How to Sprout Seeds in a Jar

Sprouting is the oldest, simplest way to grow food there is, and it is about as fast as growing gets. You put seeds in a jar with water. You rinse them twice a day. Three to five days later, you eat them. That's the whole method.

SproutsSeeds that have been soaked and rinsed until they start to grow, then eaten whole, root, seed and shoot together, a few days later. are different from microgreens in one important way: you eat the entire thing. The seed, the little white root, the first hint of a shoot. Nothing is cut off, nothing is thrown away, and no soil or light is involved. A sprouting jar lives on your kitchen counter, not on a windowsill, and it works exactly the same in January as in June.

If you have never grown anything in your life, this is where to start. Tonight.

• A wide-mouth glass jar. A mason jar is perfect. A litre jar makes a generous batch.
• A mesh lid, or a square of cheesecloth and an elastic band. Sprouting lids are cheap and last forever, but a clean piece of mesh or muslin held on with a band does the same job.
• Seeds meant for sprouting or for eating. This matters. Use seed sold for sprouting, or plain dried whole peas, lentils, mung beans or chickpeas from the grocery store. They are cheap, sold by the bag, and sprout beautifully. Don't use seed sold for lawns or flowers, and skip anything that has been treated.
• A bowl or dish rack to prop the jar upside down at an angle so it drains.

Put two to three tablespoons of seed in the jar. Small seeds like alfalfa, radish or broccoli need less, one or two tablespoons, because they swell a lot. Big seeds like peas and chickpeas can take three or four.

Cover the seeds with plenty of cool water, at least three times the depth of the seed, screw on the mesh lid, and leave the jar on the counter overnight, 8 to 12 hours. The seeds will swell to about twice their size as they take up water. This soak is the signal that tells the seed to wake up.

In the morning, pour the water out through the mesh. Fill the jar with fresh cool water, swirl, and pour it out again. Then prop the jar upside down at an angle in a bowl so any leftover water drains out and air can get in.

That's the routine, and you repeat it every morning and every evening: rinse, drain, prop. Twice a day is the minimum. Three times is better in a warm kitchen.

The rinsing does two jobs. It keeps the sprouts damp, which they need to grow, and it keeps them cool and clean, which stops anything from going off. Sprouts sitting in stale water are the only way a sprouting jar goes wrong, and the rinse is what prevents it.

By the end of day one or two you will see tiny white tails poking out of the seeds. Those are the root tailsThe first root a seed sends out when it sprouts. In a sprouting jar it is eaten along with the rest of the sprout.. By day three the tails are a centimetre or two long and the jar is visibly filling up. Peas and lentils are usually ready at this stage, when the tail is about as long as the seed.

If you want small green leaves on your sprouts (nice on alfalfa, radish and broccoli), put the jar in indirect light for the last day. A windowsill out of direct sun is enough. Direct sun cooks a jar of sprouts, so keep them out of it.

Most sprouts are ready in three to five days from the first soak. Taste one every day from day three. When they're crunchy and taste fresh, they're done. Don't let them grow on too long, because they get stringy and lose their crunch.

A quick guide to what each seed gives you:

• Green peas: sweet and crunchy, ready in 3 days. The best first jar.
• Lentils: mild and nutty, 3 days. Brilliant in a salad or on soup.
• Mung beans: the classic stir-fry bean sprout, 4 to 5 days, best grown in the dark for long white sprouts.
• Chickpeas: firm, nutty, 3 to 4 days. Blend them into a fresh hummus.
• Radish and mustard: hot and peppery, 4 to 5 days, lovely with a day of light for green leaves.
• Alfalfa and broccoli: fine, mild, 5 to 6 days. The sandwich sprouts.

Give the finished sprouts one last good rinse, then get them as dry as you can. Spread them on a clean tea towel for half an hour, or spin them in a salad spinner. Dry sprouts keep. Wet sprouts don't.

Store them in a container in the fridge with a paper towel in the bottom. They'll keep for about five days. Rinse them again just before eating.

A common question: do sprouts need to be cooked? No. They're eaten raw most of the time, which is exactly why the clean habits below matter. That said, mung bean and lentil sprouts are lovely tossed into a hot stir-fry for the last thirty seconds, and sprouted chickpeas are best lightly cooked or blended. Pea sprouts are good either way. If anyone in your household would rather not eat raw sprouts, a quick toss in a hot pan settles it.

A few plain-language safety habits, because sprouts are grown in warm, damp conditions and deserve a little care: start with a clean jar every batch, use seed sold for sprouting or eating, rinse on schedule, keep them out of direct sun, and if a batch ever smells sour or slimy, compost it and start again. Do that and sprouting is as safe as any salad.

A sprouting jar is the fastest growing there is, and it never has a bad season. It costs almost nothing, takes two minutes a day, and gives you real, crunchy food inside the first week of your growing life. It is also the perfect thing to have going while the seeds in your garden bed are still sitting under the soil.

Here's what to take away from this lesson:

• A jar, a mesh lid, and seed sold for sprouting or eating is the whole kit
• Soak overnight, then rinse and drain twice a day, every day
• Most sprouts are ready in three to five days
• Rinse, dry, and store in the fridge for up to five days
• A clean jar, proper seed, and a rinse on schedule keeps every batch safe

You now have the two fastest ways to grow food. Next, we take everything outdoors and into pots: which fast crops grow well in containers, and what size pot each one needs.