🌱 Special French Garden Sale

our most popular mix ever is on sale - and it's extra special

A SALE AND THEN SOME

I (Gil) mixed up a new batch of French Garden - with the special Red Radish I use so sparingly (it’s expensive!) - and I want you to enjoy it - - so it occurred to me that we should make it more affordable too - just because. So, for the next week you will be able to enjoy our most popular mix of all time - for less. We sell the same mix for both Sprouts and Microgreens. It grows both crops wonderfully.

If you’ve read our history, you know I am the original sprout hater. Lori is the one who made Sproutpeople. It took me weeks before I’d help her grow the sprouts - - this is back in 1993 when we needed something to sell at our farmers market stand. When I realized seeds were the focus of sprouts - and saw that market customers were excited by sprouts - I decided I had to find a way to like sprouts - and since I’m certifiably goofy about seeds - I figured I could improve on Alfalfa (the sprout I hated) by adding other seeds with more flavor.

Russian Mix was our first Leafy Sprout mix - because half of my family came from Russia/Poland/Ukraine (depending on who claimed the city, Pinsk over the years) - I thought that was a perfect name. Doing so made us think of how we hoped to travel - but how difficult that would be as sprout growers - which is a 7 day a week - no holidays kinda job - so we named further mixes after places we thought the mix represented - flavor wise - and to which we hoped to visit - someday.

French Garden is just Great, if I do say so myself. It took me a long time and many failed crops to perfect it as it contains mucilaginous seeds (Arugula and Cress) - and those cannot be grown as sprouts - but I determined they could be - if they were mixed with other seeds in the proper proportion. After countless tries I found it! I still guard that ratio. It and our mix recipes are almost all that keeps Sproutpeople totally unique in the world of sprouts. French Garden is so perfect I even wrote a poem…

French Garden. To me - is a place in my head.

Not going, sprout growing - but saying instead.

Vicarious travel is better than none

I know that French Garden

I basque in its sun.

To be sure - poetry is not my gift - but French Garden is so special it just happened. If you poke around our site you can find some other poems to seeds (they are in the About section of our seed’s pages) that I wrote over the years.

This sale runs to February 5 and is good for both Sprouts and Microgreens. FYI - it’s exactly the same mix - - but their pages differ in their Growing Instructions.

SEEDS ON THE WAY

We are finally awaiting delivery of seeds we’ve been out-of-stock of for far too long. It has been a tough start to the year for one of our beloved suppliers - who suffered a bad concussion that slowed him down for weeks - and as a result we’ve been waiting longer than usual. We are expecting - this week - Buckwheat Groats, Black Lentils, Peanuts, and Hulled Sunflower Seeds for Sprouts. We are also expecting Buckwheat Lettuce, but not much - so we may not put that one back in-stock as we have several mixes that require those. We’ll know for sure once we receive the pallet of seeds, and in any case - we’ll be sourcing more of everything in hopes of avoiding running out of any seed we offer in future. That’s a Sisyphian task to be sure, but we do try.

To be notified when any crop comes back in-stock - visit its page - ie Buckwheat Groats - and click the appropriate link.

RED RUSSIAN KALE

We have been selling this seed for years. Like every seed - some years they are better than others. This years crop - or last year’s really, because that’s when they were grown - is slower to germinate and is so demanding to grow as a sprout - that I’ve decided to stop offering it as such. It grows well as a Microgreen - so the seed is now only available as Red Russian Kale Microgreens. If you are determined to grow them as sprouts - know this - - you must Drain Maniacally - especially the first few days. Once the seeds germinate they are less demanding, but do Drain Thoroughly or you won’t get a crop - and this is too expensive a seed for that - which is why I made this decision to de-list the sprout page.

When water is left in a Sprouter after a Rinse/Drain cycle - that water can drown small seeds. Even a teaspoon can cover little seeds like Kale to such a degree that they cannot germinate. That’s why I always stress Drain Thoroughly - and is also why we now say Drain Maniacally. That was suggested to us by a home sprouter who we helped to better crops with this very information. She felt ‘Thorough’ didn’t adequately describe how much Draining may be necessary.

Big seeds like Beans are too big to be submerged by a teaspoon or three of left over water - but the little seeds - like Brassicas, Leafies, and some others can be drowned by even so little. I have taken to going back to my sprouters a couple hours after their Rinse/Drain - to see if there is more water I can spin/shake out. Even I - who have been sprouting for over 30 years and have grown over 150 tons of sprouts - find excess water more often than I like. Be diligent and you can grow anything. For those of you determined to grow Red Russian Kale Sprouts - the page is still available on our site - so you have instructions - - but the page no longer appears on its own. To find it - use our search feature - and for goodness’ sake - Drain Maniacally.

OUR NOT QUITE HUMANS

San Francisco is a zany place - in most ways - but always weather wise. We get occasional 70° days in January-February. The boys love it - especially when it follows a stretch of wet and cold (under 50° =;-)

Ira took a walk with me and Lori on a lovely weekend day. He had a great time smelling new things and looking for gophers.

Same walk - but this spot is on a secret street. It’s a back alley really, but unless you know where to turn you’d never find it.

Showing off his lip. We’re not sure where he gets that lower lip, but it looks good on him and he uses it to great effect.

Django hanging out in the kitchen with Ira while we do the evening clean up.

Gus and Django love each other - and Gus makes a great cushion too.

Ira in his office at Sproutpeople - under the desk we ship from - and where I often am. Though we had a warm weekend - it was cold during the week - hence the blanket.

This is Maui - a 10 month old Doodle who works next-door. The action pictured was completely acceptable to Ira - and Maui is so nimble and respectful that he barely touched him at any time. They played a lot and Ira didn’t show his teeth once - which he does readily if he feels threatened.

Ira has a small basket of toys from which he chooses whenever he wants. He does seem to prefer the squeaky ones - but he seldom squeaks them too much.

Ira turned 3½ years old last week.

Django knows how to get comfortable.

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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.

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).  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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