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Sprouting?


aerial.2000

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I've been sprouting for over a year. Sproutpeople.org makes a sprouter that anyone can use. I also buy their mid-bird sprout mix. My birdies love it.

 

Bird Mix Sprout Kit. You get free shipping on over $60. I will sometimes go in with a couple local people because I can't use $60 worth of mix. Also freeze their mix as it is non-pesticide and does have larvae which will sprout on it's own! Their mixes are pretty expensive so once you're setup with their kit you can look into making your own mixes. We use soup bean mixes, Volkmans soak-n-serve makes a REALLY nice sprout mix which is cheaper.

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I must be cheap, lol. I make my own mix. I do buy in bulk though and most of my mix come from bulkfood.com. i also don't have a kit, just a lot of stainless mixing bowls and fine mesh strainers so the little lentils don't slip out. Lol

I rinse soak rinse soak rinse soak for a full day the the next day rinse and strain and put back in bowl to begin the growing. I do rinse at least one or two times a day, mostly because mine are in a bowl so i like air to get all around them. By the third day they are ready! Gabby likes to eat them starting the second day, after a night of soaking. I don't let her have the beans that way, not until those sprout but all the rest of the stuff is just fine!

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Bulkfood.com seems to be a parked domain. I've been looking for a source for sprouting material. Sproutpeople.org is to expensive once you get the setup going. We used to get our stuff out of the bulk bins at Sprouts but they've started catering to the crap junk food people: bulk chocolate pretzels, chocolate raisins, sugar coated papaya, you get the idea. All the stuff we used to buy there for sprouting is now in prepackaged containers and I don't need 5lbs of mung beans to go with my 5 pounds of adzuki beans etc...

 

Any other local sources you may know of?

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Sorry, i left off the s.

http://Www.bulkfoods.com

I get 1lbs, 5lbs to 25lbs there. Raw pumpkin seeds, all my beans and peas. I also buy from nuts.com i mix my own seed too so i make 20lbs at a time. It is just easier to throw out hulls than see a bunch of uneaten filler that come in prepackaged that i know i spent good money for.

Edited by murfchck
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Please pardon my stupidity - so after I get this starter kit deal you basically put the "bean seeds" in the water do the rinse etc etc and they split open and sprout up and that is safe to then feed our fids? I just know nothing about sprouting. Do they eat the bean too? What type of beans/peas can go into a bulk mix? I need a "Sprouting for Dummies" book .....

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They have a good video and come with good instructions on how to use their sprout mix. It's pretty simple: rinse the sprout mix in the container, fill with water and let soak 8-12 hrs. Then a cycle or two of rinse and let drain for 6hrs and they are ready for the birds to eat as is. The bean mixes I cook before serving.

 

They don't actually split open, a tail starts to grow out of the pod which supposedly indicates the germination and higher food quality content. I'm going with it...

 

Go to sproutpeople.org and look at the ingredients of the bird mixes, that will tell you what you can sprout.

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^^ What Sterling said. The nice thing about the sproutpeople.org mixes are they sprout at about the same time. The time needed for sprouting varies by variety, so I like to stay with the known. As far as eating, Timber eats the sprout that is coming out and a little of the innard and leaves the "hull."

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Mine consists of red lentil (pain in the butt bc it sticks to the strainers, lol) chickpeas, green and yellow whole peas, adzuki beans, safflower, sunflower, pumpkin seeds. I am preety darn sure they only eat the sunflower seeds and garbanzo beans and the safflower though. The rest just make it colorful and pretty. lol I have been afraid of the mung, some people say you have to do it just right and the sprout has to be just the right growth before it is safe, blah blah blah, so i just opted not to try. Better safe than sorry. lol

Sprouting is so much fun to me, it has become a little hobby and it is even more fun because the birds can join in, i have had the cockatoos in the bowls and 2 of the greys when i have been rinsing them.

20140918_170308_zpsj6htnpfz.jpg

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Ive come to the conclusion ..... I CANT DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have tried now twice and I just dont know what Im doing wrong to get these damn things to spout LOL .... :rolleyes: Im so frustrated.

