So, I have been reading tons of stuff about sprouting. Have been wanting to try it for the longest time but just couldn’t get my tush in gear. You know exactly what I mean, don’t you? You are probably another sprouting procrastinator, am I right? Anyway, I was quite excited about the fact that those tiny sprout thingies carry so much power; power packed nutrition, that is! If you ended up in a survival situation and had some seeds or grain kernels you could boost your nutritional index by quite a bit just through sprouting. And it is super easy!
One night my husband and I had tons of time on our hands when we volunteered to be the “night watchmen” for a local small shelter and we spend the better part of the night reading about food storage (isn’t that what all newlyweds do who marry later in life? I thought so) which also mentioned the many benfits of sprouting. However, it wasn’t until I came across my latest favorite bread book “Secrets of a Jewish Baker” and found a very short paragraph about sprouting , that I realized, this was so totally not a big deal. I mean, the process wasn’t, the results, however, are a big deal! As luck would have it, I found the single can of wheat I own and which I had “stibiezt” (German colloquialism for ‘snatched’) from my previous life when I still had 2 entire cupboards set aside in the garage dedicated entirely to food storage.
Now, if you look at those wheat kernels (or colonels, as my husband calls them), they look pretty dead. They have been in that #10 can for, oh, probably a decade, and if there ever was any oxygen in that can at all (which is what all living things need) it was sucked out with an oxygen absorbing packet which was added in the dry canning process. You can imagine that suffocation is a true colonel killer! So, here I am opening the can and looking into a wheat colonel mass grave! But, not to despair! I am armed with the secret of a Jewish baker who knows how to resurrect the mostly dead colonels (any Prince’s Bride fans reading this?) from the wheat can grave. And I have faith. Tons of it! So, I measure about 1/4 cup of the mostly dead colonels and dump them into a canning jar and water so they are covered by about two inches. Of course, now I am thinking, what if they do resurrect? (I really would hate to be a wheat colonel. First they suffocate me, now they attempt to drown me?) But I guess, wheat colonels have a different genetic make-up because after a night in the water bath, they started to thrive. They were actually a whole lot plumper.
plump colonels
Actually, the caption is a falsehood. This picture was taken on the second day. How can I tell? Can’t you see the little sprouty thingies? IF this picture had truly been taken “the morning after” THEN all you would see would be bare, but plump colonels. (NOT a picture I would like to store in my head).
So, on the morning of the overnight bath I draped a gauze sack (my good friend Teresa The Nurse fashioned for me) over the glass jar and drained the water from the colonels. But really, a simple gauze or cheesecloth piece with a rubber band would do.
Colonels undercover (literally)
This is the bird’s eye view of the jar with the colonels undercover. Once the water drained out, I kept the gauze on the glass jar and set it at an angle in the kitchen cupboard with a little dish under it so it could catch any water. Gravity is important here, so the remaining water can still drain, hence the angle. Sprouts really appeal to me because I like anything that you don’t have to fuzz about. Just let the colonels do their own thing all day long (whatever that is). And then just before you go to bed, you check in on them and swoosh some water around the glass jar, drain it through the cheese cloth and set the jar once again at an angle over the little dish and say good night to the colonels.
Then, the next morning on your way out the door, you read the post-it note you left on the kitchen cabinet which reads: “We need a shower” and you remember to do the swooshing thing again, drain and leave the colonels in the cupboard while you go about your day.
At the end of the day you check on them again and repeat the evening bath and draining routine.
You can see the little shoots have already grown quite a bit. Dead they are no longer, that’s for sure. The Jewish baker was right; in one tiny paragraph he shared a secret of immense proportion that could one day save you from scurvy!
By the next day you have created a monster! The jar is FULL of sprouty thingies from just 1/4 cup of colonels. It is truly amazing!
Happy nutritious wheat colonels!
The Jewish baker says to let them get a good dose of sunshine so they turn green and then they will be even more nutritious. I believe him, but I ran out of patience (or day light) and just spread the sprouties on a baking sheet to dry out a bit before adding them to my sourdough bread dough.
I gave my good friend Sandy a bag of the the leftovers . Whatever she did with them I know not and so the fate of the remaining colonels remains unknown.
THE END. (Over and Out)