Sprouts are so healthy. I've tried to sprout mung beans twice in the past week. Both times they've gone bad-turned a yucky brown and smelled rotten before they were ready to use. That hasn't happened before. I have sprouter jars and have been doing them just like always. The fenugreek and alfalfa seeds are doing o.k. The radish seeds look moldy, but maybe they just have tiny little hairs on them? Also, can you add sprouted beans to any bread recipe? Thanks for the advice.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), April 27, 2000

Answers

In the recent Organic Gardening editorial it mentioned a Ph.D who had done studies on organic food. He was concerned about E-coli on sprouts. Don't know if he meant store bought or home grown. But recommended NOT feeding them to children or the elderly (weaker immune systems). So I would ere on the side of caution and toss the radish sprouts unless someone else here knows for sure.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), April 27, 2000.

Cindy -- Strangely enough, the very same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago!!! I don't know why -- they started just fine, and then two days later, my sprouting jar was full of fuzz!!! I don't know, but I SUSPECT that I didn't have them in a dark enough spot. These were mung beans I was using, too.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), April 28, 2000.

Cindy, you simply have to get the book Country Beans by Rita Bingham also Live on Wheat by John Hill. Everything you could possibly need or want to know! Excellent recipes, and the bean flour, for making instant refried beans, and to make gravy with is wonderful! The bean recipes, and then canning them are great! Lots of sprouting tips! I ordered both of them from Hoeggers. Another great book was Making Cheese, Butter and Yogurt, by Phyllis Hobson, it is a small paperback like Live on Wheat and both were cheap. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 28, 2000.

Another book? YESSS! Thanks Vicki, my husband will like this one, he loves beans and they're so easy to cook.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), April 28, 2000.

Speaking of beans . . . is there any sure-fire way to get rid of the gas that accompanies them?!? We like beans, but all the dry legumes (including lentils and split peas) give us really bad gas, my husband even gets it from green beans to the point where he'll be doubled up in pain. And they are so good for you, cheap, and easy to grow -- any ideas? (Beano helps a little, I've tried ginger and baking powder, the only other thing that seems to help at all is soaking, draining, cooking, draining, cooking again. But still have some gas.)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 28, 2000.

Papaya enzymes from the health food store might help. I've heard of cooking a potato with the beans then discarding the potato. I've also heard that the more you eat and get used to them the less gas you'll have. I have a book of colonial recipes that calls foods that cause gas "windy" foods. Wish I had a for sure answer for your husband, hope someone else on the forum will.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.comc), April 28, 2000.

Kathleen -- It's actually just the bean's "skin" that causes the gas -- if you can remove that, you won't have the gas. To do this, after soaking, but before cooking, drain and rub beans between two tea towels -- it doesn't get it all, but it gets a good portion of it!

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), April 29, 2000.