Day 52

Exhibit A to the left shows a small corner of my (small) kitchen two days ago. Since going raw, we'd removed the toaster and the waffle maker from the living room, but the microwave has just sat there, taking up room. It did make a pretty good fruit platform, but I think it was a bit over-qualified for the job.

I've been reading a lot about sprouting. I had fun gardening on our balcony last summer (even after the stink bugs ate most of my vegetables), and I'm always down for some instant gratification, so it seemed like the best of both worlds. I purchased The Sprouting Book by Ann Wigmore, which is a great resource if you're considering getting started.

Getting set up was a bit of a process that's taken me the better part of a month. I decided that the jar method would be the most economical, and Ace Hardware had the best prices on mason jars. They deliver free to the store as well, which seems beneficial on all levels when you're talking about mailing a metric ton of glass. I got a case of pints, a case of quarts and a case of half gallons. Although I'm using the half gallons to sprout (per Ann Wigmore's specifications) I've come up with a dozen different ways to use the other sizes. I may have to order more in the near future.

I also purchased these mesh lids from Sprout People. Cheese cloth would work as well, but this seemed like it would make the job a bit easier. A dish drying rack from Target later, and my hardware was complete.

As for the sprouting seeds themselves, I will eventually purchase them online in bulk. In the meantime, however, my local-ish health food store has them in stock. I picked up clover, lentils and red wheat to start. Although it was more expensive this way, I wanted to make sure that I would stick with it before committing to a pound plus of seeds.

So far so good. As you can see, the microwave is gone and lovely sprouts are growing in its place. I have room for six sprouting jars eventually, but I figured that two was enough to get started in the event of major catastrophe. I still need to figure out what to do with our appliances. There had been a small fire (very small, really) in our toaster (though we kept using it....), so throwing it out was really the only thing that could be done at that point, but the microwave, waffle iron and crock pot are still perfectly serviceable. I think I may post them to Craigslist and see if anyone's willing to purchase them.

Sprouting is very satisfying. It's been a day and an half, and I've begun to see little sprouty tails. As for the fruit, it's found a new home. I dragged a desk into the kitchen that we hadn't been using, and surprisingly it fit. It will be great for when the dehydrator gets here (on Thursday!!), because I wasn't really sure where that was going to go.

The cats approve:

Ruth, Naomi, Fred and Ethel

-Eloise