Category Archives: Sprouting

Book Spotlight: Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 Days by Peter Burke

Published in 2015, 192 pages

Get ready for a low-tech, no grow-lights approach to an abundant harvest of microgreens!

This book shows how you can grow all the fresh salad greens you need for the winter months (or throughout the entire year) with no lights, no pumps, and no greenhouse. All you need is a cupboard and a windowsill.

Longtime gardener Peter Burke was tired of the growing season ending with the first frost. Due to his busy work schedule and family life, he didn’t have the time or desire to bother with high-input grow lights or greenhouses. Most techniques for growing what are commonly referred to as microgreens left him feeling overwhelmed and uninterested. So, he set out to find a simpler way to grow salad greens for his family indoors.

After some research and diligent experimentation, Burke discovered that not only was it possible to grow nutrient-packed microgreens indoors, but it was easy, too! He didn’t even need a south-facing window. And he already had most of the necessary supplies sitting in his pantry. His result: healthy, homegrown microgreens at a fraction of the cost of buying them at the market. His secret: starting them in the dark!

Burke refers to sprouted seeds grown in soil as opposed to jars as “soil sprouts.” His method encourages a long stem without expansive roots, and provides delicious salad greens in just seven to ten days–much earlier, and with a lot less work, than any other growing method. Indeed, of all the ways of growing immature greens, Burke’s is the easiest and most productive technique.

So, forget about grow lights and heat lamps! This book is a revolutionary and inviting guide for both first-time and experienced gardeners in rural or urban environments. All you need is a windowsill or two. In fact, Burke has grown up to six pounds of greens per day using just the windowsills in his kitchen!

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers detailed, step-by-step instructions to mastering this method. It’s so easy, it’s impossible to fail! This book tells you what supplies you need to have on hand, including tools and accessories, seeds and greens varieties, soil and compost, trays and planters, and shelving. It also covers harvest and storage, recipes, scaling up to serve local markets, and much more.

Q&A: Questions About Our Speedy Sprouts

A customer asks: I’m confused about your Speedy Sprouts wheat sprouts. What do you do with them?

Speedy Sprouts Just Wheat It

Jerri says: Just Wheat It, our organic hard red winter wheat berries, can be used in a couple of different ways. One thing you can do is bake your own healthy sprouted grain bread. For bread, you sprout the wheat just until the little tail starts to show. Then dry the sprouts and grind them in a grain mill. Bread made from sprouted wheat is easier to digest than store-bought flour and breads.

Speedy Sprouts Sprouted Wheat Berries

Wheatgrass Grown from Speedy Sprouts Just Wheat It

Or, the wheat can be grown as a grass in shallow soil on a flat tray. When the grass is ready, you can put it through a wheatgrass juicer to make a sweet health tonic. You can do the same with Bob Barley.

Stainless Steel Wheatgrass Juicer

Guest Post: Things Are Sprouting Up

This week, we have a special guest post from our friend Ida Walker of The Enabling Cook. Ida recently tried out our Speedy Sprouts, and here’s what she had to say:

Things Are Sprouting Up

I’ve blogged about growing sprouts before, especially wheat and rye berries. I’ve wanted to sprout barley for bread for a long time, but I’ve not been able to find grains that will sprout. And I’ve also blogged about the great service and products I’ve gotten from Homesteader’s Supply. This post combines both.

A while ago, Homesteader’s Supply’s Jerri told me they were now offering a line of sprouting seeds called Speedy Sprouts. She asked if I’d like to test drive some, so to speak. I jumped at the opportunity to do so, and she sent me some barley seeds and wheat berries.

I had some questions before starting “Bob Barley,” of course. These are organic, non-GMO and high-germinating seeds. Good to know. Then she told me they were hulled, which immediately sent up “Danger, Will Robinson,” signals. (Okay, “danger” is probably too strong a word, but I wanted to use the Will Robinson quote. I have no shame.) As I researched barley, one of the most common admonitions I found was that hulled barley will not sprout; it’s too damaged in the process of removing the hulls. Hulless barley will sprout, but sprouting rates are not as good as when you use barley with its hull intact. I asked Jerri about these seeds, and she confirmed they sprouted.

I confess I was really confused. I looked at the seeds, and they certainly looked like the hulls were intact. So why did the grower/supplier say they were hulled?

I did more research and was schooled in word choice. Some refer to hull-intact barley as being hulled. This doesn’t make total sense to me. After all, we don’t call oranges peeled if they still have their peels. Oh well. My advice? If you are contemplating ordering or buying barley seeds from anywhere, ask if they will sprout. If possible, read reviews and find out the sprouting experiences of others.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. These seeds do sprout. And they were quick about it. Granted, it was warmer in here than when I usually sprout; it was probably in the low 70s. Still, their sprouts started to show in about a day and a half. They were ready to dehydrate and grind in three!

Some are a little longer than I usually allow, but they were fine. Of all the seeds I started sprouting, all of them sprouted!

I only use these for flour, so I can’t say how they’d be for eating out of hand. But if you’re looking for sprouting barley for bread, these are a good choice. Check out these and other sprouting seeds and supplies available through Homesteaders’ Supply.

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