Harvest Monday, February 23, 2015 – Sprouting Adzuki Beans

Was not going to publish a post today as I was annoyed at myself for spilling my 2nd batch of successfully sprouted adzuki bean before I took photos. No sprouts no new recipe.

After I calmed down, realized there is a lesson to be learned here. Decided to work with the photos I had and reblog photos and recipes from previous posts.

As I had suspected, reason for the failure in the first batch was because the beans were too “old”. Most were not viable and would not germinate (still good for soup and other bean dishes but not for sprouting).

The newly purchased adzuki beans sprouted without any issues.

Note the differences between the 2 photos below:

Adzuki beans after overnight soaking.

The adzuki beans in the above photo were the beans I had in the pantry for a while, may be 2 years or more, after overnight soaking I did notice that more than half of the beans did not plump up but did not think anything of it.

The beans that plumped up sprouted but the un-plumped (is there such a word?) beans did not.

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Adzuki beans after overnight soaking.

The adzuki beans in the above photo were the newly purchased beans. Notice how all the beans are plumped and ready to germinate. Yes, all the beans sprouted.

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The 3 photos below (previously published on 1/22/13, click on link for the complete post) show the different stages of the sprouts.

This is what the sprouts look like after 24 hours. The tiny roots are just appearing.

This is what the sprouts look like after 48 hours (on the second day) The roots are about ¼ inch long. This is the stage I prefer.

This is what the sprouts look like after 72 hours (on the third day) The roots are about ½ inches long

NOTE: Sprouts will sprout quicker if you live in warmer climate or is sprouting during warmer weather. If it is hot and humid, you may need to rinse your sprouts 3 times a day instead of 2. Since I sprout during the winter, I rinse twice daily, in the morning and in the evening.

Lesson learned:
When soaking beans for sprouting, if many of the beans did not plump up after the required soaking period, forget about sprouting, make soup or other bean dishes with the soaked beans instead.

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Below are photos of 2 dishes I created using adzuki beans sprouts.

Adzuki Bean Sprouts & Winter Root Vegetables Stew

Adzuki Bean Sprouts & Winter Root Vegetables Stew

Click here for recipe

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Adzuki Bean Sprouts Salad with Sesame Dressing

Adzuki Bean Sprouts Salad with Sesame Dressing

Click here for recipe

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I do need to get into my shed to retrieve my seed starting supplies. Hoping there would not be any more significant snow fall decided, on Wednesday, to clear away the snow from the front of my shed door. Guess what? Woke up to more than 3 inches of additional snow fall yesterday (Sunday) morning, I was not a happy trooper.

Even though I cleared away the snow I could not open the shed door. The ramp had shifted a bit preventing the door from opening, a big disappointment. Will have to wait until the ground thaw to reposition the ramp. Hoping for warm weather.

Still without my seed starting supplies so off to the garden center to buy what I needed.  Found cell packs and trays but no pro-mix. I need my pro-mix! Hope the supply arrives at the garden center soon.

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The deep snow did not keep the deer away, in the photo below are some foot prints they left in the snow between my back door and the shed.

Deer foot prints in the snow

First day of spring is only 25 days away!

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Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.

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