Live Foods Are Most Important

Sprouted seeds and grains are inexpensive and easy to grow and afford one of the most concentrated but truly natural sources of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids (protein) known. They are also biogenic…alive…and capable of transferring their life energy to your body. (Biogenic foods provide the body with a form of living energy.)

A diet of predominately cooked food destroys most of the valuable live enzymes, vitamins and usable protein. As much as 85% of the original nutrients may be lost in the cooking process. When we consider the problems of over-population, starvation and the wasteful use of water needed to produce meat, it becomes obvious that cooked foods, especially meats, are a wasteful and inefficient use of valuable resources. Changing to a predominately raw-food, plant-based diet would significantly reduce much of the suffering of humanity and the destruction of our magnificent planet.

The older we get, the more severe is our craving for cooked food. A diet of primarily cooked, dead food reduces the bodys’e nzyme supply by 30-50%. Even though our diet may be considered nutritious, it will not be digested properly without a sufficient concentration of enzymes in the body. Eating sprouted grains, grasses and seeds are important in our modern, toxic world and will significantly rebuild the enzyme level in our cells.

We should begin a gradual transition from biocidic foods such as meat, processed foods, sugar, white flour, pasteurized dairy products, carbonated drinks, inorganic salt, snack foods, canned and processed foods, strong condiments, coffee, ice cream, alcohol and cigarettes, to a live food diet (biogenic and bioactive) of raw vegetables, tree ripened fresh fruit and nuts, sprouted grains, grasses and seeds, fermented milks, raw cheeses, home made live sauerkraut’s, with occasional simple cooked, biostatic foods, such as brown rice, lightly steamed vegetables, baked potato, sprouted or naturally fermented breads, etc.

Begin by reducing the size of meals. Eliminate, or reduce meat consumption to fewer days a week and replace it with sprouts, cooked oats or millet, whole grains and more vegetables. Move toward regular fasting by skipping breakfast maybe 1-2 times a week. After a few weeks of improved diet you can fast for 24 hours once or twice a month. Fast on lemon water or fruit. The more you eliminate the bad foods and increase the live foods, the easier it will be to develop the habit of natural, biogenic nutrition.

Indoor Gardening Instructions

Growing Wheat Grass,
Sunflower and Buckwheat greens:

Fill a small nursery tray with damp, organic soil.
Soak the wheat berries, sunflower seed or buckwheat seed overnight. ( use 3 Tbsp)
Drain and sprout for one day
The next morning, spread the soaked seeds over the soil. Each seed may be touching on all sides, but they should form a single flat layer of seeds. All the seeds should have access to the soil, but do not need to be covered with soil.
Using a spray bottle, immediately begin to spray the seeds lightly with water, once in the morning and once in the evening. Cover this layer of seed loosely with a piece of plastic. Allow plastic edges to drape over the pot, do not tuck underneath, as the seeds need air to grow.
When the tiny shoots begin to appear, remove the covering and continue to spray the seeds lightly, twice daily.
Place the pots in indirect sunlight, either inside on a windowsill or outside in a shady spot. On about the seventh day, the greens will be at their peak. The buckwheat and sunflower greens will be from 5-7 inches tall, the wheatgrass, about 7 or 8 inches tall.
Cut all greens as close to the base as possible. This is where the majority of vitamins are stored.
If possible, you may compost and recycle the used soil.

Growing Garlic
or Onion Greens:

Fill any 8” diameter size bucket (or larger) with damp, organic soil.
Separate garlic bulbs into cloves and press them (pointed end up) into soil not more than 1” apart. Leave the tips exposed about ¼”.
Plant shallot bulbs the same way.
Spray the cloves or bulbs lightly once in the morning and once in the evening.
Place the pots in indirect sunlight, either inside on a windowsill or outside in a shady spot.
Garlic and onions can supply us with continuously growing greens which we can harvest daily by cutting the largest leaves. It is a good idea to plant two buckets of garlic and onion greens once a month. The green shoots will continue to grow and may be snipped off several times before the plant finally turns brown.

Why Sprouts?

When a plant’s seeds are dispersed, the plant has made sure to equip them with all the nutrients needed for a new start. As a result, seeds, grains, beans, and nuts are the most concentrated complete storehouse of nutrients of all foods. They are also the only foods which are biogenic, that is, capable of generating and creating new life.

