For the love of Produce...

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  • ridiculous59
    ridiculous59 Posts: 2,807 Member
    A while back I asked for ideas for delicata squash. Thank you for your input :) I ended up slicing it and then roasting, and really liked it. I was happy to see that there is another one in my most recent box-a-week of veggies :)
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,939 Member
    @acpgee

    I sprout.

    Well, I don't actually sprout, but I grow sprouts. I do have a friend who I've paddled with for years (getting close to decades) who used to call me "sprout" because I was younger than many of the people on our trips.

    I sprouted on and off since the 1980s. What tips do you need? It's pretty foolproof. I do mung beans quite a lot. They are fast and easy. I also do wheat or barley. I have done broccoli, but they take a fair bit longer, and don't make as much. It was actually looking at your pictures of microgreens that got me started again this time. I didn't want to have to use so much soil, and I didn't need the chlorophyll. I use the sprouts in soup or other foods. I add them right before I eat them.

    I even sprout my dry beans before I cook 'em. I sprout those only until the very first acrospire is evident. I don't let them grow a root at all. It's advised not to eat sprouted beans raw. I now realize I should consider adding some sprouted wheat to some bread....

    I have found they don't need to be in a totally dark cabinet to keep them from photosynthesizing. I can leave them in a corner of the counter. This is good to keep air flow going. Typically, I just put some in a jar, cover with water overnight, rinse, drain, and set aside. For big seeds like mung beans, you don't need to invert the jar as long as you drain them enough. For smaller seeds, like clover, alfalfa, or broccoli, invert the jar at an angle so any water can drain out but they still get air flow. Rinse morning and evening. When they get to the desired state of growth, get them as dry as you can and refrigerate.

    Zip zip zip, it's that easy.

  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    I also do sprouts. What are the questions?
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,552 Member
    Doing sprouts for first time.

    Why is it not recommended to eat raw sprouts from beans when I eat raw mungbean sprouts from the supermarket?

    The mungbean sprouts from the supermarket have a lot of stalk compared the sprouts I have seen online for DIY sprouts. Can I just let them go longer to get a more stalk like texture vs bean like texture?
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,552 Member
    Also there is a lot of conflicting information online about what container to use for sprouting. I settled on a bamboo steamer (meant for dim sum) with the lid on, in a corner of the kitchen that doesn't get direct sun.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,721 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Also there is a lot of conflicting information online about what container to use for sprouting. I settled on a bamboo steamer (meant for dim sum) with the lid on, in a corner of the kitchen that doesn't get direct sun.

    It's been a long time since I did sprouting (maybe should restart . . . .) but there used to be quite a bit of concern about pathogen risks (bacteria and what-not). I know that there've been changes in understanding about risk of those things on various surfaces (for example wood vs. plastic cutting boards), so I'm wondering if you (or anyone else commenting) has seen anything current and credible about risks of that sort, and what materials or practices might mitigate them, if it is a concern.

    FWIW, I used to use a set of purpose-specific plastic mesh (strainer like) lids that fit wide-mouth canning jars, rinse/drain the sprouts (I think daily, from memory?), and clean/sanitize the jars and lids carefully between uses. The lids came in a set of several different mesh sizes for different sized seeds. They were handy, but given what I've read on the cutting board front, I wonder (not that I've tracked the subject closely, either).
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,939 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Doing sprouts for first time.

    Why is it not recommended to eat raw sprouts from beans when I eat raw mungbean sprouts from the supermarket?

    The mungbean sprouts from the supermarket have a lot of stalk compared the sprouts I have seen online for DIY sprouts. Can I just let them go longer to get a more stalk like texture vs bean like texture?


    I don't know why they recommend cooking beans after sprouting. I don't think they are speaking of mung beans, but things like black turtle beans, garbanzos, and the like. I eat mung bean sprouts raw, or I put them in soup or cooked food. The time at temperature pasteurizes them, but I don't want to cook them long enough to destroy the enzymes. With beans, apparently sprouting makes some of the nutrients more bioavailale, but I don't know if it's true or not. It also makes them have a little less protein as the plant uses some when it grows from the seed/bean.

