Smart way to sprout!

First of all, sprouting seeds have a long storage life. Sprouting seeds can be stored up to four years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F. They are small and lightweight and, thus, don't take up vast amounts of storage space. You can buy them already prepared for storage or simply buy them in bulk from any reputable health food store and put them in airtight, waterproof storage containers yourself. Glass canning jars with rubber-ringed lids are a good option. You want something that is rodent proof, as little critters like seeds, too! Once sealed, the sprouting seeds can be stashed in a cool, dry, dark corner of the attic or pantry for years.

The next reason that I think sprouts are ideal emergency rations is their rich, digestible energy, bioavailable vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins, beneficial enzymes and phytochemicals. Let's face it: if you are involved in an emergency situation, you want healthy, nutritious food. Crises are not the time to have to rely on empty calories. Once germinated, sprouts provide a good supply of vitamins A, E & C plus B complex. Like enzymes, vitamins serve as bioactive catalysts to assist in the digestion and metabolism of food and the release of energy. They are also essential for the healing and repair of cells. During World War II, considerable interest in sprouts developed as a result of an article written by Dr. Clive M. McKay, Professor of Nutrition at Cornell University. Dr. McKay opened his article with this dramatic announcement: "Wanted! A vegetable that will grow in any climate, will rival meat in nutritive value, will mature in 3 to 5 days, may be planted any day of the year, will require neither soil nor sunshine, will rival tomatoes in vitamin C, will be free of waste in preparation and can be cooked with little fuel and as quickly as a ... chop." Well, there you have it!

Another reason that sprouts get my vote is the fact that they are extremely inexpensive. You are not tying up massive financial resources in preparedness. For example, you can get alfalfa, wheat, rye, barley, triticale, spelt, kamut, quinoa, sesame or amaranth for roughly eight dollars a pound. And, a pound of sprouting seeds is going to yield buckets of sprouts! If you want the Cadillac of sprouts, you could get broccoli sprouts for somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five dollars a pound. Famous for their antioxidant content, broccoli sprouts can contain up to fifty times the sulfurophane found in mature broccoli, by weight, so you get as much antioxidant in one ounce of broccoli sprouts as you would if you ate three pounds of fully grown broccoli.