Multiple Shopping Options

We have two shopping methods. For those of you who prefer shopping from an alphabetical list,
you may now do so here.
Shopping remains available on our descriptive pages as well. You get to those by following the links
at the top, left or bottom, as well as within the body of all of our pages.
You may shop from either or both in the same visit. It's all good.

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SproutPeople News
posted 7.15.2008
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Product/Site

We're changing our Kelp Fertilizer brand due to problems with importation from Canada. Kelpman (formerly Sea Spray) is being replaced with "Saltwater Farms SeaCom PGR". The kits we sell which include kelp fertilizer will continue to include 4 oz. bottles of Kelpman until we exhaust our supply. The kits will go up a bit in price when they switch to SeaCom PGR. Due to the archaic nature of our site design, changing products requires a lot of time to change references and links on pages on which the product appears. So, until I complete the update, you may run into pages that say "Kelpman". Some will say "Kelp Fertilizer". It is all the same - they are identical in use.

We have added another soilless growing medium: Tencel^® Sure-to-Grow Pads. These are identical in use to Baby Blanket, so if you purchase STG Pads (which is what we are calling them) and look up growing instructions on our site, please follow the Baby Blanket instructions. You will be doing exactly the right thing. The pages involved will be changed to include STG Pads in time.

Which brings me to another thing. I (Gil) built this site between 1999-2001 and have maintained it ever since. It is getting old (as evidenced by the time it requires to add or alter products) and, let's face it, our shopping cart is antique by internet standards. Lori and I have always done everything Sproutpeople needs. Everything! But the web has gotten past me, so we are going to work with an actual web design company to re-build our site. This is very difficult for me, but it is time. We will retain all of our content, but it will present itself in a less crowded way. We expect that the time saved by this re-build will allow us to add additional content. We expect to be able to add and/or alter products with ease, and our shopping cart will allow you to save favorite items for easy re-ordering, maintain an order history and allow you to track shipments. We will be reaching out to you for your opinions. We know we can't please everyone, but we can listen. So, for now, if you use a web site which you really like - the manner in which it works not its products - please let us know. Also tell us about features you like in a web site.

Inflation

Prices are going up everywhere for all of us. Fuel costs drive everything higher (virtually everything is transprted from its source to its end user). The plummeting dollar lowers value while we pay more for seemingly every single thing. It is a fact of life - it has been worsening for years - and it doesn't look like it is going to get better anytime soon. We are trying to suck it up. It is hard! We are a small family business, but we feel like we have to do what we can to keep inflation down. The more companies raise their prices the faster inflation grows. It would be much more helpful if the oil giants stopped gouging us (their profits have been at record highs for years now), or the car companies, or any of the other bazillion dollar corporations - but we know that's not going to happen - so it's up to us little people to help each other.
So what's new?!
Here is an example:
We get quite a few seeds from Canada. For years we enjoyed our dollar being worth almost twice the Canadian dollar. Now the U.S. dollar is worth less than a Canadian dollar. Good for Canada! We love them, but the reality is that we now pay more than twice what we paid for some seeds, just a few years ago. Farmers are also hit hard by fuel costs (tractors need gas too). Combine that with poor weather (Global Warming) and the resulting bad crops and we get short supply - so there is not enough supply to meet the demand, which further raises prices. Our profit margins have shrunk dramatically over the past few years. Fortunately for us we get more orders every year - so we make it up in volume - or have so far. With UPS sucking more of our money again, seeds costing twice what they did, suppliers raising prices on everything we sell (sprouters, juicers, kelp, etc.) and use (boxes, paper, packing peanuts, etc.), and the cost of getting those goods to us, it is only a matter of time before we have to raise our prices. We just want you to know that we take our part in inflation very seriously, and we will hold out as long as we reasonably can.

Seeds and Stuff

Seeds

Weather has been inconsistent for many years now and that has a HUGE affect on plants. Plants are phenomenal adaptors however, so we are pleased we can once again say that this years crops have impressed us. Low precipitation again this past winter will more than likely continue the trend of poor growing seasons, though we've heard some good reports from our farmers in a few parts of the country, we've heard the word drought from others. I'm sure we'll be impressed again - but that doesn't mean the seeds will be as good as they have been in the past. Please do whatever you can to help our planet. We all need to pitch in. Huge changes are neeed, but every little bit helps.

