🌱 Happy April 🌱
spring is here - let's grow things
NEW DETAILED GROWING INSTRUCTIONS and SALE
Sproutpeople is a business. It has to generate monies so we can buy more of the things we sell. It also has to pay us so that we can buy the things we need to live. Fortunately, we are not extravagant people - but you know how expensive Everything is now. In any case - though it is a business - our goal is to share our knowledge of growing. What we are really after is perfecting our our encyclopedic website. The sales are really a means to that end.
Working on the website requires time that is hard to come by because we’re mixing seeds, filling bags, filling orders, packing boxes, shipping them - and living life which is like cooking dinner, gardening, fixing broken stuff, walking Ira and the cats. Well, we don’t exactly walk the cats (actually Lori does walk Django - but that’s a long story we’ll save for another time). You know - living.
The point is - it’s hard to find the time to edit the website and build the perfect encyclopedia - which is our ultimate goal. We use what time we can to do so and I (Gil) found the time to edit the detailed growing instructions for all of our Leafy Sprouts. I am so excited to have refined these and made them easier to read and use!
In honor of this momentous event, which is the beginning of the great re-editing of our website - we will be having a sale on Leafy Sprouts for a couple weeks - or possibly all of April. Frankly, it depends on how inventory holds up and how backed up we get with orders.
SO - starting today, all 10 of our Leafy Sprout varieties are on sale. Alfalfa, Red and Crimson Clover, the inimitable French Garden, Italian Blend and Russian Mix as well as our other Leafy blends are marked down 10-15% for as long as we can keep them so.
IMPROVED CHECKOUT
Last month I gave you a visual guide to our new (as of December ‘24) shopping cart - which was giving some of you problems. Today (April 1) our web guy, Mark made it better - so you no longer need to refer to that guide! Whether you shop on a computer, phone, or tablet - there is just one button - (Proceed To Checkout) - and it is anchored - so there’s no scrolling necessary.
Reading that paragraph probably doesn’t do much for you - - but Lori and I are downright giddy! On top of solving a problem - clicking the Proceed to Checkout button reveals (again) the little empty field we so so dearly love - which allows you to tell us something. It’s still labeled Gift Message and/or Comments. This empty field was elusive before - so we’re giddy about that too! Write anything. We love your words! Tell us your pet’s names. Anything kind is welcome!
When you click the Proceed to Checkout button - the shopping cart page does not lock you into checkout - it allows you to navigate the site - so you can keep adding items or doing research. You can always get back to it by clicking the shopping cart icon on the top right of every page. I know. I know. This is just the way a website is supposed to be, but our site wasn’t perfect and now it’s a bit closer. We are So Happy!
SPROUTED OAT MUFFINS
One of our very favorite customers, Jeanene in Alabama – (she first found us when she lived in San Diego) – came up with a great recipe using Sprouted Oats. Please allow us to share her recipe with you. It’s not even on the website yet - just here. She’s thinking of making some slight alterations - trying wheat flour in place of some of the all purpose flour - playing with the spices and that sort of thing – but it’s a great recipe as is and I think all of us who cook regularly mess around with recipes - adding a pinch more or less of this and that - so do as you will. We’ve made them once and they are great! -
Jeanene‘s Sprouted Oat Muffins
2 eggs
⅓ cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ cup avocado oil
1 cup milk
Zest of one orange
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon
⅔ cup raisins
⅔ cup sprouted oats
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease the muffin tin with avocado oil.
In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the maple syrup and brown sugar.
Beat in the avocado oil, milk, and orange zest.
Combine the flour, baking powder, rounded teaspoon cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the raisins and sprouts. Mix the liquid mixture into the dry mixture just until well combined. The batter will be lumpy.
Fill muffin cups ¾ full.
Combine 2 teaspoons brown sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle this mixture lightly over the muffins. You might have a little left over. That’s okay.
Bake for 14-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Remove muffins from the muffin tin and cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes prior to eating.
SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR BIRD MIXES
Our beloved customers who have winged family members can now try subscriptions. You can set up for 1, 2, or 3 month intervals. Subscriptions come with a discount of 5%. We like to think this will help some of you - but don’t feel any need to use it if you don’t like subscriptions – we are just giving it a try, we’ve never offered subscriptions before so this is new to us too.
Our web guy, Mark has told us this subscription service is both kind and easy for all involved, but please tell us if you find anything about it that you think should be better. If this works well we’ll consider offering subscriptions for more items.
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Since we moved to our current website with its upgraded shopping cart, we have decided to use some of the modern features. One of these features is the solicitation of Product Reviews. We have always preferred to be as quiet as possible - thinking a person will come to our website when they need us - and we prefer to intrude on your lives as little as possible - but we’ve been told that we need to stop living in the past and start accepting the way things work nowadays – so we are going ahead and asking for reviews.
We used to write in our newsletter, occasionally seeking your reviews, but frankly, we never got that many - and we know from new customers who email us, that some of them really depend on reviews to show them that a product is worth considering. This is hard for us old-time-leave-people-alone Sproutpeople - but - as business has been dwindling for a few years now we finally have agreed that we really do need to try being more modern.
Our system is set to email you 10 days after we ship your order and I believe it will follow up with you five days after that if you don’t review the item it asked you to. Frankly, I find all this so intrusive that it’s hard for me to even write about - but as I said, we need to polish Sproutpeople up a bit because we’ve let it be old school for too long - and we need more business to stay in business - so we just want you to know that if there’s anything about these review emails or the whole integration of reviews that you don’t like please let us know and we’ll do what we can to make you happy, if at all possible.
We really wish we could stick with our old quiet ways, but it seems we cannot - as evidenced by our dwindling revenue. But hey, we are getting a lot more reviews than ever before - and since we do provide essentials we need to continue being so we can continue to do so. Please, just tell us if this is okay. You can just feel my guilt, can’t you? Sorry about that.
OUR 4 LEGGED FAMILY
As much as I like to caption every picture - this has been a very busy week - so I’m going to just add more pictures. You already know Ira, Django, and Gus so I’ll let most of their pictures speak for themselves.
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
I love Sprout People, as do many others, and have for decades. They are best in class. And if you love dogs and cats, you'll love their sharing of their four-legged family. Really, a true treasure and a joy to read their newsletter every month. Glad to see them on substack where I think they'll extend their reach considerably.