Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Adventures in Alternative Health: Grow Your Own Wheat Grass Guide

Although this nutritional green starts with the word “wheat”, as far as I’ve researched, it’s not pure evil like other wheat-y things. Wheat grass is a plant in the wheat family, but the leaf itself is generally accepted as gluten-free (the seed is not)*. But to cover my own butt, the Mayo Clinic suggests consulting with your doc first before eating wheat grass if you have celiac.** Now that that’s out of the way…

Growth Day 20

Growing wheat grass has been incredibly easy and fun. My spouse and I got hooked on wheat grass shots from Inta Juice years ago, but have moved since then and haven’t had our wheat grass shots in a while. So for Valentine’s Day this year I bought him all the supplies to grow our own.

Raising wheat grass is kind of like growing grass in your yard. You water it a few times a week, and it just goes and goes! I think even the blackest of thumbs could easily tackle the wheat grass challenge.

Wheat grass is toted as a miracle plant, kind of like kale, but unlike kale there is significantly less evidence for its uses. If you just google wheat grass, many sites will try to convince you that it can cure cancer, reverse tooth decay, supplement all your daily vegetables, make you instantly lose ten pounds, and all kinds of unproven (and quite frankly, ridiculous) claims.

For my leafy-greens money, I’m a kale girl through and through. But wheatgrass is easy to grow, adds variety to my diet, and does have its own proven nutritional value. Also, like I said, its super easy to grow and lots of fun to see the end result.
There are all kinds of guides on how to grow your own wheat grass, and I’m not saying this is the best method, but it was super easy and worked great for me. Feel free to copy and enjoy!

Here’s my super easy how-to guide:
(I've included links to the products I used on amazon for your shopping ease! I am in no way affiliated with these products though so I can't guarantee their quality, but they worked for me. When you shop through these links you support Celiac Sanctuary, so thank you!)

Day 1
1. Soak seeds (amount depending on the size of your tray. I used 1 1/2 cups) in cool water for 12 hours. Drain water, carefully rinsing seeds (they could sprout at any time!), and cover with cool water for another 12 hours.  Repeat for a total of 36 hours.





Day 3
2. Spread wheatgrass seeds evenly across soaked soil in a wheat grass tray. Make sure you keep the soil moist! This usually means watering the seeds every day until they have sprouted. Keep in a warm, sunlit area.





Day 7
3. Continue to water the wheatgrass as needed, about every other day. Once the seeds are sprouted, make sure you don’t over-water as this causes mold has adverse health effects.






Day 24
4. Juice immediately after harvest! (Although I love my auto-juicer, I bought and used a manual juicer per multiple websites recommendations. I found this worked perfectly for my wheat grass and I highly recommend it! I think you get the most juice out of it that way, and its kind of fun!)




My wheat grass harvest resulted in 4 shots. I highly recommend a apple juice chaser. Bottoms up!









*http://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/01/04/wheatgrass-juice-gluten-free

** http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/wheatgrass/faq-20058018

No comments:

Post a Comment