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.

My friend Laura generally checks a cookbook out from the library first to see if she wants to purchase it. That makes sense, as does Amazon’s habit of putting sample chapters up for viewers.

In the spirit of all that and because Cooking Beyond Measure is just weeks away from hitting the shelves, I inserted a couple sample recipes in last week’s post. And since more is better, here’s another recipe from the book this week plus a video on doing your own sprouts.

It celebrates the raspberries that we Portlanders are glorying in at the moment. It also nudges those who want to ratchet up their nutrition in the direction of sprouts. Home grown sprouts. What could be more American on this 4th of July weekend?

On Sprouting Grain, Seeds, and Beans—

For breakfasts (cereals, pancakes, and sweet breads), wheat sprouts in earlier than later stages are best because as they don’t have the green chlorophyll sprouts acquire as they grow. Whatever the meal, though, sprouted wheat is amazingly welcome stuff—so much so that once people discover the sprouting jar, it gets quite a workout as the oh so sweet and helpful Dulce Del Rio shows.

Mung beans, alfalfa seeds, and wheat berries (kernels of wheat) sprout nicely in a wide mouth quart jar with a circle of screen cut to fit the top and a canning band to hold the screen in place.Be conservative with your grain, seeds, or beans as they gain considerable volume when they first swell and then send out shoots that mark the beginnings of new life. A nice jar lid full or mound in the palm of your hand is good.

Soak whatever you’re sprouting in water overnight. In the morning, drain the liquid and rinse. Keep the jar on its side so the sprouts have room to grow. Continue rinsing daily so they stay fresh. If you’re using sprouts in salads or soups, set the jar by a window the last day so light can help develop the chlorophyll.

It’s true that sprouting can seem like quite the project if you’ve not tried it. But remember the story about the two armies that were down to nothing but legumes…The bad guys boiled their beans. The good guys sprouted theirs before they cooked them and with the vibrance they got from this superior nutrition, kept those white hats in place.