Measure Free Hippie Cook

Fresh Sprouts Help the Cause

31 January 2009 by Jean Johnson

Our street is fortunate to have some old-school, retired neighbors that are always there for you. During our big snow when my car was blocked by a hip-deep drift, I was headed out to catch a bus to the post office when Glenn Bell said, “Heck, I’ve got chains on. I’ll take you down.” And when my car’s battery succumbed to the cold and died the other day, who other but Glenn had time not only to drive me to the store for a new battery buy also hook it up once we got back home.

To return the courtesies, down I went with a copy of Cooking Beyond Measure (and a can of Almond Rocca for good measure since I wasn’t sure if Glenn’s wife, Barbara, would like the book). I needn’t have worried. She made the salad below from it that night, and the next time we bumped into each other she wanted to know where to get wheat berries for sprouting. Not realizing that they’re usually in the bulk bins alongside millet, rice, and other whole grains, she’d called garden stores.

After pointing her in the right direction,  I came home and dusted off my long-neglected sprout jar. Truly, I don’t think I’ve done any sprouts since last spring. The timing’s good, though. What better way to ease on through February and March. What better way to get some seriously fresh food in the dead of winter.

If you’ve a mind to try some sprouts, you’ll find wheat berries (kernels) in the bulk bins most anywhere. Soak a handful in a wide-mouth quart jar with a circle of screen banded into place. Then rinse a couple times a day and watch them grow. I like wheat sprouts on the younger side, after three or four days depending on how warm it is.

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