🌱The Best Quinoa this Millennium is Here 🌱
Quinoa is Back!
an amazingly vigorous lot
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THE BEST QUINOA THIS MILLENNIUM
Before it became a known superfood - Quinoa was the fastest germinating seed of them all. When fame came to it, for some reason the sprouting quality of the seed plummeted. It has been a struggle to find acceptable Quinoa for over 2 decades - but we now have a good supply of great Quinoa - and like the old days - it often begins germinating by the time it's done with its 30 minute Soak. This is a truly Great seed!
Quinoa is an ancient seed - dating back 6,00 years. It was a staple of the Inca's diet. As a sprout it is - as are they all - very nutritious. Quinoa is exceptional in that it contains Every amino acid. It's great in a salad and as a carbohydrate alternative. It's an incredibly quick crop - when you start with seeds as vigorous as these - being ready in as little as 30 minutes. Here are a couple of the recipes we have that feature Quinoa...
Sprouted Quinoa Salad
Sprouted Quinoa Maki Rolls
GIL AND LORI TOOK A TRIP
We have always been tied to where we are by Sproutpeople. We did have a few years where we had enough employees to take serious (Europe and Hawaii) vacations (2010-2015), but we've also had vacations (Kauai) where we worked - often wandering around a parking lot at the condo complex with a laptop - looking for Wifi, so we could communicate with our customers and employees. Sproutpeople is a lot like having a dairy farm. Those folks milk cows twice a day - 365 days a year. There is no choice. When we were growers there was no way to escape twice a day Rinsing and Draining. As seed sellers - the business has almost always required our presence, so vacations are a rarity.
In mid-April Lori and I (Gil) took off a Thursday and Friday and headed to SW Wisconsin for a long weekend. We revisited the town we came from - Viroqua - and the town we started in - Gays Mills. We enjoyed a marvelous day traveling down Memory Lane - heading south to the Kickapoo Valley - Gays Mills and surrounding area. We saw where our log cabin was, where we picked watercress when we first started as market gardeners in 1993, and we witnessed the incredible damage multiple '500 year' floods (2007, '08, and '18) caused in the region. It was thrilling and haunting, but we took it in together and enjoyed our trip immensely. We were so much younger 30 years ago =;-)
One of my favorite things in life is people being courteous and just saying Hi - because we are all in this life together, and respecting each other is key to any positive society. That's what drew me to San Francisco in 1978 - though the beauty of the city and region didn't hurt. When I was 19, people here would just say "Hi" when passing on the street. I was a long haired scruffy guy, but no one judged - they just said Hi and went on their way. I just Loved that! It's nothing like that nowadays - but in the Kickapoo Valley almost every other driver or person on foot will acknowledge you when you raise your hand slightly from the steering wheel - in greeting. Whoever goes first gets it back.
I drove professionally in San Francisco between '78 and '88 (messenger, cabbie, limousine), so I've spent a lot of time driving. When our kids, Sam and Alice were learning to drive - here in SF - I taught to them to acknowledge people - pedestrians and drivers - to show respect - whenever possible - when someone treats you well while driving - or you take a little advantage. It's just a recognition of another human being - and I've always believed that that little courtesy spreads - it's just saying Hi! - making everyone involved a little bit happier. It's great in a city - though now rare. It's just different in "the country". It's so civilized! I could drive around the Kickapoo Valley forever - just soaking that up.
Here we are on the hill above Gays Mills. Zoom in to see what's left of the sweet little town.
Viroqua is 22 miles north of Gays Mills. While the latter was pretty much a ghost town with many vacant lots that were not vacant when we left - the former is a growing town well out of the flood zone. Viroqua has been a draw for many years. The whole area - referred to as The Driftless Region, because the glaciers missed it during the last ice age - is home to the largest organic dairy in the country, has Many organic farms, creative food (and other) businesses, and a K-12 Waldorf school.
We enjoyed revisiting the kind people and the much slower pace of life, but the cost of living (except for real estate - though even that is high) is now almost comparable to San Francisco (with one exception - an awesome diner called Maybe Lately's) - which is frightening. In any case - we really enjoyed the break. This is why there was no Newsletter last week. Sorry about that.