    My mung bean sprout are shorter, too. I think the commercial ones are grown in special equipment that lets them get longer. I don't know about that. I probably could let them go longer, but I like to eat them before the cotalydonn starts to open up. I think that's when they are the most nutritious. I don't let it bother me that they're shorter. Hey, I'm not that tall, so why would I have any problem with short sprouts.....


    acpgee wrote: »
    Also there is a lot of conflicting information online about what container to use for sprouting. I settled on a bamboo steamer (meant for dim sum) with the lid on, in a corner of the kitchen that doesn't get direct sun.


    I don't know that it's conflicting information. There's many ways to do it. I use glass quart jars. They are easy to clean, and won't rot or grow mold. I have a set of three sizes of plastic tops to use for various size seeds and one metal screen I can put inside a mason jar ring. If I need to make more smaller sprouts, at some point the one sprouting get big enough to size up the lid and then use the small one to start another batch. You can use trays, jars, or even nylon or muslin bags. I like glass. I can see what's going on in there, and yeah - easy to keep clean.

    Have fun with this!




  • gigius72
    gigius72 Posts: 183 Member
    acpgee wrote: »

    Why is it not recommended to eat raw sprouts from beans when I eat raw mungbean sprouts from the supermarket?

    Beans contain a chemical called lectins. While in small quantities recent studies found out that it is good for us, it even has anticancer properties, in high quantity is very toxic. In Japan was famous the raw bean diet which killed several people.
    Cooking beans for a long time eliminates lectins.
    Sprouting beans reduces a lot the amount of lectins. So I guess it happens on the type of bean at what level the lectins are brought to after sprouting. You might have to do some research about the beans you want to sprout.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,939 Member
    @gigius7

    Thanks for that! I wonder if I ever read that and forgot because it sounds familiar. I heard somewhere that memory is the second thing to go.
  • gigius72
    gigius72 Posts: 183 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    @gigius7

    Thanks for that! I wonder if I ever read that and forgot because it sounds familiar. I heard somewhere that memory is the second thing to go.

    Work out. Physical exercise favors the birth of new brain cells.
    I am afraid of asking what is the first thing to go lol
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,939 Member
    gigius72 wrote: »
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    @gigius7

    Thanks for that! I wonder if I ever read that and forgot because it sounds familiar. I heard somewhere that memory is the second thing to go.

    Work out. Physical exercise favors the birth of new brain cells.
    I am afraid of asking what is the first thing to go lol

    I don't remember!
  • gigius72
    gigius72 Posts: 183 Member
    😂😂😂😂😂😂 you are funny
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,939 Member
    pjg2015 wrote: »
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    Lentil soup finished with rosemary olive oil and smoked sea salt and a slice of roasted butternut squash

    If you didn't eat both halves of that butternut.... send one here.
  • Kandisn29
    Kandisn29 Posts: 92 Member
    Artichokes are my current obsession! 🤗
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    Just bought some artichokes this morning--they're in season.u7qodrc9r56j.jpg
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,939 Member
    I weeded my artichokes on Saturday. They are really productive, and I eat them for two or three months and then take the next ten or nine months off until they come back. They sure are tasty, though. Over the years, mine seem to have become more "wild," as in the flowers are less globe-shaped and more thistle shaped, and the thorns tend to point outward more. They hurt.

    But then I eat their heart out.

    Most years they would have died back to the ground by now and be getting ready to resprout. I don't know what I did differently except one thing, but so far they have maintained green leaves. The one thing I did is more of what I did NOT do. I cut the flowers off the stalk, and eventually the stalk dies back. I read that you should wait until late winter to prune back last year's primacanes on raspberries because the plant continues to extract sugars from them. I thought, hey -- maybe the artichokes do, too. So I left those stalks instead of pulling them off.

    I might be digging up one or two of the plants and giving them to neighbors, but they started some of their own, and theirs have more "friendly" flowers, so I think they should just go with those.