🌱 Happy June 🌱

faster order turnaround & more garden time

Spinach going to seed. We love seeds! We love spinach! We grow a lot of it in our garden. We want to eat a Lot of spinach! When a plant turns its attention to growing seeds - it lessens the flavor of its leaves - so we don’t want that, yet. I removed the leaves so you could see the seeds starting to form. One day, when we have time - I’ll figure out how to grow Spinach Microgreens =:-)

WE’RE SHIPPING ORDERS FASTER

Now that our slow season has arrived there is less time between placing your order and having us ship it to you. From December - May we often require up to 5 days to ship an order once we receive it. That’s largely due to our tiny staff of 3 humanoids and one little dog - who helps little because he lacks opposing thumbs.

We know you are the kind of person who appreciates Quality Organic Seeds - and you probably like supporting a small family business - or you’d not put up with our idiosyncrasies. Sure, we have the highest quality seeds - all from certified organic farmers - but we’ve all been trained to expect delivery the next day - so it’s a challenge to wait several days for us to ship your order - and then several more days for the postal service (or UPS) deliver it. At Now that we’re in our slow season you no longer have to wait quite so long.

We appreciate you Very Much!

THE OUTLANDISH POTENTIAL OF SEEDS

I (Gil) imagine I’ve waxed poetic on this subject previously. Probably many times - but it is still The Thing that drives me to be a Sproutpeople. I bring it up now because recently we were having a conversation with other seed/sprout people we know and love and work with - and I mentioned how much time I’ve spent (in my now 32 years as a seed guy) chasing a seed that gets away.

When I make up a batch of San Francisco Mix, for example - if a single pea, garbanzo, lentil, peanut, etc. falls outside of my mixing container - I pick it up and put it back in the mix. I just cannot bear the thought of all that seed’s potential being lost. That is somewhat obsessive perhaps - but consider if you will - what one seed can do…

Let’s use Alfalfa for this example. A single Alfalfa seed can grow a plant that grows 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall. It also sends roots down as deep as 49 inches! Alfalfa is typically used to grow hay for animals that eat hay - and it is used by farmers to loosen their soil (that root that grows so deep) and enrich it with nutrients. One Alfalfa plant growing in a farmer’s field is also capable of producing thousands of seeds! Alfalfa is an Amazing Seed! All Seeds are AMAZING!

When we eat a single Alfalfa Sprout - we are consuming all of that potential! Is it any wonder that Alfalfa Sprouts - and all other edible sprouts are so nutritionally powerful?! I think not.

Every seed has the ability to grow into a full sized plant. Broccoli grows a plant 3 feet tall and wide also - and produces delicious florets - which if let grow will turn into flowers which bear pods full of seeds. Is it any wonder that Broccoli Sprouts have 50 times the antioxidant content of the mature florets? Me thinks not.

I, of course could go on and on and on - but I’ll spare you that. I’ll just boil it down to the basics: Eat More Sprouts & Microgreens =:-) Grow Your Own!

EASY SPROUT’S SMALL SEED INSERT

Until we discovered our Stainless Steel Sprouter, the Easy Sprout Sprouter was The Best Sprouter we’d ever used. They’re still Great - and we use them frequently in our small kitchen due to their smaller footprint - - but there’s a problem now. Some Small Seed Inserts (too many) don’t snap firmly into the bottom of the Growing Vessel - and they absolutely Must snap in firmly when sprouting small seeds.

The manufacturer’s instruction sheet (which we discourage you from reading until you’re experienced at growing sprouts) refers to this piece as the ‘Alfalfa Insert’. We discourage you from reading his sheet of instructions because we find many of them just plain Zany - and we know our instructions will get you the best crops. A lot of us sprout folk are a bit zany though - so no judgement - - but speaking of the manufacturer…

We’ve known the inventor of Easy Sprout since the early 90’s - when he introduced himself at our farmers market stand. Gene is a truly wonderful person. He was, at that time an engineer. The Easy Sprout came to him in a dream. He said - “I woke up and said - I’m going to sell a million of these”. Decades later he added - “I didn’t know it was going to take 25 years.” So - Great guy! 2020 shuts down the company that had manufactured the Easy Sprout since his start. He scrambled to find a new manufacturer - or his kids did. Gene is in his 90’s now and his kids and grandkids have been working in the business for years - assembling the parts and boxing each unit. In any case - their new manufacturer screwed up. We no longer get to communicate with Gene - and I’m very sorry to say that his heirs don’t share his attention to detail - as their response when we told them about this problem, was - “they’re fine. They snap like they should”. Honestly - I consider this a tragedy. To be sure it’s nothing like the many truly tragic things happening everywhere all the time - but when a new person starts growing their own sprouts - if their first experience is bad - many will just give up. Since day one, we Sproutpeople have believed that we Have to provide a positive growing experience for every new grower - and the Easy sprout has been a huge part of that. This obviously turns that inside out and upside down - hence it’s a tragedy.

Fortunately there is an incredibly easy solution. Of course - having the manufacturer make them right is the proper solution - but that is out of our power -- and since we are hands on people - who we are working with an inexpensive and very simple device - fixing it ourself is fine.

Here’s the super easy fix…

You’ll see 4 raised areas on the underside of the Small Seed Insert. Let’s call them “bumps”. Using any pliers - crimp the very outer edge of the Insert in 2-4 places. Use those “bumps” for guidance - so you space the protrusions you’re going to make equally around the circumference. Compressing the thin lip of plastic will form protrusions that will make it snap firmly into the Growing Vessel. We’re talking about 1/16th of an inch. The protrusions you make will be barely visible. If you don’t get it to snap firmly in place - crimp the same places harder. Honestly - this is So Easy!

