Pictured above, is the iPlant sprouter. This link takes you to the 2 tier but you can get a single deck if you like,  here is the quick link to that:1-tier iPlant.  For the same square footage taken up in the kitchen, I prefered to go virtical and have options to grow more at once and more variety too.   Sprouts are an abundant source of vitamins, minerals, oxygen and protein. I recently learned that we need to eat our oxygen not just breath it. Living foods, such as sprouts, are abundant with it! With our factory farming methods and soil erosion, sprouts should be a good part of your diet these days and with so many seed blends available, they are tasty and easy peasy.

Converting to a plant based diet, I find sprouts to be expensive and hard to find at the store because I can make a salad that uses an entire bunch at a time.  So I researched and found the very best way to grow them in my kitchen and am very excited to share this with you!  Rather than jars or planting them in soil which would both require more effort from me when I am really busy with other projects, I wanted something simple where I would not need to keep monitoring them, spraying them throughout the day etc. En voila, I located the iPlant. Click on the iPlant picture to take you to Amazon, the best place, best price to buy it!

The iPlant comes in colour choices, so for fun, I got the hot orange.  But you can go green or mod white if you prefer.  Set up is so easy.  Your iPlant will come either double decker or single deck depending on how you order it. Each deck has 2 seed trays so a double decker will give you a total of 4 trays and that also means you have 4 growing options too.  Maybe you want a mix of seeds in one tray, just broccoli sprouts in another tray, spicy Radish seeds for another, then this set up provides you this flexibility.  If you plan to be a sproutaholic, as I am now, you will want to just go ahead and order the double decker and also an extra set of seed trays too, that I ended up ordering a few weeks after getting my iPlant, so that I could keep a constant rotation of sprouts going and not run out.

Because the iPlant is not always available on Amazon, I located a similar and well-rated machine, The Tribest Freshlife 3000, another automated sprouter which is stackable up to 3 tiers!  I have not personally tried this machine out yet so if anyone does, kindly post here how you feel about it to help others out.

Here are the steps to growing:
1) follow all the directions provided but you basically soak your seeds in their trays and overnight is best.
2) Place water between the low and max line in your iPlant.  I typically put just a hair over the minimum in mine at home.
3) After an overnight soak, place the trays into your iPlant, with the water level good and plug it in after you have it all together with the lid on.

The iPlant will periodically water your seedlings and keep the temperature perfect.  Once your seedlings are sprouted and perhaps an inch or 2 or so, take them out, and rinse them very well while they are still in the trays.  Place some paper towels down on your counter and pull the washed sprouts out of the mesh seed tray and pile them onto the paper towels.  Pat them firmly but gently dry and then either put in in a baggie with a paper  towel to shore up moisture or you can buy a hemp sprout bag to store them in.  They last a week in the fridge, use them swiftly for the most benefit and freshness.

And because you will need them if you sprout alot, which you should, here is a link to additional iPlant trays so you can keep the sprout rotation cycle going!

Cleaning the trays – After pulling out the sprouts, I gently scrub the mesh with a vegetable brush.  I also soak them a while in soapy water and periodically soak them in hot water with a bit of bleach.

A recipe I love, other than of course tossing them into salads, on sandwiches, on top of stir fry’s, is to put a bunch of sprouts in a bowl, toss in a sprinkle of Mirin which is Asian sweet Saki that you can get in the Asian section of most any store, and a sprinkle of toasted Sesame oil.  YUMMO!!!

Feel free to comment here with any question, suggestions on recipes etc.

Sprout on!
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