Self sufficiency

Just had an idea, have you thought of trying sprouting seeds as a quick and easy start to growing your own stuff? I grow alfalfa sprouts, just put a tablespoon of seeds in a jam jar and rinse every day with water, in about a week you have a jar full of little seedlings which you can eat in salads and so on - they are supposed to be really good for you, bursting with vitamin C and other nutrients, and taste good too.

I read somewhere that they experimented with feeding alfalfa to old rats and after a while they had lots more energy and started walking like young rats.....so if you hear of someone wandering around the sewers on all fours, that'll be me!

You can get lots of other seeds for sprouting, mung beans are the ones that grow into chinese beansprouts but if you try these yourself don't expect them to grow long and straight like the bought ones, apparently the 'commercially' grown ones are grown under pressure to make them grow like that.

Chick peas are easy to sprout but I found they retain a very 'beany' taste.

Brown lentils also very good sprouters and much nicer to the taste, great in sandwiches with cheese spread!

Alfalfa is great and as others say here very nutritious too.

Gonna try to sprout wheat, oats, millet, quinoa and barley to see how they taste!

Caterina

Dont think you could use porridge oats as they are squashed flat..
I guess you could sprout more or less anything that is a seed. You can sprout most nuts too.
If you cover your jar openingwith muslin or old tights you can water through it and just hold it upside down to drain.