GIVING THE GIFT OF GROWING
Now that the calendar has turned to my (Gil) birthday month - and I received my Medicare card - on December 1st - it’s time to get with the season. MERRY HAPPY!!!
Growing food is one of the most liberating experiences Lori and I have known in our combined 133 years. It changed our lives completely! We can think of no finer gift to present to a loved one, a new acquaintance, or a stranger you want to be kind too.
We’re having a sale on a few of our favorite Kits - all of which are perfect gifts to new and experienced indoor farmers…
BEGINNER’S SPROUT KIT - $47.74 $42.97
VERTICAL LEAFY SPROUT KIT - $69.96 $62.97
WHEAT GRASS KIT - $75.57 $69.96
We have a particular joy in supplying folks with winged companions, so we’re also offering a sale for you and your winged wonders…
BIRD SEED SPROUTING KIT - $36.73 $31.22 (Dr. Bird will cost you a tad more)
Sale prices are good through December 17.
Other Kits that make exceptional gifts…
BROCCOLI SPROUT KIT - $49.94
IT’S A DOGGIE DOG WORLD - $35.55
MASTER MICROGREENS KIT - $96.69
SEE ALL OF OUR KITS & SAMPLERS
SEEDS AND SEASONAL MIXES
This time of year we mix up our special Christmas Cat Grass (aka Cosmic Kitty). It has a higher percentage of Rye - which grows reddish blades of Grass (especially in cool conditions) and so mixes beautifully with the lovely greens of the other grasses - Wheat, Oats, Barley - and Flax.
We’re also offering our seasonal mix - Christmas Present, on sale through Christmas Eve - AND we’re offering FREE SEEDS - while they last. Due to shipping costs and my need to keep chaos down - the free seeds are only available to those who spend enough to get us to pay the shipping (aka free shipping =;-)
So, if your subtotal is at least $120 you can have a pound of either Multi-Colored Popcorn (we pop this - it isn’t intended to grow Popcorn Shoots) or Kasha (roasted buckwheat groats - which were sent to us mistakenly by one of our beloved suppliers).
We have about 100 pounds to give away - so they won’t last long - but we’re happy to share them. We love popping popcorn. We’re stovetop poppers - in case you wonder - and we love porridge - which Kasha can be.
To tell us you want some - leave us a note on the last screen of checkout - in the comments field on that page. Specify which seed you prefer or ask us to surprise you.
GIFT CERTIFICATE UPGRADE
Our Gift Certificates can now be set to deliver on the date you wish. We have wanted to offer them this way for many years but our system didn’t like doing it until now. Silly technologies. We’re glad it finally works as expected. FYI - our GC’s never expire.
GIFTS REQUIRE THIS
The Only way we know you are sending a gift (unless it is a Gift Certificate) is if you leave a gift message for your recipient. To do this - click this box and fill in the fields when checking out - it appears multiple times during the checkout process…
HOLIDAY DEADLINES
If you order by noon on December 17 - we will ship your order in time for it to arrive before Christmas. You have until noon on the 19th if your recipient is west of the Rockies.
We always do our best to get gifts where they’re going - even moving them up in the queue - but we can not control the package once it leaves - so try to give as much time as possible - and BE SURE TO ENTER A GIFT MESSAGE - so we know it’s a gift.
Leave us a note - in the Comments field - on the last screen of checkout - if you want us to write anything on the box - like “don’t open ‘til Christmas” or something else suitable for the outside of a package - just let us know.
SHORT VIDEOS
Our daughter, Alice is making short videos and posting them to the Sproutpeople You Tube page. She does her own thing - they aren’t ‘how-to-grow’ like our full length videos - but she covers things that should be of interest to our customers. You will find them under Shorts. Let us know what you think of them - and if you have ideas.
SPROUTPEOPLE T-SHIRTS
We offered T-shirts for years. They were never very popular so we let them run out. We actually had 5 left when we put them out-of-stock - in 2020 - but they were all unisex smalls (except the Green which is a women’s cut - medium - which is smaller than the others) and we didn’t see a reason to push them. Alice - who lost her last semester of college to the madness of 2020 moved home and came to work for us. Besides the daily order filling, she tie-dyed the five remaining Sproutpeople T’s because she’s creative and felt like it. I’ve been slow to make these available - but they are now. They appear in our Sprouting Supplies section - under Odds & Ends - and as there is only one of each - your options are limited, but for those who want one - Thank You! We love you!
Sam, our son wants us to offer them again - so perhaps we’ll get around to redesigning them and offering a full range of sizes. Only time will tell. I did just get that Medicare card - so you all know I’m a bit past my prime creative peak. Maybe the ‘kids’ will get them going again. FYI - the link in this paragraph is to a film I made when I was 22ish. It’s about my parents and my realization that they were actually human beings.
FURRY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
One of these weeks I’m going to share pictures we’ve been sent by our patrons over the years. We have some absolutely wonderful customers - who leave us kind notes when ordering, write us unsolicited emails full of love, and when I ask - send us pictures and tell us stories about their other-than-human family members. many people tell us they like this part of our newsletter best - so one of these days we’ll share some back.
Thank you most sincerely for sharing your love. To be sure - kindness is not as common as it was in the past. Courtesy and civility are likewise lacking nowadays - so we appreciate you (you know who you are =:-) more than we can possibly say - - and you help us get past the less kind/civil/courteous humans. You make the world turn properly. You make an enormous difference! We cannot imagine life without you.
This time it’s just our guys and their friends, as usual - but look forward to seeing others - and if you’re in the mood - send us some pictures - and words if you like. We cannot ever meet too many animals - and again - Thank You for sharing Love!
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
Thank you for another entertaining and informative post, Gil. And many thanks to you, Lori, Alice, and Sam for helping to keep this world spinning properly as well. Thanks for always including animal and pet pictures!
Oh Gil!! Thank you for sharing a photo of our sweet Sundy on this newsletter...and for tagging us too!! And thank you for sharing your lovely film... how wonderful, (I haven't thought about Paddington Bear and his yellow boots for 40 years!!) Watching it made me think of my childhood, and the super 8 films that are packed away somewhere. Now I want to find them! We appreciate you SproutPeople, keep on growing, and sewing joy!