Have you ever grown beansprouts in a jar?
My favorite way to grow beansprouts is in a canning jar. I just replace the center part of the lid with a square of gauze, cheesecloth, or cotton fabric.
Just put a small amount of beans or seeds in the bottom of the jar – it’s amazing how much they grow and take up all the space!
If you are using beans, fill the jar with water and leave overnight to soak. Smaller seeds don’t usually require soaking. From then on you need to rinse them with fresh water morning and night until the leaves have grown, or until they look the way you expect them to for eating.
You can sprout a variety of seeds and beans. Whatever you do though, if you plan to eat the sprouts make sure you know what you are doing! Not all sprouts/seedlings are suitable for eating (more on this below). Also, only use food grade beans and seeds, not the ones sold in packets for planting in your garden. Some of the seeds for planting have been treated with chemicals. If you have a seed for which you know the sprout is safe to eat, but you’re not sure if there are chemicals on them, call the seed manufacturer to ask.
This is a great project for kids and a great way to grow some greens in the winter. See if your kids notice the following:
- The roots grow before the leaves.
- The roots all try to grow downward.
- Each half of the bean turns into a leaf. It’s fascinating to see the transformation – easier to see with the larger beans.
Popular beans and seeds to sprout for eating include: radish, broccoli, alfalfa, mung bean, adzuki, and watercress. The smaller seeds like broccoli and watercress I think are easier to start off with. The sprouts have quite a different nutritional content compared to the unsprouted beans or seeds. According to what I’ve read, some beansprouts need to be cooked before eating due to chemicals which they contain.
Try out the sprouting, let me know how it goes. We will talk more about this and I’ll provide recipe links another day.
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I’ve been meaning to try this! Maybe I will get around to it this month.
This was one of our favorite science projects in school. Sometimes we did it just for fun. I don’t know that we ever did anything with them though.
The same with “growing” potatoes in water.
Thanks for the reminder – the kids will love this!
This is a great project to do with kids. You even get to eat the sprouts later. Planting a couple would be neat too.
Yes, Robin, I agree. I ended up making carrot, onion and tofu soup and putting our beansprouts in it. It really tasted good!