🌱 Happy Summer 🌱

Recipes, Wheat, a Sale, and Gil rambles

HAPPY SUMMER

Now that you have access to all kinds of fresh produce, we know you’re cutting down on your Sprouts and Microgreens. We’re sharing one of our favorite - and simple recipes this week as it welcomes fresh vegetables galore. SPROUTED BEAN RICE POT - pictured above is absolutely glorious.

While we’re at it - we’ll again share our Breakfast Cereal recipe - which adores the addition of fresh fruit - which is also abundant now. RAW BREAKFAST CEREAL

Enjoy the abundance of the season, but don’t forget your Sprouts and Micros.

WHEAT IS ALMOST BACK

We only in-stock items when we get the product into our facility. Our Wheat is scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday July 5. The minute we receive it we will in-stock both Wheat Sprouts and Wheatgrass. You can sign up to be notified (from either page) or check back Wednesday afternoon. They are the same seed. Each page shows growing instructions for the crop you wish to grow - sprouts or grass. We have been determined to stick with our favorite heirloom variety - Turkey Red - which is why we were briefly out-of-stock. We didn’t get as much as we’d like, but we’ll have more soon as this is harvest season for wheat. We are truly sorry for having let our supply lapse.

THIS WEEKS SALE

Whether it’s the economy or our less than honorable competitors poaching - our annual sales are historically low. It seems we now must discount something to get enough orders to keep working - so this week we’re offering a big discount on our most diminutive Sprouting Device - the small Stainless Steel Sprouter.

This is a lovely and durable device. We sell only the Sprouter Tray - to keep costs down - we use plates for the base and a cover - as is detailed on the product’s page (everything we sell has a similarly detailed instructional page). This Sprouter is ideal for smaller crops of Leafy Sprouts, Brassica Sprouts - like Broccoli, Bean Sprouts, or any other crop - though you will need a medium (we prefer Coconut Coir) if you want to grow Microgreens.

These appreciate care - and you can give them more with some stainless steel protecant (also on sale this week) - but it’s seldom a requirement (it depends on your water really - we have several we’ve never treated and they look like new after many years of use). They last forever and wash easily. We use the same ones for all crops - we just wash them with soap and water in between.

Be sure to check out our videos to see them in use.

BUSINESS IS A DRAG

I (Gil) am really tired of business. When we started in 1993 people were better behaved - or so it seemed. There was more honor and respect - or did I see that because I was younger? This past week we had a customer ask why we hadn’t sent a gift he’d ordered for a friend. We looked and found no such order. Lori - being the smarter one of us - searched big G (google) for s”Sproutpeople”. The first thing that showed up was True Leaf Market - a much larger competitor that is a conglomerate of several companies they have purchased over the years. They sell everything - not just seeds and supplies for sprouts and microgreens. THEY PAY GOOGLE TO TAKE OUR NAME SPROUTPEOPLE AND TAKE OUR BUSINESS - so if you search for OUR name - they appear on top. That is just plain WRONG! They are siphoning off customers who search for us by name. That is predatory behavior. We trademarked our name decades ago - so it’s also trademark infringement.

But the solution to this problem in these corrupt days is for us to lodge a complaint with Google AND set up ads with Google - so we can pay them to lead people who search for us by name TO US. This absolutely infuriates me!

I’ve told you more than once in recent Newsletters that we do not advertise - instead requiring people to search for words and phrases that will lead them to our website - which is truly the biggest site on growing sprouts - and has been for over 25 years. Now we are being basically extorted to advertise. That’s more money for us to spend - which eventually means more for you to pay us. I’m just fed up with BS! People acting poorly has always been a problem for me. Even slights of minimal import set me off. I was raised to be respectful and courteous. Those qualities have diminished so much in our lifetimes. I am not okay living in a world like this. If the bastards at True Leaf want to use our name they should buy our business. They are way bigger than us. Why are they poaching from us?

This isn’t the first time we’ve been poorly used. Many sites have poached pictures from us since the 90’s even though they are trademarked too. I saw one on eBay just the other day. We had one guy who sells on Amazon who actually offered French Garden by name. We hold our mix recipes very close. Those and our seed suppliers are the only secrets we have - and in the days of the internet basically anyone can find the latter. That guy didn’t have our recipe - he just used our product name and the seeds we used in the mix. His mix was faulty because he didn’t know what proportions work. At least he stopped when we asked him to stop selling it.

