Seed Sprouter

I am big into sprouting seeds, lentils and beans for their incredible nutritional value and health aspects for my family. To quote Dr Mercola, from his article titled, What Are Sprouts Good For? (which can be read at http://foodfacts.mercola.com/sprouts.html ):

Why eat sprouts? First of all, once you get a taste of their crunchy, tasty goodness in a salad or on a sandwich, you may find yourself asking for this option again and again, or even sprouting your own – an easy, fun project. But an even more important reason is the truly amazing health benefits they provide.

Besides vitamins C, A, and K, sprouts contain fiber, manganese, riboflavin, copper, protein, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. The amounts these vitamins and minerals impart generate benefits for nearly every area of the body. When you eat sprouted foods, you increase highly concentrated proteolytic enzymes that make carbohydrates and proteins digestible. Even little sprouts contain 10 to 100 times the glucoraphanin, the main enzyme inducer, compared to the mature vegetable, protecting against chemical cancer-causing agents.

So eat sprouts or sprout some – they’re a mega-healthy food we can all live with.

I have been using an empty sterilised Black Cat Peanut Butter glass jar, with small holes drilled into the lid to let the rinse water out, but then the lids started to rust, which is definitely not hygienic. 

So I looked for another solution that would not cost too much, therefore staying with the idea that sprouting at home is cheaper than buying sprouts from the shop. 

I then found the Elzed Seed Sprouter, sold by Nature’s Choice at Nature’s Pantry in Pietermaritzburg. It was only R134.00, which is very reasonable for a three-tier seed sprouter.

This sprouter works very well for the cost of it but:

• The tails of the sprouts do get stuck in the slits of the plastic dishes and can be quite difficult to remove.
• Not all the water runs out of the dishes, as it pools in some places where there are no slits, therefore one has to pick up each individual tray and tilt them until all the water runs out, to ensure that the sprouts do not sit in water and go mouldy.
• Be careful to store the sprouter (when it has contents in it), in a cool dry place, so that the sprouts do not get mildew on them.

I washed the sprouter in my dishwasher and it seems to cope with the heat and detergent fairly well.

Overall, it is a good product on the cheap end of the sprouting equipment range.

Update: (November 2018) 

See my Sprouting Tips post for lessons that I have learned in my sprouting journey.