Tiny Little Garden...

I have been wanting to try sprouting my own sprouts for a long time. Like literally 20 years. For some reason, I never tried very hard to make it happen, but this year it made it to the "List of Things To-Do" and now I wonder why I waited so long. It could not be easier to sprout mung beans into the most delicious bean sprouts I have ever tasted. Maybe I never tried it because I figured a bean sprout is a bean sprout, and I don't buy them that often so why even go through the trouble. I was wrong. It is no trouble. I think part of it was I assumed I would forget to water them (a frequent problem in my gardening attempts), but since I kept the sprout garden right by the sink and I visit the sink like a dozen times a day, it was no problem at all. So worth it. If you even like bean sprouts a little bit, you can get into this.

 Start with some mung beans. I got mine at Sprouts. This bag of beans costs less than two containers of bean sprouts and will probably make about 20 times more. You also need a very clean wide mouth jar, a small piece of cheesecloth or something similar (I happened to have a spool of tulle ribbon about 4" wide so that's what I am using),  and a rubber band. Put enough beans in the jar to cover the bottom, then cover the jar with the cheesecloth and rinse the beans a couple of times in cool water. Drain off the water & let them sit next to your sink til it's time to water again. Keep the jar out of direct light (I just propped a Tupperware lid up against the jar to cast a little shade on it) and rinse 2 or 3 times a day til your sprouts are the desirable size. I like to sprout them until tiny leaves form because I think they look like little snakes. Once you taste these, you will never want to buy sprouts from the store again.

mung beans

it's a tiny garden!

ready to eat, or wait a couple days and get 'em nice & big