How to Grow Alfalfa Sprouts in Australia

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a legume in the pea family, Fabaceae, grown on Australian farms as lucerne. Its seed is sprouted in a jar, and the sprouts are usually eaten raw. They are fine, crisp and mild, with a faintly nutty taste, and ready 5 to 8 days after soaking. Most jars that fail were left too wet.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Leaving water in the jar. Water left sitting lets bacteria breed and sours the seed, and the smaller the seed, the more thorough the draining must be. Shake out the last drops after every rinse and prop the jar mouth down.
2. Using too much seed. Three tablespoons of dry seed, about 30 g, swell to fill a litre jar, and an overcrowded jar stays wet and airless at its centre. Keep to the amounts in What you need.
3. Packing the sprouts away wet. Wet sprouts keep poorly in a sealed container. Dry the surface first, as Harvesting and Storing describes.

When to sprout

Alfalfa sprouts indoors in any month, and a room near 20 to 22°C suits it best. The seed germinates across roughly 15 to 29°C. A cold room slows the jar, and above 30°C it can sour or grow mould before the leaves open.

Some food safety extension services advise against summer sprouting unless the room stays near 21°C. In a Darwin build-up or a Perth heatwave, use the coolest room in the house or wait for a milder week.

Food safety

The warm, damp jar that grows a sprout also suits bacteria, and bacteria carried inside a contaminated seed cannot be rinsed away.

• Use seed sold for sprouting. Seed sold for sowing or pasture can be treated with fungicide or insecticide, and which seeds to sprout explains the difference.
• Wash your hands before handling seed or sprouts. Wash the jar, lid, mesh and bowl in hot water and detergent and rinse them. Before the first batch and between batches, sanitise them in a dishwasher that can sanitise, usually on its longest, hottest setting. Without one, soak them in very hot water (77°C for 30 seconds). Or use plain unscented household bleach at 25 mL to 10 L of cold water for 30 seconds, made up fresh each day. Let them air-dry.
• Soak and rinse only in water fit to drink, and keep the jar away from raw meat, pets and the chopping bench.
• Keep the fridge at 5°C or colder. Eat freshly harvested raw sprouts within 4 to 5 days. Sprouts cooked for anyone at higher risk are eaten straight away. Leftovers are cooled, kept in the fridge, used within a day of cooking and reheated until steaming hot.
• Harmful bacteria can be present while sprouts look, smell and taste normal, so none of those is a test of safety.
• Throw out any jar that smells sour or musty, feels slimy or darkens. More signs are in sprout problems and safety.

What you need

Use a wide-mouth glass jar with a fine mesh sprouting lid, or a square of muslin under a rubber band. A bowl or dish rack holds the jar mouth down. Start with alfalfa sprouting seed, and a sprouting jar or mesh lids for mason jars if you need them.

The tablespoons are 20 mL Australian spoons, each holding about 10 g of seed. A 2,000-seed packet holds about 4 g, enough for a small trial jar. A 10,000-seed packet holds about 20 to 23 g, enough for one 500 mL jar with some to spare.

A tiered sprouting tray also works. Spread the soaked seed in a thin, even layer and rinse it under the tap two to three times a day. Tip out the drip tray daily.

Soaking and Rinsing

Start the soak after dinner and the first rinse falls at breakfast.

1. Measure the seed. If you choose to treat it, soak it in plain supermarket vinegar, undiluted, for 15 minutes, then rinse it under the tap for 1 minute. This lowers the risk but does not remove it.
2. Tip the seed into the jar and cover it with water. Skim off any floating seed, broken hulls and debris, which research has tied to most contamination, then pour the water off.
3. Cover the seed with two to three times its volume of cool drinking water, about 21 to 27°C. Soak for 6 to 12 hours, out of the sun.
4. Drain, rinse once more and drain hard. Seed left sitting in water much longer can ferment and spoil.
5. Roll the seed around the glass so it spreads out, then prop the jar mouth down at an angle in the bowl.

From then on, rinse with cool drinking water two to three times a day, roughly every 8 to 12 hours. Never soak the seed again. Tipping the jar drains the water and draws air back in through the mesh.

Day by day

Air and drainage matter most, and ordinary room light suits the first few days.

Keep the jar out of direct sun while it greens, because sun through glass can cook the sprouts. Leaves buried in the clump may stay yellow, which is normal.

Harvesting and Storing

Alfalfa sprouts are ready when most leaves have opened and turned green. The thin seed coats, called hulls, shorten storage life, and they float off easily.

• Tip the sprouts into a large bowl of cool drinking water.
• Tease the tangle apart with clean fingers so the hulls rise.
• Skim the floating hulls off with a spoon or small strainer; the sprouts sink.
• Lift the sprouts out, and repeat once if many hulls remain.

Spin the sprouts in a salad spinner, or spread them on clean kitchen paper, until the surface feels dry. Pack them loosely into a clean, sealed container and refrigerate them at once. Rinse each serve under cool running water just before eating. They usually go raw into salads, sandwiches and wraps, or are cooked through soup. For anyone named in Food safety, they are cooked until steaming hot.

Common problems

White fuzz on the roots. Root hairs grow as an even white fuzz along the root only, and they collapse when rinsed. Mould can be white too, but it grows in cobwebby patches on seeds and empty hulls, stays after a rinse and smells musty. A mouldy jar goes in the bin.

Sour smell or slime. Any spoilage sign in Food safety means the jar is finished, and rinsing will not rescue it. Throw it out, wash everything and restart with the drainage in Three mistakes that matter.

Seeds that do not sprout. A few unsprouted seeds are normal, and they rinse out with the hulls. Many at once point to old seed, seed stored warm or damp, or a jar kept too wet or too dry.

Bitter or tough sprouts. Too much light or a jar left growing too long makes alfalfa tough and bitter. Keep it out of strong light until the leaves show, and harvest once most are green.

Tips

1. Start a small jar every few days for a steady supply.
2. Swap to a coarser mesh lid for the last rinses, so loose hulls wash out.
3. Store dry seed sealed in a cool, dark, dry cupboard, where it can keep for several years.