I don't know if you would consider them inexpensive, but Park Seeds carries several sprouting seeds. I wouldn't waste my money on their sprouter though as it is not inexpensive and a wide mouth mayonaise jar with holes punched into the plastic lid does a perfectly acceptable job of sprouting. Years ago I bought a set of plastic lids with different size holes for different size seeds. These lids fit a widemouth canning jar.

christie, have you tried that health food store on South Campbell, next to Machino's? I bet they have them...but will be outrageously high. Amazon lists an assortment too.

It's called Mama Jean's Natural Market. They have two locations in Springfield and carry bulk seeds where you can get as little or as much as you like. They also sell sprouting jars.

1727 S. Campbell AND 1110 E. Republic Road

Here is a link that might be useful: Mama Jean's Natural Food Market

Thanks! I've never been to Mama Jean's. I need to check it out.

I finally remembered to go by Mama Jean's today when I was in town and bought some mung beans, & chia seeds to sprout. I was excited to find Anasazi Beans which I've been wanting to try, not for sprouting, just to use in place of pintos. They're supposed to be easier to digest (less gas).

I learned something. Chia seeds (as in chia pet) are a type of salvia. It said salvia hispanica underneath chia. I googled a photo of it and it doesn't look very showy but I wonder if some people grow it as an ornamental. I'm going to try some for sprouts and have enough to let my kids make a homemade chia pet too.

Here is a link that might be useful: anasazi beans story

christie, I sometimes use Chia seeds as a bread additive. You have to make a slurry of it with water first....don't know why. I bought a pound of it from Amazon.

Can you imagine how many plants you would have to grow to get a pound of those tiny seeds!

The key to bean sprouts is to grow them without light. This was on an episode of Food Tech on the History Channel last night. Extremely informative. Highly recommend.

Glenda - I hope they have a machine that harvests the seeds. They don't weigh much. A pound must be a lot of seeds.
We don't get History Channel so I didn't see that Violet. The directions I have say to keep them dark though, and to rinse two or three times a day. I'm trying the mung beans right now. I haven't started any chia seeds yet.

There's a convenience store on the north side of Springfield (on Kearney) that sells foods from India. They have bags of dried beans and I think they may have had mung beans but I'm not sure. The writing wasn't in English and I was going to try to remember what they were labeled, but should've written it down apparently. lol

I happened to stumble onto it.

You can get mung beans at any Asian grocery too - very inexpensive. They'll sprout.

How did it go? Did you eat them?

We keep our thermostat at 65 through the day and 62 at night so I thought my house might be too cool, but they sprouted just fine. The top of my frig would've been warmer but I have to set them someplace where I'll see them or I'll forget to rince them twice a day. I kept a heavy dishtowel over them so it would be dark.

They started getting leaves within about 5 days so I guess I let them go too long. I thought it was supposed to take a week but I'm sure it wasn't that long. Maybe we could still have eaten them, but I decided to feed them to the chickens and start over. I may only get one chance to get my hubby to try them.

Ah... I think the "week" depends on a lot of factors... I wonder if the dishtowel is dark enough, I suspect it still let's some amount of light through.

When you try again, would love to see photos! I'd say start checking during the third and fourth day. If you add them to a salad, they'll just provide nutrients, texture, and a bit of a crunch. Not much to not like.

I see this is an older thread, but perhaps someone out there will search 'alfalfa sprouts' like I did and come to this link. I am just starting a sprouting experiment today and came up with a way to make my own sprouting lids for canning jars. I posted the steps on my blog (see below). I think they are the perfect March/cold weather project!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog