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Friday, March 18, 2011

Sproutin', Spendin' and Suin'

Has anyone else out there done wheat berry sprouts?  I finished mine up today, and I think I may have messed up somehow.

I put the berries in a quart jar and rinsed them twice a day for the last 4 days as per the instructions I linked in the previous post.  Here's what they looked like -


It seems like more roots than sprouts.  I swear I had one green sprout early on in the process, but not a one to be found in the jar this afternoon.

I took them out, rinsed them off in cold water and gave 'em a taste.


VERY sweet.  I was quite surprised.  I was expecting something more neutral like bean sprouts or alfalfa sprouts.

And the texture was more chewy than bean or alfalfa sprouts.

Is this how these things are supposed to taste?  Or something different?

The roots were thin and about an inch long - two or three per berry, with one sprout.  Was this enough time, or too much time?

They were edible, I guess, but not something I'd jump at putting on a salad or sandwich.
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Kind of related, if nothing else, I've learned how to start the malting process. 

If you want to brew an alcoholic beverage, you grind the grain and "mash" it.  This involves adding hot water to a base grain (corn, barley, wheat, etc.) and having about 20% of it being a malted grain..  A malted grain is one that has been allowed to start sprouting which is then stopped by roasting it.  The malt contains enzymes that will allow the starches in the base grain to be converted into sugars.  Yeast is added to this sweet liquid and alcohol is produced.

Kinda cool...
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Did you hear about the little spat between Sean Hannity and Congress-critter Anthony Weiner (could this guy be more appropriately named?  The only thing better would be if his first name was Richard.  Think about it.)?  In the exchange, The Weiner boasts of putting forth a proposal for $400 million in spending cuts.

Woo hoo.

Apparently, part of our federal spending doesn't include the purchase of calculators.  As a public service, I'll do the math for Weiner-dude -

Our national budget is roughly $3.7 trillion dollars.

Divided by 365, that means we spend around $10 billion dollars a day.

Divided by 24 hours, that means we spend over $400 million an hour.

Yeah, Weiner's back-breaking, balls-to-the-wall, taking food out of the mouths of babies, spending cut proposal is less than one hour of federal spending.

Thanks for effort, big guy...
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Speaking of scum bags, want to see something regarding media objectivity - or lack thereof?

The last bank I worked for was one of 5 banks in the country that was primarily owned by labor unions (at some other time, I need to write some about what this was like... interesting, to say the least).  We were one of the smaller ones.  The big dog was a New York bank named Amalgamated Bank.  I think they were bigger than the other 4 union owed banks combined.

I was scanning news articles online, and saw their name in one of the headlines.  It seems as though they are suing Rupert Murdock and Fox News.  They don't like a purchase he's making (he wants to buy a production company that's owned by his daughter).

Now, Amalgamated isn't seeking an injunction to stop Murdock from completing the purchase, they're suing for damages because they say Murdock has done stuff like this in the past, and well, they don't like it.

Whatever.

Take a look at the article in the LA Times.  It's lengthy and quite detailed.

Well, it seems to be missing one detail.  That Amalgamated - which bills itself as "America's Labor Bank" - is owned by labor unions.  Not one teeny-tiny mention.  Odd, considering how the Times LOVES to pump up unions...

I'm sure there is no connection between Fox News' bashing of the unions in Wisconsin - hell, all around the country - and Amalgamated's decision to sue Murdock.  Naw, nuthin' to see here.... move along....


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5 comments:

Angela said...

I only sprout my wheat until it barely has a tail. Usually about 48 hours total (including initial soak time). Then they're kind of nutty flavored. A tiny bit longer (another 12 hrs or so) and they start getting sweet which is okay also. Length of time in sprouting is slightly variable depending on the freshness of the wheat you're using and the ambient room temperature. (Mine take longer in winter than summer.)
As long as yours are, you're almost growing wheat grass which some people like to juice for the nutrients, but to me it tastes like grass juice. Try tasting them along the way next time you sprout them and see what stage you like them best. Nice job!

Shy Wolf said...

They look good to me. :P mmm... whenever I eat sprouts of any kind, I can 'taste' the color green. If you set the jar in the sun for half a day or so, would they begin to green up a little? - after all, chlorophyl is a derivative caused by sunlight. (Nope, I've never sprouted anything more than beans, so not sure.)
Shy III
LOL- WV: 'mogro' and it's probably right: mo' will gro'

Andrea said...

Sprouting wheat is next up on my to do list. I don't know anything about it, but hear it makes really delicious, healthy bread.

Chief Instructor said...

Angela, when you grow them with the little "tail", how do you eat them? Are they ground up and put into breads, or do you use them in salads and sandwiches kind of like bean/alfalfa sprouts?

I'll try the "taste along the way" approach with my next batch.

Shy, the "green taste" is what I was hoping for. I love that in bean and alfalfa sprouts.

Andrea, they were very easy to grow. I put them in a cupboard above the fridge, which had a big note, "SPROUTS" to help remind me to rinse them twice a day.

Angela said...

Okay, I'm kind of slow getting back with you on this--I like to just eat them by the handful. I've also added them to bread dough, both ground to a paste with a meat grinder and just added in whole (soak them a bit again before adding them whole as they are kind of hard in the bread if they're put in not really moist). You could easily have them on a salad--they'd be more like a sunflower seed topping as they're not at all "green" at that stage. Chewy and tasty though. Probably wouldn't work well on a sandwich. Have fun with your next sprouting experiment! :)