A sprout is a germinating seed. First the root tip breaks through the seed coat, and stem and leaf development follow. As the seed sprouts, the starch is broken down into simple sugars. Other favourable nutritional changes also occur. The levels of Vitamins C, E, and the entire B complex all increase, particularly Vitamin C in greened sprouts. Plant hormones and plant enzymes increase dramatically, and all the magical, life-generating forces contained within the seed double, triple, and quadruple themselves as the sprout-tendrils grow out of the seed. At the end of the fourth day of sprouting, not only is the seed deliciously tender and ready to eat, but it has transformed itself into a new life form: a baby green plant, bursting with vitamins, minerals, plant hormones, plant enzymes, and all the yet-undiscovered unknown components necessary to health.

It is simple and economical to grow sprouted seeds, salad greens and wheatgrass in our homes. The cost of homegrown organic salad greens may be one-tenth of what we pay for commercial salad greens, which have little nutritional value. The growing of indoor greens takes little space and only 15 minutes or so of daily care.

For example, wheat grass can be snipped very fine and sprinkled on salads, sandwiches, soups, or it may be added to cooked foods. Wheat grass is a complete food; it is high in chlorophyll, which is a protective, cleansing food, especially for toxic city living. Studies have shown that chlorophyll in living food can greatly increase the lifespan of people who have been exposed to lethal radiation. (People living in cities are exposed daily to radiation from x-rays, fluorescent lights, iodine B1 and radioactive pollutants.) Chlorophyll has been shown to regenerate the bloodstream and is a powerful blood cleanser. Pots of wheatgrass growing on the windowsills will help to help purify the air in the home.

Buckwheat greens are an excellent, mild-tasting lettuce. They are fresh because they go from the soil right into your plate and are loaded with live enzymes, which are needed by every process in the body. These greens are a rich source of rutin, which is a blood builder and lecithin, which helps eliminate excess cholesterol. Lecithin is also a brain food. Buckwheat greens are an excellent source of vitamins A and C, with good amount of B-vitamins such as riboflavin.

Sunflower greens are vitamin-rich meat substitutes at one-quarter the price of meat and actually supply more protein than the body can use. They can be used in salads, sandwiches, and soups or added to any food. These greens are a good source of vitamin D and B complex, and minerals, especially potassium, calcium and iron, and of course, a rich source of chlorophyll.

information adapted from “The Chemistry of Youth”, by E.B. Szekely

SPROUTING: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

by Thomas E. Billings.

Basics of Sprouting:

Obtain seed for sprouting. Store in bug-proof containers, away from extreme heat/cold. Seed should be viable, and, to extent possible, free of chemicals.
Basic steps in sprouting are:
- measure out appropriate amount of seed, visually inspect and remove stones, sticks, weed seed, broken seeds, etc.
- rinse seed (if seed is small and clean, can usually skip this rinse)
- soak seed in water for appropriate time
- rinse soaked seed, put in sprouting environment for appropriate time
- service seeds (rinse) in sprouting environment as needed
- when ready, rinse seeds. Store in refrigerator, in sprouting environment or in other suitable container until ready to use. If not used within 12 hours, seeds should be serviced (rinsed) every 24 hours in refrigerator. Best to eat as soon as possible, as freshness is what makes sprouts special!

Jars

Use wide-mouth, glass canning jars, available at many hardware stores. You will need screen lids - cut pieces of different (plastic) mesh screens, or buy some of the special plastic screen lids designed for sprouting. Sprouting in jars is quite easy: simply put seed in jar, add soak water, put lid on. When soak is over, invert jar and drain water, then rinse again. Then prop jar up at 45 degree angle for water to drain. Keep out of direct sunlight. Rinse seed in jar 2-3 times per day until ready, always keeping it angled for drainage.

What is the best time/length to eat sprouts?

Ultimately you will answer this question by experimenting - growing sprouts and eating them at different ages/lengths. My preference is to eat sprouts (except almonds, pumpkin seeds) when the growing root is, on average, the length of the soaked seed. Almonds and pumpkin seeds are discussed below.

