Meyerowitz - Sprouts, the miracle food: the complete guide to sprouting

The Miracle Food

The Complete Guide

to Sprouting

The Miracle Food

The Complete Guide to Sprouting

by Steve Meyerowitz

Let Your Kitchen Be Your Garden
The Agriculture of Tomorrow is Here Today

Illustrations by Michael Parman

http://www.Sproutman.com

EIGTH EDITION
Copyright 2010 by Steve Meyerowitz

illustrated by Michael Jon Parman. Edited by Beth Robbins
Prior Copyrights 1983, 1984, 1990, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2007

Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN(13) 978-1-9-878736-04-8. ISBN(10) 1-878736-04-3 Paperback

All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced by electronic, photocopy,
facsimile or any other means without prior permission.

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication

(provided by Quality Books, Inc.)

Meyerowitz, Steve.

Sprouts the miracle food : the complete guide to sprouting / Steve Meyerowitz.
6th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number : 99-90521

ISBN: 1-878736-04-3

1. Sprouts. 2. Cookery (Sprouts) I. Title.

SB324.53.M49 1999 635

QBI99-900713

Sproutman, Sprout House, One Week from Seed to Salad, The Agriculture of Tomorrow is Here Today, Sproutwoman, and Sprout Kid are registered trademarks and may only be used with permission.

Published by
Sproutman Publications
PO Box 1100, Great Barrington, Mass. 01230
413-528-5200. Fax 413-528-5201.

Distributed by
Book Publishing Company
PO Box 99, Summertown, TN 38483
888-260-8458. 931-964-3571. Fax 931-964-3518

God Bless
Ann Wigmore
and
Viktoras Kulvinskas,
Prophets of Health and Spirit,
Whose Teachings
Have Given Birth
to a
New Generation of
Healers

.

PURE WATER
for You & Your Plants

When your teeth crush an apple, say to it in your heart: Your seeds shall live in my body, And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons. - Kahlil Gibran

Not all of us can be gardeners. But we all eat. Fact is, if you dont grow your own, someone has to do it for you. Not a bad concept, but in reality, were 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 dont dare eat the fruit for fear of fumigants, fertilizers, pesticides and the like. As a nation, were eating less and less of the healthiest foods on the planet--fresh fruit and vegetables. Where are the fruits and vegetables? For the most part, youll find them in the canned food aisle. No wonder kids grow up never liking their vegetables! Of course, you could shop at the health food store. But organic produce sometimes cost more than you want to spend--if you can find it at all. Unfortunately, we dont all live in southern California and we dont all have the time or means to garden.

Heres where apartment gardening comes in. Every week a new harvest of fresh baby greens matures right in your own kitchen. No tools to buy, no big investment in garden equipment, no bugs or weather to worry about and no dirt. One pound of indoor lettuce takes up just 9 inches of counter-top space and one actual minute of care per day. Just dip and set. Light is no problem--normal daylight is all you need. For such little effort, the possibilities are magnificent--30 delicious varieties of fresh, nutritious indoor greens and baby vegetables, enough to feed the whole family!

I got over a life-long struggle with allergies and asthma by revamping my diet. The first thing I did was eliminate the chemically tainted produce I was bringing home from the supermarket. How could anyone ever get well with invisible ingredients like DDT, EDB, Aldicarb and Chlordane hidden in their food? But its more than that. Its what they dont have...nutrition. Mass market agricultural techniques rob the soil of minerals and substitute synthetic fertilizers and hormones. Zinc, for example, is no longer adequately supplied in the U.S. diet. As a consequence, the American male suffers from the worlds highest incidence of prostate cancer and malfunction. Whatever vitamins these vegetables do have is diminished more and more with each day they sit wilting on grocery store shelves. If you had a choice, would you regularly eat food grown 3,000 miles from where you live?

Since I lived in an apartment, I learned to garden indoors. Before long I was dining on crisp Chinese cabbage, luscious crimson clover, hearty sunflower, succulent buckwheat lettuce, spicy red radish, velvety kale, sweet green pea--I had so much, I fed all my friends and students. These young greens were so alive and scintillating with color and aroma, you could practically feel their vitamins! Make no mistake about it. That vitality is assimilated by you--in the form of live enzymes, vitamins, amino acids, trace minerals, RNA, DNA, oxygen and other secret elements about which only nature knows. You cant buy that nutrition in a pill!

If you garden indoors, you effectively reduce your dependence on distant sources for food, energy and technology. Dont think the greenhouse effect is just something that exists in newspapers. Global warming, air pollution, oil spills and acid rain all damage our health as a nation and directly threaten the quality and availability of our food. Drought, flood, heat wave, freeze, increase the price of food as does the rising price of gasoline that is needed to transport it. Our system of over industrialized, long distance, imported, chemically laden, synthetically fertilized and artificially processed foods has got to stop. Either we change it or it will change us. But what can we do about it? Fortunately, you are not completely at the mercy of the giant agri-business industry. You can take steps to become more self-sufficient. Indoor gardening is your answer and its easier than you think.

How easy is it? The seeds do all the growing. Your only job is to water them one minute per pound per day (30 seconds in the morning, 30 seconds in evening). No weeds to weed, no pests to fence out, no bugs, no soil. It takes less time than standing on line at the supermarket! Only 5 tablespoons of seed, costing only 15-30 cents, yields a full pound of sprouted greens. Where else can you find a comparable source of fresh, nutritious food at that price? Whether you live in Metropolis on the 30th floor or in Alaska, whether its January or July, you can have fresh food and lots of it year-round.