We were opening every box and crimping them here for quite a while - but not all are loose - and frankly it’s a pain in the butt to do this dozens-hundreds of times in a week - so we stopped. I will make a video soon too - but this how-to and even that video are not a true solution to the problem - - but we don’t have any better ideas. It is such a great Sprouter - it’s just a shame that this was allowed to happen at all. It’s just another victim of the madness of 2020. This is too great a Sprouter to end up in the waste bin (literally or that of history). It’s worth all of our efforts to keep it relevant - and we’ll do our part to make sure they are manufactured correctly next time.

We do now crimp all the Small Seed Inserts we sell individually, so if you buy one of those you don’t need to worry about this at all - - but it’s good to know - just in case.

A RECIPE FOR SUMMER

This is as simple as growing some Bean Sprouts and mixing up some herbs and spices - and it is Glorious! Our personal favorite is of course, San Francisco Mix - but it’s even better with some Almond Soaks added =%^)

Spicy San Francisco Sprout Snack

For snacks, stir-fry or as a rice add-in.

INGREDIENTS

For snacks, stir-fry or as a rice add-in.

Ingredients

• 1 - 5 pounds of sprouts, depending on your taste

• We use San Francisco Mix, Beanie's Awesome Mix, Madison Market Mix or a combination of them. San Francisco Mix and Almonds is an excellent combination, but any bean sprouts you like will be wonderful!

• 1 Tbs. garlic powder

• 1 Tbs. onion powder

• 1 Tbs. chili powder (chipotle if possible - it rocks!)

• 1 Tbs. thyme (ground fine)

• 1 Tbs. salt

• 1 Tbs. pepper

• 1 Tbs. sugar (optional)

• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper

• 1/2 to 1 tsp. hot sauce per lb. of sprouts

• 1 tsp. olive oil per lb. of sprouts

DIRECTIONS

• Mix all ingredients together.

• Mix hot sauce and olive oil into sprouts.

• Mix and Eat/Serve.

Notes

• We usually just mix it up in a bowl and eat it with our fingers =:-)

• You can mix the spices up and store for later use.

• If you use fresh spices/herbs store the mix in the refrigerator.

• Sprinkle the Spice Mix on anything and everything - sprouted or not.

Created for Sproutpeople by the infamous & multi-talented Theresa Wantuch of Jamaica.

We also have a not spicy version here: Herbed Sprout Snack.

THE 4 LEGGED AMONG US

I love how many people email telling us how much they love this part of our Newsletters. Just the same, I know not everyone does - so we will - in a few months (or so) organize our customers in an attempt to send each of you what you are most interested in. We’re not big into these technological options - but it seems everyone could benefit - so we plan on trying.

Before I share our pictures then, let me ask…

Though you can go back and view previous Newsletters - for those of you who are curious about last month’s poll - we had overwhelming support for pursuing the fulfillment center option. 95% of you chose; Go For It or I’ll Give It a Try - while the other 5% said they want us to keep packing our seeds by hand. We very much appreciate your feedback, but I have to wonder who thinks we should continue hand packing seeds into our 70’s and beyond =;-)

While I’m talking about change - I want to share that Lori printed some little oval stickers that say Thank You and other nice bits - which we are attaching to boxes when we ship - in many cases instead of smiley faces. Since we really want the fulfillment center thing to work (we’ve found a few that are very much like us in the care they take and their attention to detail) - we’re transitioning - in hopes it will come to fruition. The folks we work with will have to be happy to add a sticker - but we don’t expect anyone to draw - so we’re trying to adjust and prepare for our possible future - which would allow us so much more time to do All the other work that Sproutpeople requires.

Now - here’s the boys and friends in May…

Django taking a catnap.

This one is actually from May of last year - but you just Have to see his face!

Ira under my desk at work - wishing I’d put my camera down and just love him up.

Ira enjoying an all to rare afternoon sunbath (my, it’s been cold and gray this year). The little white “cartoon” on the left is the remnant of a sticker that our daughter, Alice tore off years ago. It didn’t come off completely - but the shape it left inspired her to make it a picture of Chester, our previous dog.

Ira with his old buddy Wiley during our mid-day stroll.

Ira loves Betty Sue.

Betty Sue’s person, Bruce likes to dress her up on Fridays. No judgement here. We love Bruce. He rescued our beloved Chester (see caption 3 pics above and newsletters pre-July 2020), who was a flea ridden stray in Mexico - and so graced our lives profoundly.

Daphne, our old Italian Greyhound friend stayed with us for a few days.

Ira’s best bud, Chauncey visited our garden for the first time. Now that he knows Ira is there sometimes - he pulls his person to the gate there whenever he’s near. He already does that at our house - so now she has to wrestle him twice every time they walk the neighborhood.

Gus and Ira love each other - but they don’t cuddle - yet, I hope.

The corner of the bed is Gus’ spot - so he is deciding how to fit without disturbing Ira.

This is the result.

We met this new dog at work, Brownie. The second time he saw Ira - as soon as his person parked his car - Brownie jumped out of the window and ran all the way across the parking lot (200 feet) to play with him.

When Ira and I took our morning walk on the last day of May, I finally got a response to my call “Casper, kitty, kitty Casper”. This incredibly loving cat lives close to our garden - and used to visit regularly - - but I hadn’t seen him in months and had grown concerned (due to the ridiculous coyote population of San Francisco), so I was Thrilled to get to see and pet him. Ira is a little scared of Casper - so he just moseyed down the block a couple houses and waited for me to come along.

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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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