A note on times: the sprouting times given below are based on cloth and/or jar method, and reflect an average time. The soaking times can be increased or decreased somewhat (except for buckwheat), with little or limited impact on the results. If you are using a different method, especially one of the commercial sprouting units, the times here will not apply and you will have to monitor your sprouts to decide when they are ready.

Grains and Similar Seeds

Amaranth: Soak 2-4 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: cloth. Very tiny seeds, likely to flow through screen in jar method; line strainer with sprouting cloth to retain seeds. Sprout can be very bitter. Might be able to grow as greens, if you can get appropriate variety of amaranth.
Barley: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.25-1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Use only unhulled barley; "whole" hulled barley and pearled barley won't sprout. Chewy, somewhat bland sprout. Hulls are tough; people with stomach or intestinal ulcers might find hulls irritating. Can be used for grass also.
Buckwheat: Soak 15-20 minutes only; sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: cloth. Use hulled, *raw* buckwheat groats. Kasha is usually toasted, won't sprout. Raw buckwheat is white/green to light brown; toasted buckwheat is medium brown. Unhulled buckwheat (black hulls) are for greens, not general sprouting. Don't soak longer than 20 minutes as it spoils readily. Monitor moistness, rinse or change cloths every 12 hours to avoid spoilage. Good sprout, mild flavor. Sprouts much faster in warm/hot weather.
Field corn: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 2.0+ days. Method: jar or cloth.
Popcorn: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.5+ days. Method: jar or cloth. Blue mold can be a problem, esp. with field corn. Sweet corn seeds (if you can find them) will sprout also. Field corn sprouts, if long enough, are tender but bland/starchy tasting. Popcorn sprouts are very sweet, but the hull doesn't soften much in sprouting - very hard to eat. Not worth the trouble; suggest eating raw sweet corn (including raw corn silk, which is delicious) instead.
Millet: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Hulled millet - most seeds will sprout, but some ferment, producing very sharp taste. Unhulled millet best sprouter, but hull is very crunchy and sprout is rather bland. Best used in recipes.
Oats: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.25-1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Must use unhulled oats; so-called "whole oats" or oat groats won't sprout. Good sprout, mild flavor similar to milk. Thick hull makes it difficult to eat; best used in recipes (see sprout milk recipe). Can grow as grass also.
Quinoa: Soak 2-4 hours, sprout 12 hours. Method: cloth or jar. Very fast sprouter. Must rinse seeds multiple times to get off soapy tasting saponin in seed coat. Very fast sprouter; can grow as greens. Strong flavor that many find unpleasant. Small seed, line strainer with cloth. White and black quinoa are available.
Rice: Soak 12-18 hours, sprout 1.0+ days. Method: cloth or jar. Only brown, unprocessed rice will sprout. White rice, wild rice are dead and won't sprout. Standard long grain rice doesn't sprout. Short, medium grain brown rice, also brown basmati (but not Texmati) rice will sprout. Before root appears, rice can be eaten but difficult: bland, chewy, *very* filling. Once root appears, rice sprout is very bitter. The only rice I suggest sprouting is: Lundberg Farms "Wehani" rice, a specialty rice (sprout 1.5 days). It is least bitter - less bitter than fenugreek - of possible use in recipes.
Rye: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Nice sprout - good flavor. Rye harvested immature or handled improperly can have strong, unpleasant flavored. If it molds, discard (ergot mold possible).
Wheat, including Kamut and Spelt: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Hard Winter wheat better than soft Spring wheat. Wheat can get excessively sweet at 2+ days of sprouting. Spelt has nice texture, but spelt and kamut are more expensive than ordinary wheat. Wheat, rye, kamut, spelt, triticale can be used for grass also.

