How to Grow Sprouts at Home in a Jar

Healthy sprouts can be grown at home in your kitchen in a few days. Sprouts are living foods that are full of minerals, vitamins, essential amino acids and enzymes. You can grow nutritious alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts, as well as sprouts from the seeds of red clover, radish, buckwheat and sunflower.

Sprouts can be enjoyed raw on sandwiches and salads, or cooked and served in soups and casserole dishes. Seeds for sprouting can typically be found in the bulk section of natural food stores, at gardening stores or purchased online.

• quart size jar
• sprouting screens or cheesecloth and rubber band
• seeds of your choice

The easiest way to grow sprouts at home is by using sprouting screens that screw on to a wide-mouth mason jar. Sprouting screens are composed of plastic or metal mesh that cover the lid of the jar. Having a set of different size sprout screens will make it easier to rinse the seeds and drain the water from the jar. If you don't have sprout screens you can use a rubber band to secure cheesecloth over the jar opening.

1. Place 2-4 tablespoons of seeds into the jar. For smaller seeds, such as for alfalfa sprouts, use less, and for larger seeds, such as for bean sprouts, use more seeds.
2. Add water the jar and soak the seeds for several hours or overnight.
3. Drain the water used for soaking the seeds through the screen. Ideally, you should store the sprouts in the jar in a warm and dark location.
4. Fill the jar with fresh water, rinse the sprouts by gently swirling the jar, and drain the water. Rinse the sprouts at least twice per day. When you are done rinsing the sprouts, prop the jar upside-down and at an angle, so that all the water will drain from the jar.
5. As the sprouts grow the hulls of the seeds will come off in the jar. If you have a larger mesh sprouting screen, use it at this time. Hold the jar under running water and gently swirl the sprouts, so that the hulls flow out the top of the jar, leaving the sprouts behind. Drain well.
6. Repeat the process of rinsing and draining the sprouts for 3 to 5 days. Once the sprouts are fully grown you can place them in a sunny window to encourage them to turn darker green.

An alternative to growing sprouts in a jar at home is using a tray-style sprouting kit. You can purchase sprouting kits that provide you with a layer of containers in which you can grow several types of sprouts at one time.

Try a sprouting a variety of different seeds. Alfalfa sprouts are the most common sprouts people choose for garnishing sandwiches. Radish sprouts are slightly larger and are spicy. You can grow bean sprouts, cabbage sprouts and lentil sprouts. You can also grow a mix of sprouts at one time for a variety of sprout textures and flavors.