🌱 Happy September
more free seeds for you
MORE FREE SEEDS & SALES GALORE
We still have Free Seeds to share with you! Some folks have found the concept difficult to grasp. I (Gil) gave details in our previous Newsletter, so if you’re new - you should read that one too - but I will repeat: To get free seeds just leave a note in the Order Comment/Gift Message box, on our shopping cart - when you go to checkout. It’s an empty box with those words right above it. You can’t miss it.
We want to share with everyone - so please don’t ask for more than a pound (unless you know we love you so much we’ll want you to have more =;-) all together. We bag these ahead of time - so you can only specific quantities.
We’ve added to our free offerings. Here’s a list of what you can have and how we bagged it (weight wise)…
White Chia (1 lb.) for culinary use
White Quinoa (1 lb.) for culinary use
Yellow Popcorn (1 lb.) for culinary use
Carrot (½ lb.) grows wonderful Microgreens
Caraway (½ lb.) for culinary use
Fennel (½ lb.) for culinary use
These are all limited in quantity - so don’t expect them to be available all month.
I’ve wanted to offer Carrot Microgreens for many years. I’ve just never found the time to make a page for the crop. I will, after our coming transformation - so these will hopefully be a regular offering in the not too distant future. I grow them exactly like I grow Bruno’s Indoor Garden (now 30% off) in our video - Growing Microgreens - Bruno’s Indoor Garden.
I bought the Carrot, Caraway, and Fennel a few years ago and stored them in a freezer. I never built a page for any of them. Bad Gil! Anyway - I know the Carrot still grows vigorously because I just grew a crop (see picture at top), but I haven’t yet tested the others - so we say they’re for culinary use. If you want to try growing them as Microgreens (None of these seeds can grow as Sprouts) - treat them just like the Carrot - follow the same video.
The one other limitation to free seeds is due to shipping cost. We love giving away seeds, but we dislike having to pay to ship them to you - so this offer is only for those whose shipments will cost little to nothing more by adding these. Basically - if your paid order weighs at least 3 pounds but not more than 18.5 - or if it’s over 20 (in which case we’ll need to split your order into multiple boxes) but not over 38.5 lbs., you can get some. Really - if you just accept the possibility that you won’t get free seeds (we will run out anyway), you should ask. Just know we want to share with you and we’ll all be a little happier.
We had one order on Friday that weighed 20.6 lbs. after we put the free seeds in. The cost of shipping jumps precipitously past 20.0 - so Lori unpacked it, started with a smaller box, and reduced the packing material enough that she could get 1/2 pound of free seed in. We just cannot realistically do that - it takes too much time. So - ask and we’ll try. If you want to help - go to our Dollars page =:-)
OUR MIXES ARE OUR TOP PRIORITY
As I’ve told you too often - we do everything possible to keep our seed mixes always in-stock. With our coming transition our seed inventory is lower than it’s been since the early 90’s - and we’re trying to run out - so there are supply issues.
Though many of our straight seeds are listed as out-of-stock (because we always keep enough to make our mixes) – when we get to the very end - before we stop shipping from here - we will put whatever we have left (that we aren’t keeping for ourselves) back in-stock, so there may very well be small amounts of things like Green Peas, Alfalfa, Adzuki, Black Lentils, and other straight seeds you want - later.
I’ll keep you posted in newsletters and/or on social media - because like when we sell seconds of things - limited supplies fly off our shelves. So stay tuned and remember it’s going to be near the end of September that this happens because we stop shipping on the last day of September!
SO MANY SEEDS ON SALE
When you visit our Seeds page you will see many items are on sale. I should list them all here to stimulate sales, but I’m going to be adding more, almost daily - so just keep looking.
OUR NEW LOGO
We don’t know if you’ve noticed the new Sproutpeople logo on our website - but if you haven’t - go take a look. I didn’t change it here on our newsletter because I want you to be able to compare the old (atop this newsletter) and new - - especially if you’re new to Sproutpeople.
USING SPROUTPEOPLE.ORG
Most constant readers know how to use our website - but few sites are as packed with words as our’s - and we know many people don’t know how to use it fully, because we spend so much of our email time answering questions that are already answered on sproutpeople.org. We don’t at all mind answering emails - but if you need an answer NOW - and it takes us a couple days to respond - - it’s obvious the site will provide the answer faster - so I’m going to tell you all how it works.
The core of our site is our Seeds page. There you find every Crop for which we sell seeds. This is why you see Broccoli Micro-Greens and Broccoli Sprouts. The same seed is used for both crops - but the growing methods are completely different. As our goal has always been to teach others how to grow successfully - every Crop has an extremely detailed page devoted to it.
You get to those Crop pages via our Seeds page or its sub-categories…
Every Crop page includes…
Brief Instructions (for the experienced grower) - these are open by default
Detailed Instructions (for the not yet experienced).
Photos of the crop growing day-by-day
Crop Notes, often a Video, and other useful or whimsical information
(Recipes for each crop will be back on these pages soon too)
To organize our content we use Tabs (on computer) and Pull-Down Menus (on mobile devices). All of those instructions, photos, etc. are under these Tabs/Pull-Down Menus.
Our Sprouting Supplies section contains similarly detailed pages for every item we sell. We also have a section devoted to a general education - Growing Sprouts & Microgreens which includes, among other things - Sprouting Basics and our Sprout Glossary. There’s even more - but we’ll let you discover that on your own. Happy Surfing, indoor farmer!
One of the first projects I’ll undertake after our forthcoming transition, is to make videos to show you all this - for both computer and phone users =%^)
OUR FURRY FAMILY
September and October are traditionally the warmest months in San Francisco - and this year we’ve gotten an early start. We’ve had 10 sunny days in August! The boys are loving it, but as the cats are now 11 - they enjoy it by laying in open windows at least as often as they go outside. Frankly Ira is fed up. Because of the grim weather we’ve had previously, our garden isn’t doing well this year - so we’ve spent less time there - and with all the work around our coming merger, I’ve had to be tied to the computer more than either of us prefer. Just the same, he is always a good happy dog. He just sighs more often. He’s going to be So Happy come October!
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 the monthly newsletters and the pics of the pets!