Other Seeds

Almonds: Soak 10-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day. Method: cloth Use only unblanched almonds. Sprout+storage time should not exceed 2 days or sprouts may turn rancid. Best to peel sprouts before eating (peeled have incredible flavor). Peeling is tedious, reduced by blanching in warm water (15-30 seconds in hot water from faucet). One of the very best sprouts!
Cabbage, Kale: Soak 6-14 hours, sprout 1+ days. Method: cloth or jar. Very strong flavor, best used as flavoring in mixtures. Can also be grown into greens. Seeds relatively expensive.
Fenugreek: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hrs or more. Method: cloth or jar. Slightly bitter, best used as flavoring additive in mixtures. Hindi name: methi. According to "The Yoga of Herbs" by Lad/Frawley, fenugreek sprouts are good digestive aid and good for the liver. Hard seeds are common in fenugreek.
Mucilaginous seeds: flax, psyllium, chia These can be sprouted as flavoring additive in mixtures (alfalfa, clover, or mustard); to sprout alone requires special clay saucer
method. Sprouts are not so good tasting, not worth the trouble for most people.
Mustard: Soak 6-14 hours, sprout 1.0+ days. Method: cloth, jar, or tray. Good flavoring additive for other sprouts. Available in 3 forms: black, brown, yellow. Brown seeds are smaller and harder to handle in mixtures; yellow or black recommended for mixtures. Can grow as greens also.
Pumpkin: Soak 8-14 hours; sprout (if you must) 1.0 day. True sprouting by pumpkin seeds (developing root) is quite rare. Bacterial spoilage and rancidity are problems when you try to sprout them. Best to simply soak them, then eat. Pumpkin seeds as sold in the market are not hulled - the variety grown has no hulls on its seeds.
Radish: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0+ days. Method: cloth, jar or tray. Very hot flavor! Use sparingly in mixtures as flavoring agent. Can be used for (hot!) greens also.
Sesame: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Must use unhulled sesame seeds for sprouting; hulled seeds can be soaked to improve flavor and digestibility. A black sesame seed (considered superior to white seed in Ayurveda) is available; haven't found it in unhulled form. Sprout+storage time should not exceed 1.5 days; sprouts continue to grow in refrigerator and start to get bitter at 2.0 day mark, and can be very bitter by 2.5 days. A small bowl of sesame sprouts, with a bit of raw honey on them, is very nice.
Sunflower: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hours. Method: cloth or jar. Use hulled sunflower; unhulled are for sunflower greens only. Need to skim off seed skins at end of soak period, when rinsing. If you leave them in, they will spoil and your sprouts will spoil quickly. Has a nice, earthy flavor; very popular.

Legumes

Alfalfa, Clover:
For greens: soak 4-6 hours, sprout 6-8 days. Method: tray or jar.
For use when short: soak 4-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: jar or cloth.
Alfalfa and clover are most commonly grown as greens. A good non-traditional use for them is as flavoring additive in mixtures, for ex: lentil, alfalfa, radish is nice (alfalfa counteracts "heat" of radish). Alkaloid levels can be very high in alfalfa. Need alfalfa seed with very high germination rate (over 90%) to successfully grow greens in jar - else unsprouted seeds will decay and spoil greens.
Chick Peasstandard: Soak 12-18 hours, sprout 1.5+ days. Method: cloth or jar.
Large beans: Anasazi, Black, Fava, Kidney, Lima, Navy, Pinto, Soy, etc. Except for soy, these are irrelevant to the sprouter - raw flavor is truly horrible. Also, serious toxicity/allergy/digestibility issues with these raw beans. Except for soy (edible raw if grown long enough), these beans must be cooked to be digestible, hence are not of interest to the raw-fooder.
Lentils, brown/green
and red. Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day. Method: cloth or jar. The brown/green lentils come in a variety of sizes; the smallest sizes generally sprout faster than the larger. Red lentils are usually sold in split "dahl" form; for sprouting you must buy whole red lentils. Red lentils are red inside and brown outside; their Hindi name is masoor (brown masoor). Lentil sprouts have a spicy flavor and are very popular. Might find hard seeds in lentils from India.
Mung bean group:
- Mung beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hrs - 1 day. Method: cloth or jar.
- Urid/urad: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hrs - 1 day. Method: cloth or jar.
- Adzuki beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day. Method: cloth or jar.
- Moth beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 12 -18 hrs. Method: cloth or jar. Urid (also spelled urad) is a black shelled mung bean, available in Indian stores. Stronger flavor than regular mung. Hard seeds common in mung and urid. Moth is a brownish bean, similar to mung, available in Indian stores. Very fast, reliable sprouter, with mild flavor - similar to mung. Discard "floaters" when sprouting moth. P.S. there is a mung bean that is yellow inside, in Indian stores, but so far have only found split (dahl) form.
Peanuts: Soak 12-14 hours, sprout 1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Must use unblanched peanuts; recommend removing skins to improve digestibility. Spanish variety peanuts have loose skin, can remove most before soaking. Other peanuts - soak 1-2 hours then peel off skins, return to soaking in new, clean water. With peanut peeled you will probably observe high incidence of (bright) yellow mold - possible aflatoxin.
Peas, Blackeye: Soak 12-14 hours, sprout 1 day. Method: cloth or jar. Flavor is too strong to be eaten alone. Makes good flavoring additive for mixtures, if used sparingly.
Peas, (Field): Soak 12-14 hours, sprout 1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Be sure to buy whole
peas, not split peas (split won't sprout). Yellow peas are slower to sprout, and have stronger flavor than green peas. Flavor too strong when raw for many people. Insect problems common with peas in storage (beetle infestation); store in bug-proof containers. Can be grown as greens also.

