The competition is now over – you can view the winners here…

This is the first of our giveaways with many more to come. We are giving away 2 seed sprouters which you can read about in more detail in the post below.

Seed-Sprouter-GiveawayTo enter you simply need to:

1. Leave a comment at the end of this post to let us know you want to enter. You only need to leave the comment once. If you want to increase your chances of winning please refer to the Extra Entries information further below.

Winners will be randomly selected (using a random number generator) and notified by email. The giveaway ends midnight, Friday 24 Feb 2012.

The contest is open to all – anywhere in the world.

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I have been a fan of eating bean sprouts for many years but the ones I brought in packets at the supermarket never seemed to taste as good as they should and they went slimy after a short time.

Over time I had tried growing sprouts at home using various methods, glass jars, kitchen paper towel etc but none were really what you would call a success. The returns were low and I am not too sure the quality was what it should have been.

So when I saw the 4 stack seed sprouter at my local garden center I thought “Hmmm, I’m going to give this a go”.

The seed sprouter I brought has 5 trays, 4 with water outlets for sprouting and one to catch the water so that it doesn’t spill all over the counter top. You can see a similar one here on Amazon. After unpacking it I gave it a quick wash with warm soapy water and rinsed it thoroughly before adding the seeds.

sprouts in a sprouterMy favorites have always been alfalfa sprouts (botanical name: Medicago sativa) and snow peas (botanical name: Pisum sativum) but as I have four trays I brought a few more types of seeds to try. So I also brought a mixed salad which contains a mix of adzuke beans (botanical name: Vigna radiate), mung beans (botanical name: Vigna angularis), lentils (botanical name: Lens culinaris) and fenugreek (botanical name: Trigonella foenum-graecum) and a sandwich mix which contains Alfalfa, radish ( botanical name: Raphanus sativus) and broccoli (botanical name:Brassica oleracera).

Now it was simply a matter of adding approximately 1 tablespoon of seeds to each tray, placing them on top of each other with the water collection tray on the bottom.

Then I poured in enough water in the top tray to cover the water outlet. It took a few moments for the water to start running through but before long a steady stream of water was trickling into the next tray, when the second tray filled the water started running down into the next until it all collected in the bottom tray. Fascinating to watch – well for a little while anyway.

The booklet that comes with the sprouter tells you to do this 2-3 times a day. Regular watering keeps the sprouts fresh and sweet.

It takes about 3 – 10 days for the sprouts to be ready depending on the variety. I found that within about 4 days the sprouts were ready to be picked.

I had to remove the covers over the water spout in a couple of the trays as the seeds grew, because the roots got wound around the cover and although it didn’t stop the water flowing down it did make the covers harder to remove when it came time to clean them.

It was lovely to see the sprouts all sitting on the kitchen counter and it’s so easy to take a few to add to salads or simply to eat on their own.

I just love having freshly sprouted seeds on hand and have had great success with my sprouter which is similar in design to the Victorio Kitchen seed sprouter.

Simply cant wait to try a few more different seed types.

4 Level Sprouter

Bean Sprouter

Filed under: Food & Nutrition • Giveaways

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