 

The kit included a glass mason jar and a piece of "screen" instructions said, soak over nite, rinse twice a day for 3 days and by the 3rd day they would be sprouting. Well ... the first time by like day 3 it smelled rotten so I threw it out... this time by day 3 after using less of the seed/bean mix, it didnt smell but only 1 type of bean sprouted.

 

I dont know at what point its ready to eat ... I showed Marco she was HIGHLY unimpressed at my efforts LOLOL ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

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OK, let me say that sprouts have a yeasty, fermented type smell. I'm not sure exactly what you did, but I can tell you how my sprouter works. It is a plastic container with a draining bottom that sits inside another solid plastic container. When I put the seeds in for that first over night soak, they sit there all night covered with water. Then I remove the inner container, rinse them under running cold water and then drain them as well as I can. The slotted type bottom of the inner plastic container is what works for that. The slots/slats on the bottom aren't large enough for the seeds to pass through, but the water drains out. I shake and swirl until I've gotten all the water out that I can. So the seeds soaked in water overnight, then in the morning I rinsed and drained as much of the water as possible off. Now they sit on the counter at room temp all day. In the evening, I rinse and drain again. You repeat the rinse and drain procedure every morning and evening until you have 1/16th to 1/8 inch "tails" on the sprouts. Then you can feed and refrigerate unused seeds. I think my sprouter says they can be refrigerated and fed for 4 days.

 

Hope this helps!

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I soak mine in a stainless steel bowl over night after rinsing them thoroughly. Then for 2 days I rinse them in a strainer 2x's a day and set them on my counter (with a gnat catcher, lol) and on the 3rd day they feast. The first couple times I did this, I worried so much about them spoiling that I had a bad smell in my nose to begin with so they smelt spoiled and I tossed them. lol I smell them daily and usually by the 4 or even 5th day I toss them. Mine get them at breakfast and dinner and I am slowly removing the regular seed mix out completely, per my avian vet, my birds are fat and sprouts don't cause the weight gain. (I may have failed to mention the other "treats" they get during the week but... heehee, you only live once and if a cube a cheese a few times a month makes em happy then they will get that.) ;)

 

Oh, I just read where you said some didn't sprout. The do this at different times so when you have them in one container, some will be sprouted and some won't. Usually by the second day my peas and safflower and sunflower are sprouting, the rest are just starting to sprout but they continue to grow even after they are refrigerated so don't give up hope on them. Mine like them after the overnight soak too so if your beans are safe to feed without the tail, you can start feeding that then.

Edited by murfchck
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Ive come to the conclusion ..... I CANT DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have tried now twice and I just dont know what Im doing wrong to get these damn things to spout LOL .... :rolleyes: Im so frustrated.

 

The kit included a glass mason jar and a piece of "screen" instructions said, soak over nite, rinse twice a day for 3 days and by the 3rd day they would be sprouting. Well ... the first time by like day 3 it smelled rotten so I threw it out... this time by day 3 after using less of the seed/bean mix, it didnt smell but only 1 type of bean sprouted.

 

I dont know at what point its ready to eat ... I showed Marco she was HIGHLY unimpressed at my efforts LOLOL ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

 

Where are you sitting them? And make sure you are washing your hands thoroughly, rinsing the mix thoroughly, and make sure the sprouter is clean. The smell is caused by bacteria. Maybe rinse them more often? I need to send you some Blessings. It's very easy to sprout.

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LOL ... aww you are all so kind and all of your directions are basically the same that the store gave me ... why cant I do this !!!!!! :rolleyes:

 

I keep them in my kitchen to soak over night and then rinse morn/eve the next 2 days and keep it next to my sink after shaking out all the water I possibly can and dont get me wrong the one lil bean in there definately sprouted a little white tail, but I am just not so sure about the smell. It did smell rotten and I was not going to chance that but I could only get 1 bean to really sprout out of the mix :(

 

I will wash the container really good when I get home and try again! Im pretty determined! I just thought it would all be pretty and sprouty and that she would love it but she looked at me like I had lost my mind :-|

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Do you have hard water? I've noticed that since moving to New Mexico I've had a more difficult time getting seeds to sprout when I use the tap water versus using bottled or distilled water.

 

I like growing the pits and seeds from the fruits I eat.

 

 

I have a huge filtration system at my house :) thanks to the Culligan Man .... so that is the only water that Marco drinks or that I use when it comes to her.

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