Note: if purchasing kala channa, green channa, urid/urad, red lentils, etc. from Indian store, be sure to obtain the whole seeds, and not the split (dahl) or oiled form of the seeds.

Some Sprouting Seed Mixtures of Interest:

mung/adzuki, fenugreek
mung/adzuki, urid, dill seed
lentils, blackeye peas, alfalfa, radish
sunflower seed, moth, fenugreek
alfalfa/clover, radish/mustard (for greens)

Experiment and develop your own favorite mixtures!

Soak Instead of Sprouting:

Herb seeds: fennel, celery, caraway, cardamom, poppy, etc.
Filberts: soak 12 hours; makes crisper, improves flavor.
Pecans: soak 8 hours; long soaks can make mushy.
Walnuts: soak 12 hours; flavor changes - you might like or dislike.
High fat nuts (brazil nuts, macadamias) may benefit some from soaking, but difference (soaked vs. unsoaked) is small.

Staple Foods for Sprouting:

(first tier) wheat, almonds, sunflower, sesame, mung/adzuki, rye
(2nd tier, obstacles) oats, barley, buckwheat, rice, lentils*, other legumes*
(flavoring) fenugreek, mustard, radish, kale, cabbage * see question on legumes below

Easy for Beginners:

wheat, sunflower, almonds, lentil, mung

Indoor Gardening (grown indoors, in soil):

Grasses: wheat, barley, oats, rye, kamut, spelt, triticale, and others.
Vegetables: amaranth, mustard/mizuna, fennel, kale, cabbage, etc.
Legumes: peas, snow peas
Other greens: buckwheat, sunflower

What are hard seeds?

Seeds that are hard, like rocks, and they stay that way during soaking and sprouting. Hard seeds are a sort of natural insurance in the sense that if planted in soil they will eventually sprout - late in the season or next season. Hard seeds may be a threat to certain types of dental work, esp. porcelain crowns (porcelain on gold crowns are stronger and hard seeds are less risk; metal crowns are stronger than natural enamel). To minimize hard seeds, suggest you soak seeds as in the cloth method: in shallow water, in a large container with a flat bottom. Then at the end of the soak stage, you can visually inspect the soaked seeds and remove those that are still hard. This technique is not 100% foolproof, but if done carefully, will substantially reduce the number of hard seeds. The method will work with any seed, but fenugreek seeds are so small that picking out the hard ones is quite difficult.

Anything wrong with sprouted legumes?

If you can digest them without the production of a lot of gas (flatulence), there's nothing wrong with them. Legumes are very high in protein, hard to digest, and cause gas for many people. Gabriel Cousens (Conscious Eating, pgs. 70, 372, 490) recommends that consumption of sprouted legumes (except alfalfa, next question) be minimized. Ann Wigmore (Rebuild Your Health, pg. 73) tells us that flatulence gas is toxic and harms your entire system. From an Ayurvedic viewpoint, legumes aggravate the vata dosha; individuals with vata body type or a vata disorder should minimize legumes. Ayurveda suggests eating turmeric or ginger with proteins (legume sprouts) as a digestive aid. A number of other herbs/spices can serve as digestive aids and/or counteract the vata effect of legumes. Among legumes, mung and adzuki beans are considered easiest to digest.

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