Sprouting Wheat Berries

In recent years I found that if I didn't eat wheat that I felt much better and could eliminate the arthritic pain I was experiencing.  After several months I decided to  experiment with a  fresh piece of bread only to discover it felt as if I had contracted the flu just a short time later.  Nope.  Wheat is NOT for me - most of the time.  I've spent a lot of time researching and this is really much more common than people realize, however, they'll never know how much better they can feel until they've abstained for at least 6 weeks.  There are not too many people who are willing to do that.  So, the next best thing to do is to make sure you're eating only organic non-GMO wheat and to sprout it.  I can even tolerate this kind of wheat on occasion without feeling those ill effects I mentioned earlier.

What most people don't know is that wheat, along with most grains, nuts, seeds, and beans, contain phytic acids /phytates.  Phytic acid needs to be neutralized in order for us to be able to absorb the minerals. Here's an a comment from an article on the www.westonaprice.org website: "Phytic acid not only grabs on to or chelates important minerals, but also inhibits enzymes that we need to digest our food, including pepsin,¹ needed for the breakdown of proteins in the stomach, and amylase,² needed for the breakdown of starch into sugar. Trypsin, needed for protein digestion in the small intestine, is also inhibited by phytates.^{3 "}  Makes you wonder why so many people are gluten intolerant, huh?

SO...

When I can I like to feed my family wheat that I *know* is much better for them.  In order to do this you must sprout those cute little berries to neutralize those phytates that interfere with mineral absorbtion.  It's quite simple to do - really, I promise!  Although I must admit to you that I read a blog on how to sprout berries and it was SO wrong.  I ended up drowning the poor things and and had this stinky bowl of soggy berries on my counters.  It smelled something akin to pig slop. YUCK! 

How to Sprout Wheat Berries(or any grain for that matter):

• Quart Jar (or larger)
• Sprouting Lid or Canning Ring with Cheesecloth (you want the little buggers to breathe)
• Berries

Fill your jar half full of berries.  (You'll not want any more than that because they expand.) Next, you'll want to fill your jar with filtered water and place your lid on the jar.  Give your jar a good shake to make sure all the little berries are fully immersed in the water and then drain all the liquid off of the berries.  Lay the jar somewhere out of the way on its side like this:

This process will take 2-3 days and you'll want to repeat the previous step 2-3 times a day; rinsing the berries with filtered water and then drain the liquid off.  You'll know your berries are ready to stored when you see the actual sprout coming out of the end of the berry, which you can see in the picture below.  Look closely at the neck of the bottle and you'll see little white hairs sprouts.  Ideally you do not want the sprouts to exceed 1".  I like to make it to the 1/4" stage and call it good. :)

There are a couple ways to use your berries now that they've sprouted: dehydrated them and then grind into fresh flour, or you can use them just as they are.  They can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days or in the freezer for longer periods of time.  


Coming up next: How to use those berries just as they are to make waffles.