Hey guys,

I am thinking of buying the Easy Green Automatic Sprouter and start making my sprouts. Has anyone used it?

Also, I read somewhere (quite sometime back) that sprouts are toxic because the sprouts are helpless young plants and they have toxins so that animals do not eat them when they are so young. They lose their toxicity as they start becoming bigger. Is this true? This has been one of the reasons why I have not eaten sprouts since I read this.

Thanks guys and please do let me know if the above sprouter is a good buy or if better alternatives exist.

Certain sprouts are DEFINITELY toxic, like soy and kidney beans (ALWAYS check to make sure the type of beans you have are safe).

I got some of the smallest sprouters from Sproutpeople when I started, and a whole variety of sprouts--lentils, grains, grassy ones, micro greens, seeds. The longer the sprout is, the more the nutritional profile changes from "seed" to "plant." In the case of seeds, after they are soaked/start germinating, they are actually easier for the body to digest. All sprouts are a high-density source of nutrition.

When and how to eat them depends entirely on the type of sprout--some are best shorter, some need to grow really long--it's very easy, you'll learn as you go. Sproutpeople.com is a very useful site to help you get started!

I have and like the EasyGreen Sprouter. I made some comments about it on this thread : [www.rawfoodsupport.com]

I also like SproutPeople.com, and definitely recommend their less expensive sprouters for beginners and those who aren't sure they'll want to produce a lot of sprouts in the long term. They're also a great learning resource as they have a lot of advice for sprouting different types of sprouts and different sprouting methods.

Thanks Frances. I like the idea of EasyGreen as they seem to have 5 "slots" I can keep adding to as I keep using one slot each day. So in effect I would always be sprouting five different things at the same time, with each slot ready for the day I want to eat. Is that correct? Does any other sprouter have the same concept and maybe less expensive .

I did see the sproutpeople website, but a lot of information for me to process and then figure the sprouter I want. I thought I would take the easy way out and post here .

Yes. That's right. The EasyGreen comes with five long, narrow trays which can fit side by side in the device, though there are no actual slots for them inside - just a large growing bay. Personally, I like to allow most sprout varieties to grow at least seven days, so I do not get a crop every day. Mine also came with one large full-sized tray designed for making large batches, but I've never used it. They also sell half-length trays of such a size that you can fit ten small batches in the device at once, but I've never felt inclined to try them either.

I have found that some mucilaginous seeds grow extremely well in the EasyGreen, (I've grown arugula and mustard,) despite the conventional wisdom that these seeds require a growing medium like soil, vermiculite or "Baby Blanket".

I do not recommend growing wheatgrass in the EasyGreen, or any other sprouts that need to grow similarly tall (e.g. buckwheat, sunflower or pea greens). Also, the wheatgrass roots tend to block the drain holes in the trays which ends up submerging the roots.

Frances, currently my plans are to sprout nuts, legumes and possibly broccoli. Will the easygreen work for me?

I've always had great luck with simple quart mason jars and some mosquito netting... even with the more mucilaginous seeds like basil. It just requires a few rinses a day and then left to drain at an angle in the sink. Easy, cheap, low-tech!

Aloha Nui Loa,

Greg

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. - William James

There is no pill that can be swallowed,
There is no guru, that can be followed, - Michael Franti (Pray For Grace)

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. - Albert Camus

dinesh75, I sprout nuts (for a couple of days), legumes (for a couple of days) and broccoli (for about a week) in the EasyGreen without any trouble. If your emphasis is on short-term sprouting nuts and legumes, though, you might want to consider a low-tech solution in the beginning.

My reasoning is that while these sprouts do still require consistent rinsing, your commitment to them is short term and therefore not as difficult to work around your other plans and responsibilities. If you sprout nuts and legumes exclusively in the EasyGreen you would have no difficulty producing ten or fifteen trays a week (only six or eight if you devote a couple slots to broccoli). If you don't need this quantity you may find your EasyGreen is not being used to capacity. You may want to get a very inexpensive sprouting solution (a mesh lid for a canning jar should cost under $2) and begin to get a sense of how many sprouts you would like to consume and how consistent you are able to be in tending them before settling on a more expensive solution. For manual sprouting, I'm still a big fan of the SproutMaster sprouter.

