Well I bought a sprouter to make some of my own wheat-grass and other sprouts :D. I guess it’s just something I want to try out and the timing was perfect, this post from thefruitpursuit.com inspired me to take the final step.
I bought the freshlife sprouter at unlimitedhealth.nl and my wheat grass seeds from tarwegraskoning.nl
However I am not going to recommend this sprouter, I had a hard time deciding if I should return the sprouter back to the shop. It makes a lot of noise and turns on about four times a hour for three minutes. The water has to be cleaned every two days, and this is a lot of work. You have to take the top from the water base unit and everything will get wet… Kind of beats the purpose of an automatic sprouter… really wtf!
The manual is not clearly written and there are no instruction how to use the wheat grass pads or how to sprout wheat grass. I mailed the manufacturer two times with questions but not a single response…
Thankfully there are short movies on the internet of end-users(thank you all!). The freshlife sprouter seems to be a pretty old design and I have no idea why my sprinkler is only two way instead of four, I would have expected the design to improve (especially noise reduction, water filters, some sort of timer). The price is also very high and on the manufacturer website there are charges for almost everything even for a digital versions of the manual… So the freshlife automatic sprouter is definitely NOT recommended to buy.
I will use my vita-mix with a nut bag to process and strain the wheat grass. I will update this post when the growing of my first batch is finished. Very exciting!!
I am also concerned about fungus and bacteria! It was recommended to add food grade hydrogen peroxide to the water but where can I buy that in Europa?
I’ve also been looking at juicers (Hurom based design) and a dehydrator. I am not a big fan of juicing since I kind of think the separation of the pulp is a processed form of the whole food ingredients, but a juicer makes it possible to consume amazing amounts of vegetables in a short time and it can be very handy for foods that are timely to prepare due to seeds, shells or lots of cleaning, like strawberries, kiwi’s and almond nut milk.
What are your own experiences with sprouters (fungus and bacteria) and juicers?
Update:
It’s been eight days since I put the wheatgrass seeds in the sprouter and I have been refreshing the water every two days as instructed.
So today I went harvesting the grass. I found some white mold on the bottom that was totally covert with roots, it was really disgusting and smelly. I cut the grass a few centimetres above the roots tried washing it thoroughly with water.
I can tell you cleaning out all the roots is really nasty work…I guess I spent almost a hour cleaning out all parts and the wheatgrass. There is some slimy residue on all parts that is just nasty.
I put all the wheatgrass in the vita-mix added half a cup of water and started blending. I can tell you wheatgrass doesn’t blend :) It will not breakdown.
I drained the mixture with a nut bag and had about half a litre of green juice that smelled like grass…
I pinched my nose and drank the whole thing it was really disgusting. It has been 45 minutes ago and I am still alive :) I do feel a slight feeling of vomiting which seldom happens to me and an occasional burp that brings back the nasty flavour.
Some people say this are the bad bacteria in my digestive tract being upset, but I don’t know, maybe wheatgrass is just not for me yet.
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