It was a customer who told us about that guy. So, please - if you see anyone anywhere pretending to be Sproutpeople - or selling our mixes - please tell us. We haven’t the time or heart to spend time looking for thieves. We have always been the only source of our seeds. That’s the only way we can maintain our high quality - and as I said in our last Newsletter - we believe new growers must experience successful crops if they are to continue growing - so others claiming to be us and selling our seeds then providing no support are doing a major disservice to all of us.

MY BAD ATTITUDE

I am sorry for not spreading joy in Newsletters of late. I am a victim of my upbringing. I’m courteous, kind, and respectful - even to strangers. When I moved to San Francisco in 1978, everyone I passed  while walking would smile, nod, or in some way acknowledge my existence. I was a long haired guy with a scraggly beard - but no one cared, and nobody wanted anything - just a hiya howdy do!? I absolutely loved doing this. Acknowledging strangers with respect and tolerance - even acceptance makes the world move so peacefully. I fell in love with San Francisco because of that.

We left on the last day of 1988. At that time our rent had just been raised 50% and I was a cab driver, while Lori ran the office for a realtor (our landlord). Houses cost more than we could imagine ever being able to afford and the rising cost of living was driving out the “creatives”. People making art and music couldn’t afford it here anymore - and they made it illegal to live in warehouses - so the city was losing its charm. This is when our desire for self sufficiency began to sprout.

Besides that, this city had long been opposed to national chain stores. In 1980 there were two fast food franchises in the entire city. We had a wealth of one-of-a-kind shops and eateries, a local chain called Doggie Diner, and block after block of mom-n-pop businesses. This was a truly special place. The farmland down the peninsula that San Francisco sits atop became Silicon Valley. Technology brought in vast numbers of new people during the internet boom. It used to be - and still is for Lori and I - that people moving into a new place adapt to the culture there. That is how San Francisco remained so grand for so long. Its people were so embracing that everyone wanted to emulate them.

But times changed - people moved here and changed the culture to be like where they came from. Chains were welcomed, high rise limits were lifted, and the wealthy took over. As civility faded people stopped acknowledging others and started taking advantage instead. It’s a microcosm of the world I suppose, but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable to me. The only magic still left in San Francisco is the geography and our abundance of open spaces. The City is now overrun with homeless people, addicts who do their fentanyl right in front of the Federal Building and around downtown, and crime is so high that many big businesses are pulling out.

We have a lot of small streets here - where 2 cars can not pass at the same time - so courtesy is actually required. People on such streets - when busy - take turns pulling to the side to let each other go. Used to be that everyone would wave a thank you - but that too has all but disappeared. This is not the world we wanted for our children. Please be kind to other members of your species (and other species as well). We simply must if we want a functioning - and even better - a positive society once again.

THE BOYS

The 4 legged ones are all doing well and send their love to you who admire them. FYI - we love when you send us pictures of your loved ones - which you can do via email. We don’t often have time to respond - but we love to see and read about them - so never hesitate to drop something in our inbox at helper@sproutpeople.org - and please know how much we appreciate it - even if we don’t respond.

Ira arriving home from work. He has a bed in our car and likes to get under this blanket. He isn’t much of a car dog. He doesn’t get ill - he just isn’t a dog who puts his head out the window.

Ira sleeping with his leg in his mouth. I’ve never seen this before - so I took this picture.

Django allowed me to get his picture on a late afternoon bed break.

Ira - as I’ve told you before - loves to play Scrat - using seed ball/pods that fall from Monterey Pines. I try frequently to capture him with a moth full of these (he is proud that he can hold 3 at once), but it is a tough picture to get. Here he has 2 of them. Though you can’t see them - it shows how cute he is when he has them.

We have several catnip plants in our backyard. Gus is enhoying one that’s growing between flagstones.

Showing the signs of catnip intoxication.

Our little fella loves to lay on the hot asphalt after a hard days work at Sproutpeople.

Django looking very British. He came from England infact.

Ira in the garden where he loves to help me hunt gophers and dig himself dirt beds in the paths.

Gus in the catnip is this weeks video. He’s a great cat. We originally adopted Gus as a partner for our first Siamese Snowshoe - Scoobie, who we adopted thanks to our son, Sam and his friends. Scoobie was a kitten of a feral cat - and his first sustained human contact was with teenagers. A lot of teenagers. When he moved in with us he caused some issues with our beloved Neville - so we got him his own playmate - Gus. Scoobie taught Gus how to be a hunter and a cat before he was killed by a car when he was just 1, but Gus took to Django when we brought him into the house and they remain brothers of great affection. Good cat, Gus!

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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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