FOLLOW UP TO OUR NEW SUNFLOWER GREENS VIDEO
In our previous Newsletter we presented our new how to grow Sunflower Greens (Microgreens) instructional video. For those of you who watched it - here's an update on the crop I grew - using bigger plates and more weight atop the seeds - following the crop shown in the video.
The crop came our wonderfully. It didn't have the same issue the one in the video had - thanks to the larger plate I used as a cover. The Sunflower Greens came up very evenly - though they did end up breaking one of the 2 plates I used. The big plate that was sitting directly atop the seeds got pushed up - and somehow slid out from under the smaller plate and 3 pounds of Lentils that were atop the stack. It shattered on the floor. Even after 30 years as a Sproutguy I am still in awe of the power of plants. We all heard it happen, but we didn't get to see it.
Sam wants to make a You Tube Short to show you this crop. Let's hope we get that done too. If I can get him into editing - which he's very good at (he went to an arts high school and filmmaking was his focus), we'll get a lot more videos out. Here's hoping.
MOVING TO SUBSTACK
As we detailed previously, we are moving our Newsletters from our current source - MailChimp - to Substack (a social media platform). This will not only save us money but it will allow us to speak more freely. We believe absolutely in Free Speech, and MailChimp maintains the right to censor us. Substack does not. We very seldom say anything even remotely controversial, but we want to be able to if we want to - and we loathe paying a company who can censor our free speech. FYI - Substack has everything. Any topic from any point of view is welcomed there. The way America used to be.
We are very sorry for the delay in this switchover. Our web people have to change our Newsletter sign up - on our site. Until they do we are kinda stuck here.
Though we currently have no intention of offering paid content on Substack, we have had several exceedingly kind customers who have paid for subscriptions. Some have been with us for ages, some are new. We want to say THANK YOU! Your respect is so overwhelmingly gratifying to me and Lori -- even I am speechless. Thank You! We love you more than words can tell.
IRA, DJANGO, & GUS
It's all Ira this week - and some pics from our trip.
The boys did not like us taking our little trip. Without Lori here, Gus and Django can't go beyond our (tiny) backyard, and Ira - though he loves Sam - is loyal to me and missed me when Sam didn't have him playing or walking.
The weather seems to be turning here - clear and warm (60-70) in earnest now, so everyone will enjoy more outdoor time.
Ira resting on my leg in the afternoon sun.
Ira in mid sprint while on our walk through a very lovely neighborhood in San Francisco.
Ira waiting in our garden entry for me to open the gate and start our walk.
Though most of Ira's socialization takes place at our neighborhood park, we have many friends who also walk the neighborhood. Here he is surrounded by (from left to right) Harrison, Hunter, and Eldwick. All wonderful dogs!
Ira scrutinizing a gopher hole. He still hasn't caught one, but he's seen a couple this week. He really wants to dig them out, but I'm trying to teach him to wait for them to come out of their hole far enough to pounce.
I'm a very peaceful person, but I garden - and so gophers are - well - not welcome in my circle of life, currently. Get 'em Ira!
Ira playing Scrat in the cul-de-sac.
Our Sprout Factory in Gays Mills as it looked in 1995.
Same building in April of 2023. When we first occupied this building we built a deck on the front and used that part of the building - from where Lori is standing to the street - as a cafe. I believe it was rural America's first internet cafe. We were only open for a few weeks in 1995 or '96 (my memory, oy), but it was called and signed - The Upfront Cafe. We served espresso drinks, radical soda pop from a very unique company; Skeleteens, had 20 board games, painted chess/checker tables, and two Macs connected to the world wide web - and message boards - and everything that was available at the time. I think there's more about this in our history of Sproutpeople section, if you want more.
Viroqua by night. The building on the right with the sign that reads WDRT was the last home of Sproutpeople before we moved west. We met the folks who run the radio station. They gave us a tour - and we saw they still have the kitchen we put in - including our old appliances. That was a trip! Sweet folks!
The real downtown is up a couple blocks. Its population is 4,500. Here's another pic of part of it - the historic Temple Theater.
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
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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
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