Spring is Coming 🌱
it's never too soon
WHAT’S UP
I (Gil) am going to - once again - whine at you. Sorry. I’m really quite happy, all things considered. But!
I am Tired of being copied.
I have, personally typed hundreds of thousands of words about how to grow Sprouts and Microgreens. I built (and even hosted, at first) a website. Our first iteration was in 1996. By 2001 we had over 400 pages of detailed sprouting instructions - for a range of seeds previously unknown in the sprout universe.
The nature of the world wide web makes copying commonplace. Everything from students plagiarizing in order to finish homework - to businesses that open - using information copied from already established sites.
This month, while checking email (which I do less and less and less =:-), I found another glitzy site with all the modern bells and whistles. We have been in the sprout “industry” through decades of bad press - due to the FDA’s fear campaign against raw and living food - which has been going on since the late 90’s, at least.
We had the one huge surge caused by the good press about Broccoli Sprouts, in September of 1997 - but for almost all of Sproutpeople’s existence, we’ve been fighting just to stay alive. Lori and I have said - forever - “we’ll just keep going and hope Sprouts get their day in the sun again” (like in the 1970’s). Now I keep reading (thanks to these email solicitations) about how Sprouts and Microgreens are “the coming rage”, or some such. We sure hope that’s true - and we’re still here, but we remain “old fashioned”, so we may not even see the benefits.
Maybe we just worked our tails off all these years just to keep the flame alive - and maybe it will be all the new companies that get the rewards. It’s life. We’re happy. We have done - and will continue to do our part. We want a world of people growing their own food - and the empowerment that comes with doing so.
We also want people honoring farmers. We NEED FARMERS more than any other people. Sproutpeople has always prioritized farmers, for without them - there would be no Sproutpeople - or much of anything else. They have the most difficult of jobs - and they almost always make less money than those further up the food chain, but without them - we all disappear.
I will stop now. I’ve praised us enough already - and you know, I loathe virtue signaling - - but it really presses my buttons to be solicited by new companies that are - well - standing on our back. I can write endlessly about how stupid people have become, how broken society is, how skewed our priorities have become - and what a horror I see on the horizon - - but most prefer to avoid hard reality - and pretend life is the way it was. In any case, I’m happy to be done with my years of labor for money. We hope we have saved enough to get through the rest of our time on this glorious but beleaguered planet.
So, getting back to where I started…
The email that got me going down this bumpy and rambling road was from a new “player in our (sprout and micros) space”. The sender’s ignorance of our longevity just pisses me off. It read…
“My name is (Whatever), founder of (a new company) and I’m reaching out because microgreens and sprouts continue to gain momentum as a home-growing category, particularly among customers who want fresh greens they can grow themselves. We’re seeing this demand translate into strong, consistent sales online.
(New company) is currently the top-selling brand for sprouting kits, microgreens kits, and self-watering cat grass kits on Amazon, and we’re also seeing strong uptake from specialty retailers on Faire. Many customers discover our brand online first and then look for our products through retail channels.”
They want to cross-link or some such middleman thing. They think we’d be better if we offered their products. They don’t even know - or care, who we are - we’re just another possible site to sell their stuff.
I found their site lacking in instruction - though it does have a whole lot of hype.
We have watched many competitors come and go over the years. We think some are solely in the business for nothing but money. They could be selling widgets for all they care.
Oh, it makes me so mad!
I’m done venting now, so please let me share something positive…
SULFORAPHANE FIGHTS MICRO PLASTICS
I could write you paragraph after paragraph about how great Broccoli Sprouts are, but I want you to spend 8 1/2 minutes watching this video which has only to do with the health benefits of sulforaphane, the ingredient that makes broccoli sprouts so popular - which, as mentioned above - started in September 1997 – the announcement of which came only weeks after our daughter Alice was born.
This guy, Felix Harder is wonderful. He is obviously very educated, and he presents information very clearly. Micro-plastics in our food, air, and water are one of a multitude of problems we’re dealing with, so it’s important information - but the education he provides, regarding the antioxidant so plentiful in Broccoli Sprouts is what makes me need to share it.
He even mentions how important chewing your food is and how getting nutrition through food is THE best way to get nutrition. We’ve been Sproutpeople for almost 33 years and I’ve been harping on mastication (chewing food) most of that time.
We had Broccoli seeds when no one else did, thanks to our dear farmer friend, Mark in Nebraska. He’s been allotted 1,000 pounds of seed (by a big seed company) - to plant, so he could produce more seeds (so they’d have more to sell). He let us buy them as he was unable to grow them in his climate - so we had Broccoli Sprouts when no one else did. We were even featured in Health, a big magazine of the day. That was what accounted for the big surge - again, as mentioned above.
That led a fellow, who wanted to make supplements, to our door. He tested our Broccoli and reported that it had the highest sulforaphane he’d seen in any of his tests - so I asked if we could sell his supplement when he got it produced. He said No! He went on to tell us that chewing food was way better than taking a pill - and he insisted that we were doing exactly what people needed. This was actually the moment when masticating became one of my passions.
OMG! I just wrote 3 paragraphs that kept you in my world!
Here’s the video…
We’re eating more broccoli sprouts than ever, since watching this. Lori made up a big batch of honey-mustard dressing, so we’ve been using that and having delicious big broccoli sprout salads for weeks. I feel marvelous!
PARROT PROJECT
I’ve yet to recruit any parrots to our garden - but I keep putting sprouts out daily - and filling the birdbath (which I empty at dusk, because the raccoons don’t need extra enticement to visit - and they make a huge mess if I leave it). Instead of boring you with more pictures of crows, ravens, squirrels, and adorable little birds - I am sharing just one.
Our visitors drop many sprouts on the ground. Those grow into Grass and Microgreens. We’ve been told by many a bird person, that their feathered family love to dig in soil, so our Bird Sprout pages have long had pictures and instructions for doing this with our mixes. You will find the written instructions in/under the NOTES ABOUT tab (computer)/pull-down menu (mobile device), under the (not even bolded) heading; Plants for Birds?
These baby plants are a lovely sight in nature, as well as where you grow them. One of these days I will finally make the instructions easier to find.
OUR PACK
We had a ridiculously pleasant February, here in San Francisco. We all spent a lot of time in our garden, and walking around the lovely neighborhood where our garden is.
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
Always enjoy reading the life and observations. Brings me joy!
I look forward to every email you send.