of lentils ready to be eaten! There's quinoa in the fridge too, think I might sprout a round of that. Thanks!

Some rice protein powders are made from sprouted rice. I'd say that makes all the difference for those concerned about acid & alkaline. Sprouting alkalinizes seeds & beans & grains, as far as what I have heard, anyway. Maybe it's not a whole food and not totally natural, but sprouted brown rice protein powder is rather nice for a lift once in a while.

Coco - re whole hemp seed. You can't get this anywhere legally. The whole seeds are always roasted & salted first. And boy are they crunchy.

Maybe you meant hemp hearts, which are raw? Anything more than 3 T. per day and it sure is a laxative...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2011 06:08AM by Horsea.

I can easily get whole hemp seeds here in Canada, they sprout. They are supposed to be steamed or whatever but somehow someone is finding a way around it. Surprised me too but there you go. If you look at some bird seed mixes they contain hemp too and bird seed has to be raw or it's very bad for the birds. Try to sprout a few hemp from a bird seed mix some time, bet they grow. We should all be sprinkling sprouted hemp seeds by the handful everywhere we go, it's a weed so it would surely take. Guerrilla gardening at it's finest!

I did mean the whole hulled seed in this case though, yes. That's what we're talking about by default when whole hemp seeds are discussed since that's all that is supposed to be available commercially .

Aren't most hemp seed powders just the ground seeds, hull and all, after they have been pressed for oil? That's not a high quality product IMO. I'm not sure about sprouted brown rice powder, I have never had any success sprouting rice. It just goes funky. Maybe these companies have access to different rice. Though now that adding human DNA to rice has been made legal I'm going to avoid all rice forever.

Most of them are coco although some do a hemp protein isolate powder.

coco Wrote: "I can easily get whole hemp seeds here in Canada,
they sprout."

I've never seen whole hemp seeds that would sprout, only the roasted & salted version. Could you tell me where the sproutable hempseed can be bought? Thanks!

What I am told is that sproutable hemp is illegal to sell because the cops don't want you growing hemp plants and then hiding true marijuana plants inbetween. Heh, heh, heh...If you want to be a legitimate commercial hemp grower you have to jump thru a bunch of hoops first.

The hemp protein powder is crushed whole hemp seed with most of the oil removed. It is a ghastly "food". I have bought it & consumed it in the past, but don't know why I did. I think that this gross substance passing as food is purchased because of heavy marketing. Tell us hard enough and long enough that something is good for us, and we'll eventually consume it. Like vaccinations for one other example.

I like your suggestions of guerilla gardening with hemp seed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2011 06:37PM by Horsea.

It was in BC that I could openly buy sproutable hemp seeds, I haven't seen them here in Ontario but then I also haven't gone looking as they are insanely, unpleasantly crunchy. But look for a bird seed mix that has hemp seeds in it and try sprouting them. I would be VERY surprised if they didn't sprout.

I'm pretty sure I remember a restaurant in town in Nelson BC sprinkling them on their salads etc. Too crunchy but now I wish I'd paid more attention.

I just did a little search for a thread on this on rawfoodtalk, here it is
[rawfoodtalk.com]

Well, I went to rawfoodtalk.com as per your recommendation and my conclusion is that hemp is definitely sproutable at home if you can find raw, untreated seed. I had heard that they don't irradiate them here, only steam them.

I see that you, coco, have revived the topic over there on rawfoodtalk.

But if the sprouts get uneatably bitter when they're at the point of the inedible, too-hard husk coming off, it seems like a no-win situation. I was hoping that commercial food companies would find a way to sprout them, denature the bitterness out, and make a hemp protein powder instead of the way they do now. What do you think.

They are such a tiny seed and with the hull removed they are very easily digestable, not to mention the high quality omega fatty acids. I think they are just wonderful as they are, totally natural, well except for having had their hulls removed that is. Since sprouts are at their highest nutritional value when the sprout is no longer than the seed it certainly would be possible to sprout them very briefly then add then to foods processed in a high end blender to break down the hull to a not so unpleasant level. As for the commercial viability, I think this would make for an expensive product and might not be worth the effort all told. I tend to think that isolates take out parts of the plant that are integral to it's digestion, we don't know enough to second guess nature like that, you know? Best to eat the whole seed. Less the hull .