Saules perch and Sprouts!

Saule has a perch on the kitchen counter over the sink. She and I have spent allot of time in the past week talking and hanging out in the kitchen there together. I cook, she plays, reads me the cook books, and generally entertains me. As you know we are on the fifth floor and this window faces the yard behind our house, where lots of people walk their dogs and play with their kids. Saule watches the world go by and reports to Pollo if he is in the house "Dogs! Bikes! Lady!"

Here is Saule and her Sprout Babies near her feet.

Here she is grating cheese for Ziti. 

We also had great success with our sprouts this week. I had done this when she was younger- but this time she really got into it. They were her little baby plants! This is the perfect project for anyone with little kids- its a full seed to plate experience in less than a week!  For a 2 year old- she could actually see them grow between breakfast and lunch!

This web page http://sproutpeople.org has great information, step by steps, and trouble shooting, and what appear to be good quality seeds and supplies. However, for beginners like us all you really is a mason jar, a small piece of screen (or in our case a square off Saule's tutu) and a rubber band. Plus your seeds which we got a nice mix at our local Mother Earth foods before we left NY (I need to find a source here).

So here is our step by step  (toddler friendly process!)

1. Put a good heaping tablespoon of seeds into the CLEAN glass mason jar, cover it with the screen and put the rubber band around the edge so the seeds can't slip out.

2. Fill the jar with water and soak the seeds. All seeds have different soak times- I did about 18 hours.

3. Keep them on your counter or someplace you see them ALLOT so you don't forget this step which is rinse them 3x per day. Fill the jar (don't take the screen off just leave it on) and them turn it over and let the drain through the screen and the seeds/sprouts stay behind.  Observe everyday how much they have grown. Don't let them dry out.

4. DONE! Soon (in our case ~ a week) your sprouts will shed their original "seed" and you will notice the first set of leaves opening and the sprouts will look like those in the shop. Your ready!

Tonight we will be having OPOH or for those of you who don't eat at the Box Lunch an Organic Pocket with hots and onions. ENJOY!