Sprout Smile Nonet
it’s been a long time since I’ve made them
I was a child in the kitchen
making sprouts with my mother
I got a kit today
two drain lids plus seeds
with my own jar
and I felt
my mom
smile
Way back in the 1970s, my mother taught me how to make alfalfa sprouts. It was fun for a kid to do. You get the starter seeds and rinse them, then soak them overnight. Each day for a week, you rinse and drain. After a week, you have enough sprouts to last you a week on sandwiches and salads, and it’s more economical than buying them in the store. Much more fun than when we hung a flat white bean on a wet paper towel in a Ziploc bag on the classroom window and watched it sprout and then took it home and threw it away. These sprouts we actually ate.
In my slice time this evening, after a day of visiting another camper dealership and then stopping for dinner and a shared banana split to celebrate our anniversary on the way home, I opened the sprout kit that I’d ordered and began the process of making the sprouts.
They’ll be amazing on a tomato sandwich with salt, pepper, and mayonnaise – – I’m already eyeing one of my green tomatoes on the back porch, wondering if just perhaps it will be the one to ripen in time to meet the growing sprouts in a springtime taste explosion of a sandwich on sourdough bread.
My mother would be so proud! I can feel her smiling down, knowing I’m thinking of those days in our avocado-colored kitchen of the 1970s at the corner sink, shaking out the sprout seeds together, all amazed and dazzled at their growth.
Common Threads 
I’ve never made sprouts. Looks like a fun project. Do you need a sunny window sill? There is nothing as tasty as a fresh tomato sandwich with sprouts. Yum!
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Hi, Margaret – – a warm place away from direct sunlight is where the jar goes as it soaks/drains for 5-7 days. I just leave mine on the kitchen counter but not in the windowsill.
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Kim,
I had no idea growing sprouts is so easy. I need to try that, and I need to capture more ordinary and nostalgic moments in poems. Did you find the camper you want? That tomato would not stand a chance of ripening here because I’d be frying that green tomato up and enjoying one of my favorite foods. Of course, it will be two more months before we can grow tomatoes. It’s a short season.
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Kim, your post makes me feel the longing for a moment to be with a mother again. Your description of your 70s kitchen has me laughing, but what a joy it is to see something sprout and then grow. Lovely post and good luck with your sprouts!
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That opening poem is like a deep breath—calm and reflective. Also, ending with “and I felt my mom smile,” just gorgeous!
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I love this– I might have to order some sprouts and give it a try! your mother’s legacy at work! Happy anniversary weekend!
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OH, I loved making sprouts back in the day. I’m glad it is coming back. I love that it would make your mom happy!
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I love the idea of growing sprouts with students instead of the bean seed in the window – the we can eat the sprouts in class, too! Your words create such vivid images in my mind. I especially love the phrase “a springtime taste explosion of a sandwich.” Do you really already have tomatoes growing? I’m jealous…it’s not warm enough to plant them in the PNW until May usually.
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So intriguing, Kim – I will have to give this a try, and I bet my granddaughters would enjoy it. Those last lines of your nonet say it all…going beyond a love of the sprouts to the one who first infused you with love, and nourished you. We remain connected to those we’ve loved in these acts which become rites of remembrance and gratitude. And so your mom continues to nourish you, still. And oh, those avocado kitchens of the 1970s-!! Our telephone on the kitchen wall was exactly that color!
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