Gettin' my sprouts on!

It's time to start another couple batches of sprouted sunflower seeds! After soaking them in a big bowl overnight with some filtered water, I rinsed them in the morning and spread them in a colander sitting over a bowl and left them covered on the counter to start their sprouting process. I'll rinse them once in the morning and again before bed until they start to show some little tails. Then I dehydrate them in my dehydrator until they're totally dry and ready to eat! Easy peasy!

You can do the same thing with buckwheat groats, too! This is a shot of a batch I let get super sprouted. If you've never soaked and sprouted buckwheat groats before, be warned. They get.... well, snotty after being soaked. Just be sure to rinse, rinse, rinse until the slimy consistency is gone. Once they're dehydrated, be it in a dehydrator or on a very low setting in your oven under close watch, they can be used in any recipe like granola, stir fry, salads or use your coffee grinder to make buckwheat flour. And that's just the tip of the buckwheat ice burg for recipe uses! And keep in mind, despite the name, they are indeed gluten and wheat free and you can buy locally grown, organic buckwheat groats from DeRuyck Farms through the Harvest Moon Society or in the bulk section at Vita Health.

I use sprouted buckwheat in my Pumpkin You Up Granola and sprouted sunflower seeds in my How You Like Dem Apples Granola! And I've even sprouted chickpeas and lentils to make hummus and patties. I've got a sensitivity to both legumes but I love them too much not to try to find a way to enjoy them fully. Sprouting seemed to do the trick!

To educate yourself on all the things you can sprout and how to do it, check out this great chart by Better Raw. And to find out all the amazing benefits and reasons to sprout your grains, nuts and seeds, check this page out.