š± August @ Sproutpeople
what's up this summer
THE NEWS
I (Gil) am sorry for having been so long between Newsletters. You constant readers have heard too many times that we expect to be moving to a new e-commerce system any day now - - but as weāve been waiting since March I should know better than to actually believe it is imminent. But, I did - again - and so I held off on writing. Now weāre just going on as if weāll never move to that new system.
Our beloved employee of 13 years, Luisa moved into a new job in social services a few weeks ago - so now Sproutpeople is just the family - Gil, Lori, and Sam. Alice is doing social media - and we hope sheāll move back to SF and work with us next year, but we also hope she gets going in her photography career. Of course we want our kids to love life and achieve their goals, but we would sure love if she could join us and get her creative outlet via Sproutpeople, like Lori and I have - for 3 plus decades.
This is our slowest year - sales wise - in 15 years - and weāre in the middle of our slow season (May-November) - so the three of us are far from overworked, but we do miss Luisa - and Alice. When we finally get moved to our new e-commerce system - if that ever happens - we like to think weāll need Alice. Only time will tell if we get her.
I will try to get a sale together for our next Newsletter. Weāre waiting on a pallet of seeds from our favorite Canadian supplier - and when those arrive weāll have enough seeds to be able to afford discounting - which always increases demand. Since weāll have enough inventory to cover the increased demand - weāll have a sale. That was a silly paragraph, no? I think you get what I mean though =;-)
OUR GARDEN
We use the same seeds we sell to you - and sprout/grow at home, in our garden as well. Any seed that can germinate can grow into a full plant - given proper conditions and space. Here are some of our Beetsā¦
If we let the plant continue to grow it will eventually produce seeds. We want to eat our Beets so we donāt let them go to seed - because that would require us to leave the Beets in the ground. The plant would use the energy stored in the Beet - which is basically part of their root to produce seeds. In the case of Brassicas - Broccoli, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Radish, and Turnips would require- like the Beets (which are not Brassicas) - the sacrifice of the grown vegetable to produce seeds. For other Brassicas - like Kale, Collards, Mizuna, Mustard, Tatsoi, Cress, and Arugula - we can harvest some of the plant - which is leaves - and then let the plant go to seed.
Brassicas make seeds in pods which grow from the flowers the plant creates when it first starts going to seed. Iāll use Broccoli for this example. Here is a small crownā¦
If we want it to grow seeds we leave the crown and it expands up - opens into flowersā¦
Those flowers will grow pods. The pods contain multiple seeds. Thereās a bit more to it than that - but itās still too early in our growing season - so we have no pods yet (we ate most of our Broccoli crowns (They were Marvelous!) and then I pulled the plants (after taking this and a few other pics) because we want to grow more vegetables and didnāt want to sacrifice the space for the remainder of the growing season to get seeds.
Itās absolutely awesome (to me anyway - as Iām a certifiable seed freak) to grow plants all the way to seed - but in reality we canāt produce enough seeds in our garden to sprout more than a few crops. It would be too much work and would limit our vegetable production too much. We could save enough seeds for next years garden - but we really want more veggies to eat - so we only let a few plants go all the way to seed - and those grow in beds that have shorter seasons due to their location and diminished sun exposure as the season progresses. Thereās also the issue of cross pollination - so Iām not even sure if the seeds we can grow would bear the same vegetables or some kind of cross. I used to know more about that - and hope to one day have time to re-learn it and grow plants to seed seriously.
Weāll continue this lesson in upcoming Newsletters as our Collards and Kale plants - which weā are letting go to seed - produce pods.
OUR FURRY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Because itās been so long since our last Newsletter - we have a whole lot of great pics of our 4-leggers - so without further ramblingā¦
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 - Ā 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
Ā
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 Ā 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.
In addition to a section that teaches the Basics of Sprouting and Growing, a goodly section of Recipes, a bunch of Videos, and a whole lot more -
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). Ā Click/Choose, for exampleĀ Detailed InstructionsĀ on the page you go to when you click any of the pictures surrounding this text - and you will be presentedĀ 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
