Grow Your Own Sprouts & More / Old Farmer's Almanac Gardening Webinar & Planner

From Seed to Soup!

The Kitchen Crop 4-Tray Sprouter is a convenient way to eat fresh, free sprouts any time. I recently found the product online and am now enjoying my homegrown sprouts! According to “Healthline:”

“Sprouts are very nutritious. They may also offer a variety of health benefits, including easier digestion, improved blood sugar levels and a lower risk of heart disease. However, keep in mind that they are also associated with a risk of food poisoning. That said, for the majority of healthy people, the benefits of eating raw or lightly cooked sprouts likely outweigh the risks.”

I am not an expert, but if you handle the sprouts properly and keep the trays clean (they are fine in the dishwasher-wash them once per week, even if that requires temporarily removing the sprouts), I don’t think bacteria or mold should be an issue. Read instructions and keep out of direct sunlight.

This product is also great fun for kids and a sustainability learning experience…

I used only two trays to grow alfalfa (the kit came with those seeds) and beet sprouts. In one week, the beet seeds did not do much, but the alfalfa seeds grew to perfection…

When the sprouts are mature, rinse them in water and the hulls mostly sink to the bottom. Unused sprouts may be refrigerated.

Sprouts are great for salads, sandwiches, soups and as an elegant garnish. I added mine to a simple chicken soup. The aroma and flavor was wonderful and gave it an exotic flair-it’s an easy way to impress your friends!

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VKP Brands

This sprouter is made by “VKP Brands,” which produces many food and preparedness/sustainability products. Here is a video on this product. They also sell a “Deluxe Sprouter,” which doesn’t seem much different. You can also turn wide-mouth mason jars into sprouters with the Sprouting Jar Lid. Common sprouting seeds such as sunflower, radish, beans, broccoli and alfalfa are also available.

“VKP Brands” can help you do almost anything to food that you want…

canning, dehydrating, milling or juicing!

They also have various kitchen supplies, travel slow cookers and water distillers.

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Check out the Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening 101 webinar next week*…I also recommend their Garden Planner, which is a year-long subscription that allows you to design your own garden and receive all kinds of incredible help and resources…well worth the money if you really will use it-both of these things will well-prepare you to grow an amazing garden this year…Spring is around the corner…get started now!

* Why bother paying $39.99 for this when I could just watch a few YouTube videos? Yes, you could watch videos and there’s a lot of great content out there, but you always have to evaluate the source. The Almanac is a trusted source and you’ll get a good overview here of the basic concepts of gardening. They also give an opportunity to ask questions.

Feast of The Holy Family & the Liturgical Calendar

[Edited since posting.]

In the traditional calendar, today we celebrate The Holy Family: Our Blessed Lord, Our Blessed Mother and Patron of the Universal Church, Saint Joseph…

From the Collect:

“O Lord Jesus Christ, who, being subject to Mary and Joseph, didst sanctify home life with ineffable virtues: grant that, with the aid of both, we may be taught by the example of Thy Holy Family, and attain to eternal fellowship with them.”

At Mass today, our celebrant made a very interesting point. He said Our Lord could have come into the world in any way He chose, but He chose to come through a family, the way we all do. This illustrates how sacred the family is. We must remember this, in a culture which has done everything in its power to destroy it, the most recent effort being the physical separation of loved ones (from visiting restrictions in healthcare facilities to quarantines imposed upon those who would dare cross state lines on a holiday which may be the last one our elderly parents or terminally ill family members have). My own family has been suffering as well, with these inhuman orders. Whatever you may think about covid, we are creating a world that no one is going to want to live in. When the fear of death overtakes life itself, it’s time to reconsider what we are doing.

This feast also marks the last Sunday of Christmastide, which began on Christmas Eve. This is arguably, the day to put away your creche and toss your Christmas tree.* In the traditional liturgical calendar, there are 2 parts of the Liturgical Year: The Christmas Cycle and The Easter Cycle. One celebrates the Mystery of the Incarnation and the other, the Mystery of the Redemption. We begin the year with Advent and proceed to Christmastide and Season After the Epiphany. The Easter Cycle, with Season After Septuagesima, begins on Septuagesima Sunday. We will keep track this year, on this blog, of where we are in the liturgical calendar. This is something most Catholics are not well-versed in, but it is an essential aspect of the Catholic life, upon which a truly Catholic culture depends. If “The Authentic Life,” is a Catholic society, the liturgical calendar is of fundamental importance, which should be taught joyfully to our children!

* An idea I recently came across from The Old Farmer’s Almanac, is to dispose of your Christmas tree in the woods, where animals can use it for shelter over the winter. I thought this was a great idea, until I realized there are probably fines for doing this. Anyway, just puttin the idea out there…BTW, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is a resource I cannot say enough good things about-they even mention Catholic feasts sometimes! The topics they deal with are weather, astronomy, gardening, cooking, health, homemaking, sustainability and preparedness. Check out their site right now for the “2021 Garden Planner,” email newsletter, online store and more…and find out what a hugelkultur is!