You Don't Need a Green Thumb to Grow your own "Mini" Produce Indoors without Soil. It's 100% Organic, Economical and Available Year-Round .by Steve Meyerowitz

Not all of us can be gardeners. But we all eat. Fact is, if you don't grow your own, someone has to do it for you. Not a bad concept, but in reality, we're on the losing end.

A trip to the supermarket proves it. The lettuce is lifeless; the spinach is wilting and dark around the edges. You don't dare eat the fruit for fear of fumigants, fertilizers, pesticides and the like. As a nation, we're eating less and less of the healthiest foods on the planet--fresh fruit and vegetables. Where did they go? They're in the canned food aisle.

No wonder kids grow up never liking their vegetables! Let's face it. We can't all live in southern California, and we don't all have the time or the means to garden.

The Agriculture of Tomorrow is Here Today

Most of you know sprouts as alfalfa, mung and soybean. You may have been introduced to them at a Chinese restaurant. But sprouts are just baby plants and there are many plants which can be grown indoors and eaten as sprouts.

Try, for example, daikon radish, Chinese cabbage, garlic chives, French onion, Alaskan green pea, kamut Egyptian wheat, buckwheat lettuce, sunflower greens, crimson clover. In fact, there is a whole world of indoor-grown baby plants each having different textures and tastes.

Nutrition

The tiny seeds are packed with stored nutrients just waiting for the moisture to start the germination process. Germination is simply the birth and growth of a baby plant and it is both fascinating and wonderful just like the birth of a child.

A common sunflower seed, for example, is only 1/4 inch long, but it contains the blueprint necessary to provide for the development of a 6 foot plant. A grain of wheat, increases its vitamin E content 300% after only 2 days of growth and the B2 vitamin riboflavin jumps from 13 milligrams to 54 mg in the sprout. In general, b vitamins can increase 300% to 1400% depending on the variety.

Enzymes that start the chemical process of a developing plant are abundant in sprouts and help with digestion. Protein production in sprouts is quite dramatic since it is needed for the growth and development of cells.

Alfalfa sprouts contain 3.8% protein and sunflower sprouts contain 4.0% This compares with Boston and Bibb lettuce which contain 1.2%, New Zealand spinach 2.6%, and Iceberg lettuce less than 1% protein. Minerals also increase during germination. The potassium content of alfalfa sprouts is 870 mg (per 100g), while Boston lettuce has 264mg.

Alfalfa has 210mg calcium and New Zealand spinach 2.6mg. The addition of liquid kelp to the soak and or rinse water increases mineral content to levels that are as much or more than growing the plants in soil.

Economy and Ecology

Sprouts are an excellent way to feed your family for very little money. A pound of alfalfa greens for example starts with only 5 tablespoons of seeds costing about 25 cents.

Where else can you get organically grown greens for that price! Even if you do get organic produce, it often comes from far away. The costs of transporting food across continents or international borders is driven by politics, price of oil and other factors we cannot control and which do not serve the farmer or the consumer. When you grow your own, you get the freshness factor.

Let's face it, a head of lettuce that is picked a week ago, transported across the country, stored in a warehouse and on grocery shelves is not as vibrant as the one fresh picked from your garden. Sprouts are alive and grow right up to the time you put them on your plate.

The nutrients are in their prime and the enzymes are abundant. This "live food factor" delivers to us all of nature's secret ingredients that old produce no longer has to offer.

Is it organic? Of course! You can be sure because you are the grower. No questions about organic verification are necessary. A harvest of home-grown indoor organic greens and beans is available year-round whether you live in Hawaii or Alaska, in January or July.

Easy to Grow

The sprouts grow themselves. All you have to do is keep them warm and moist. New techniques such as using a sprout bag (designed for sprouting) instead of a jar, make sprouting fast and simple. Just dip the bag in water twice per day. It literally takes seconds! You can grow bushels of fresh young sprouts in little space and little time. Green thumb not required!

A New Cuisine

You'll never be bored with sprouts. The family of leafy green sprouts: alfalfa, buckwheat, sunflower, clover, radish, cabbage, garlic, etc, will keep your salads eternally alive and delicious.

Sprouted beans such as garbanzo, green peas, soy, mung, adzuki, lentils, etc. will make great side vegetables, sautes, soups and casseroles. Sprouted grains such as wheat, rye, kamut (Egyptian wheat) and barley make a superb "Essene" or sprouted grain bread plus cookies, crackers, burgers, croquettes and even pizza.

You don't need a laboratory to tell how nutritious these foods are. You can taste it in their flavor, smell it in their aroma and see it in their color.

You can store seeds for 30-60 years in a cool, dry place. Then, add water and watch them multiply up to 15 times their volume. That's survival. But you'll survive in gourmet style with some of the tastiest, most nutritious foods on the planet!

BENEFITS OF SPROUTING

*Self-Sufficiency - Reduced Dependence on Commercially Grown Food
* Availability - Year Round. Any Season, Any Climate, Anyplace
* Easy to Use - Takes only 1-2 Minutes Care Per Day
* Freshness - Picked Just Before Mealtime
* Nutrition - Loaded with Super-Vitamins, Enzymes & Minerals
* Save $$$ - Only 15 to 30 cents per pound
* Variety - Choose From 30 Delicious Varieties
* Purity - Completely Chemical-Free and Organic

Steve Meyerwitz, often known as "Sproutman" is author of several books on health including Recipes From the Sproutman and How to Grow Vegetables Indoors. Steve also lectures and leads workshops in the New York area and around the country.