Buckwheat Sprouts and Greens

SPROUTS!

Imagine for pennies you can grow and eat a live vegetable that will grow in any climate, rival meat in nutritional value, ( and tomatoes in Vitamin C), matures in three to five days, may be planted any day of the year, requires neither soil or sunshine, has no waste and can be eaten raw.

Buckwheat up close and personal !

Sprouting is as easy as 1,2,3,.
1. Put a 1/4 cup of buckwheat groats in a quart jar and cover with 1 cup filtered water for about 2 hours.
2. Pour the soaked groats into a sieve and rinse thoroughly, when you feel the rinse water and it isn't gooey it is ready to sprout.
3. Put the groats back into the jar put a sprouting screen lid on the jar and leave the rinsed sprouts in the jar at an angle upside down, repeat rinsing and setting upside down 3 times a day for 2-3 days then eat or refrigerate and eat within three or so days.  Rinse once a day and store in the refrigerator.

This is indoor gardening . The rules are simple.
1. The garden must be watered and tended at least twice preferably three times a day like an outside garden. 2. Drainage  is essential to healthy plants. That is why the jar is kept upside down and at an angle to allow air circulation and good drainage.
3. Sunlight makes everything green when they are ready.

You are in charge of your own quality control!
The three important things for safe sprouting is:
1. Look over your sprouting seeds and remove anything broken of foreign.
2. Use clean jar screens and water.
3. Smell and observe the sprouts for off smell, mold or anything different.
Bacteria need moisture and protein to grow and sprouts have both.
When in doubt throw it out!

As with any new adventure there will be failures. You only loose a few cents worth of seeds so don't become discouraged. It isn't hard to forget to rinse or forget to eat them in time. They are great for the compost too.
Don't give up! The tastes and nutrition are worth the new routine to pick up.

  

As you can see, buckwheat seeds look like little triangles.
We want to sprout the seeds so it is important to look over your seeds and check for too many broken pieces.
When possible pick the broken bits out.
The sprout seeds need to be sold as sprout seeds to avoid chemically treated industrial seeds.

YOU ARE YOUR OWN QUALITY CONTROLLER!
Get picky about how fresh seeds are.

Once the magic of water to seed takes hold it is fun to watch the seed with all the information it needs to grow into it's parents.
I use the sprouts in salads or drinks when the tail is as long as the seed is in size.
 This is the time to dry them for grinding for living food flour.
One of my favorite is to make food bars out of the sprouts, flax seed, fruits and nuts.

Growing buckwheat greens.

The seeds when they are very young get laid gently on an inch or so of soil. I put them thicker than I might think so they grow thick.

Now I cover the seeds gently with 1/4 inch soil and water it.
This tray doesn't have holes but it can sit on the kitchen table if I don't over water.
Soak and drain the soil before layering the seeds and soil.
It only takes sprinkles of water to grow well.

Check out this green beauty!
 With scissors I can trim off the leaves easily.

They taste mild, I don' mean bitter like dandelions, I mean mild like alfalfa.
I try to add their bright leaves to all my dishes.
Then I cut the stems for living food noodles.
Living food means raw food full of their enzymes and energy.
They are as light as lettuce in taste.

The stems get near two inches long and are crisp and delicate.
The redness of the long stems announces the high rutin content.
 Rutin is one of the bioflavinoids that help our capillaries stay strong. Buckwheat is also very high in lecithin that reduces cholesterol.

I sprinkled Italian seasoning, dulse and buckwheat greens in with the stems for a cool nutritious salad.

Enjoy!