MauiGreg, I'm all for low-tech sprouting. When I did it that way I felt a greater connection to the process. In the other thread ([www.rawfoodsupport.com]) I outlined my reasons for going with the expensive and high tech tools, but it was essentially the ability to allow my sprouts to grow an entire weekend without supervision which did it for me. It's wonderful if you are able to rinse your sprouts consistently three times a day! I could manage twice a day and frequently found my growing patterns badly interrupted by my other plans.

i use a mason jar and a piece of nylon window screen that fits nicely under the jar's sealer ring. i only rinse twice daily, three times is too much i find. this works great for nuts, seeds, legumes and small greens like alfalfa. not so much cress though, i can't get the liquid to drain at all. i'm looking for a chia pet to grow cress and flax on

coco Wrote:
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> i'm looking for a chia pet to grow cress and flax on

i love that idea!

just be careful about disposal: [www.getodd.com]

bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha! hoo! that's fun stuff. i'll be sure to porperly dispose of my pet ;D

I tried growing chia on a chia pet, but it didn't really work for me. The pet needed to be soaked for several hours, and the seeds for a shorter time. It took a lot of fussing to get the soaked chia to stick to the pet, and then the plants grew too leggy (long) from lack of sunlight. I couldn't turn all sides of the pet toward the window at once. (A bigger window would have worked better, but the light is sufficient for more level growing arrangements.) After my first crop was finished I found it was a lot of fuss to clean the inside of the clay. Then the pet needed to be allowed to dry very thoroughly before soaking it for several hours again in preparation for another round.

No great loss, though. I gave away the chia pet to someone on Freecycle who claimed she had wanted one for a long time. More power to her!

Ugh now I am confused. I am a lazy guy and would want to do the minimum work. But then this would be my first time sprouting. So not sure I should go directly high tech.

I don't know what to do now! *sigh*

I can't imagine less work for more return than rinsing a mason jar full of seeds 2x/day and placing it upside down in a dish rack in the sink until you have a jar of sprouts. I would be surprised if I spend more than 10 minutes total for each quart of sprouts, from first soak to salad.

Aloha Nui Loa,

Greg

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. - William James

There is no pill that can be swallowed,
There is no guru, that can be followed, - Michael Franti (Pray For Grace)

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. - Albert Camus

dinesh75 Wrote:
> I don't know what to do now! *sigh*

well, the mason jar experiment would cost you about $5. and you might save yourself quite a bit of money if you decide that its workable for you. what have you got to lose?

i was afraid to sprout too. then MauiGreg gave me my first mason jar with some seeds and a 20 second tutorial, and now i am sprouting up a storm! its so satisfying and fun. i am a SUPER-busy working single mom, and i've got 4 sprouting projects going on at a time, and i don't find it onerous. but then i virtually never spend a night away from my house. so it will probably depend on your lifestyle!

All right. Let me do the mason jar thingie. Now you maui people, can you be more specific what I should buy, where I should buy etc?

Let me jump start my sprouting career! aloha to you too .

Aloha dinesh,

Most hardware (or walmart) stores will have mason jars. You want to make sure to get the kind with the two part lids. One part is the ring or band this is the threaded part that screws on to the jar. The other part is the cap or dome and it's just a small flat circle that seals the jar...you won't need this part, but save it anyway because the jars are great for storing your dry seeds too. You will also want to get some sort of mesh or screen. Some people use cheese cloth, but I find that it gets pretty funky after a while. Coco uses pieces of nylon window screen and I use pieces of nylon mosquito netting. Just cut a piece that will lay over the edges of the jar...you might have to double or triple the layer depending on how small your seeds are. For most sprouts you will want to rinse and then soak the seeds for 8-12 hours, then drain and rinse and drain again. each time you drain the sprouts you should leave the jar upside down, but at an angle. this is to allow excess water to drain, but also to allow some air flow. I just use a dish rack in my sink. Your seeds should start to sprout during the first day. You can taste them at each stage to see if you like them. Just be sure to rinse and drain twice a day and don't let them dry out. The sproutpeople website has so much information on specific sprout times etc. Everything I learned, I learned from that site.

Have fun!

Aloha Nui Loa,

Greg

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. - William James

There is no pill that can be swallowed,
There is no guru, that can be followed, - Michael Franti (Pray For Grace)

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. - Albert Camus

the www.sproutpeople.com website is information packed, but it always helps to have a visual. here are some good videos:

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

Ooh, moving pictures! Helpful! I haven't gotten into sprouting yet, but I intend to.

As for YouTube, I never visited that site until mid-January of this year. I thought it was full of porn and raunchy, horrible things. I got that idea because anytime someone mentioned YouTube it was always about something I found horrific.

It was a link to a YouTube video about Matt Monarch that turned me onto raw foods though. Since then, I'm embarrassed to say I've become a bit of a YouTube junkie. IT. MUST. STOP. (After the sprouting videos, of course!)

the thrift store always, always has a thousand mason jars, check there first i say! and you can use a piece of old nylon stocking too, just wash them without heavy detergent first.

lentil sprouts are so good tossed into salad. fenugreek are a fave of mine too but be prepared for the bitter taste, they are terrific sprinkled sparingly in a green salad as well. AND they make your armpits smell terrific
did you know that fenugreek is the flavouring in fake maple syrup? it's true. cool eh?