🌱 The Difference Between Sprouts and Microgreens - 🌱
The Difference
Between Sprouts & Microgreens
×
SPROUTS VS MICROGREENS
This is such a common question that part of this - and every other newsletter we've sent for the past year includes it. It's directly below our current news and pictures. Scroll down and see. In any case - it requires more clarification - so here goes...
Sprouts are grown solely with water and we consume the entire plant it turns into.
Microgreens are grown on a medium and we harvest them by cutting them just above that medium - discarding (we compost ours) the medium and the roots.
Sprouts are alive when we eat them - even if they've been refrigerated. Micros cease being a living food when we cut them off above the medium. If you eat them immediately they're plenty live though.
We consider our Seed/Mix specific pages to be the core of sproutpeople.org. The seeds we offer that can grow both as Sprouts and Micros have 2 such pages - ie French Garden Sprouts and French Garden Microgreens. Same Seed (Mix in this case) - but different growing methods means different pages. This is true in All cases on sproutpeople.org.
If a seed can only be grown as one or the other - it only has one page. For example Cilantro can only be grown as Micros. It cannot be grown as a Sprout - so its page is Cilantro Micro-Greens.
To leave the subject with a bit of confusion I need to tell you that most seeds that can be grown as Sprouts can also be grown as Microgreens. We use the seeds in our garden and if we thin our plantings - those are basically Microgreens - so there. Most Microgreens seeds cannot grow as Sprouts - but most Sprout seeds can be grown as Microgreens. We only have growing instructions for those that are commonly accepted as Micogreens - but feel free to experiment. It's fun!
A QUESTION FROM US
We have tested our website on many OS's and devices and versions of software. We know it works but we also know it is sometimes challenging. Organizing as much info as we offer is a serious undertaking - but that all seems to work fine. We do notice however that some of you are asked for unnecessary information when checking out. We see on your orders - company names, birthdays, and other things that we never experience in our tests. If you encounter this - if our shopping cart insists you enter a business name - or anything other than just your name, address, email, and phone - we'd love to know about it.
A ScreenShot would be great, but words are fine too. If you can share your OS, device, and versions of each - perhaps we can find a cure for our
IRA & DJANGO & GUS
A sunny afternoon on the foot of our bed. Ira had been laying back-to-back with Gus but I kinda missed the pic.
Django is a flexible fellow.
Ira isn't sure about this new pup on the block. Flash is a Westy like Ira's pal Wiley, at work - but Wiley is 12 and so for the most part he tolerates Ira. Flash is only 4 months old and yet Ira, at 22 months isn't nearly as good at tolerating him.
Stodie is a truly great dog I've (Gil) known for many years. He was friends with our 2 previous dogs - Dobie and Chester and we spent many hours at the park together when we were younger.. We sometimes see him on morning walks before we head to Sproutpeople and he and Ira have struck up a friendship now.
Ira and his friend Henry at the park.
Ira has many cues. He hears me print a sheet of paper at a certain time at work - and he knows it's time for his walk. In this instance he heard the closing theme of Star Trek The Next Generation and that means it's time to play "crazy puppy in a blanket". That theme used to be a cue to go out in the backyard. He just changed it one night. Ira's a very funny fellow.
Gus enjoying a cool spot on a hot day.
Here are a couple essentials for those new to the world of Indoor Farming...
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPROUTS AND MICROGREENS
To us the difference is that with Sprouts we grow with nothing but water and we eat the entire crop (with the possible exception of hulls and roots that grow out the bottom of our Stainless Steel Sprouters) - and they are alive when we eat them. Microgreens are grown on a medium and we harvest them by cutting them just above that medium - at which point they move from alive to not. Raw, great, delicious - just not alive.
While I'm on this subject I need to explain why we have two different names for the same seed - like Broccoli Sprouts and Broccoli Microgreens. This is the same seed. The difference is that each crop has its own page - you go to the Broccoli Sprouts page to learn how to grow the seed into Sprouts and you go to the Broccoli Microgreens page to learn how to grow it into Micros.
This seed will also grow a full sized - which is like 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide - Broccoli plant in a garden - given the proper climate and encouragement.
SEED STORAGE
If you don't yet know how to get the longest life for your seeds - and prevent pests - visit our Seed Storage page. The best way to store seeds is in the freezer, but do not use the refrigerator as its humidity fluctuations can harm seeds. There's a bit more to it - so perhaps just visit the page =;-)
Grow to Live - Live to Grow.
Be well and happy.
Gil + Lori
×
Sproutpeople.org is an encyclopedic resource of our creation - for indoor farmers of Sprouts, Microgreens, and Grass. It is so enormous that it gives some the impression that we are a big business. The reality is that we are basically 2 people who eat and breath Sproutpeople - and 2 part-time helpers (one being our son). Our site has been online since 1996. It's the employee that allows us to serve all of you.
Every Seed and Mix we offer has a profoundly detailed page devoted to it. Those pages feature two sets of Growing Instructions (Brief for the experienced and Detailed for the not yet experienced), a Video, Photos of the crop growing day-by-day, Recipes, Crop Specific Notes, Nutrition Info, and quite a bit more. Each of our Supplies also has a detailed page.
Our vast content is organized with Tabs (on computer) and Pull-Down Menus (on mobile devices). Click/Choose, for example Detailed Instructions on the page you go to when you click any of the pictures surrounding this text - and you will be presented Seriously Detailed Instructions. Click around. Growing Photos. Notes. Recipes. Please let us share what we know.
We survive by selling on the internet, but we live to educate anyone who wants to learn about growing sprouts and microgreens. Learning is what the internet was actually built for, so we're really just doing our part.
Please enjoy sproutpeople.org
×