Good News
We have a GREAT Lot of Sunflower Greens
These are the best Sunflower Greens we've had since 2005 - they are excellent seeds that produce robust greens evenly.
We have a good inventory of them - enough hopefully, to last until the 2008 harvest.

Though we no longer can offer Sprout-Ease Lid Sets, we Sproutpeople have something even better.
We now have our very own 3-Lid Set of Stainless Steel Sprouting Screens!
This is the 2nd sprouter we've had to make due to a manufacturers disappearance (the Hemp Bag was our 1st). We are very proud of this addition to our line of fine manual sprouting products - and we've just added a variation - Plastic Rings for a rust free experience.

We had the great honor to edit the sprouting section of the new Joy of Cooking and received a wonderful thanks in Ethan's introduction. Susan and Ethan have purchased seeds and supplies from us for years and Gil had griped about the past editions poor sprouting instructions, so I suppose it was just natural. But THE Joy of Cooking! Wow! Who doesn't have that book in their collection?!
There is now a Joy of Cooking web site.

Our Garlic Chive farmer in Illinois who did NOT have seed in 2004 or 2005, is back on track. For the 2nd straight year, we again have his exceptional seed in good supply. We use Garlic Chive in our Italian Blend and Exotic Sprout Sampler, in addition to selling it as a straight sprouting seed. You should freeze this seed too. Check out our Seed Storage page. Freezing is the best way to store all seeds, but these and other Alliums are the shortest lived seeds of all, so they virtually require it.

China had another good growing season in 2007, so the crops we get from that part of the planet are high quality once again. There aren't many, but they are important - Mung Beans especially. Please understand that we are VERY concerned about ALL products from China. We were so impressed by the recent dog food recall and more recently the toys being recalled that we now read every label when we are shopping, and if something is coming from or has ingredients from China, or even if we are uncertain; we are putting it back on the shelf. The Chinese seeds we carry are another matter all together. These are grown by small farmers who are growing organically. We MUST support these farmers! They are doing everything right for this suffering planet of ours, and we are not going to make them suffer for the mistakes of the greedy corporations that currently have a stranglehold on our planet.

A loyal customer told us that sprouted Black Sesame looks really cool - like tiny dominos. So we found some, and she was right - it is cool - and it sprouts really well.

We have new crops in and some are better than we've seen in some time. The most notable improvements are:
Sunflower Greens
Hulled Sunflowers

Not So Good News
We are busier than ever this year (that's a good thing for the most part of course) so our seeds are going faster than usual. We are low on (or out of) a seed or three, but we are looking for more. It is not a great time of year to find seed (harvest is a fall thing), so be patient - if these are unavailable now, they should be back no later than December:

Rye
Rye Grass (same seed)
Sesame
Fenugreek

We once again have a shortage of Oriental Mustard. This is the seed we sell for both Mustard Sprouts and Mustard Greens. It now looks like we won't have any to sell this year as we've been unable to find any source for them. We have enough to keep Oriental Mustard in our mixes through the year, so look for it in these fine blends: Russian Mix, Nick's Hot Sprout Salad, Oriental Greens, Hot², Long Life, and Mesclun Mix. We are still including Oriental Mustard in our Micro-Greens Kit and our Brassica Sampler. That will likely change as our supply dwindles as we must keep enough for our mixes. We certainly hope to have more Oriental Mustard for 2009.

This years Spelt is fairly pathetic. There is no way this will grow grass. As a sprout we advise you just soak it, rinse and eat - ot rinse, drain well and refrigerate 12 hours later. As is common with spelt (which does not fare well in the hulling process) it is an uneven sprouter. Just trust that the seed is alive once soaked (as is true with all seeds) and skip the root growth.

Once upon a time (2003 and before) we had many Garbanzo beans to choose from - Black, Brown, Large and Small Beige. We still have a few Blacks and even some Browns, but neither sprouts well on its own (we mix it in very small amounts into mixes, in which they sprout acceptably), but we have now run out of the Small Beige. The only Garbanzo you can purchase from us now is the basic Large Beige Garbanzo. They do sprout well and taste great. We continue to hope we'll find the "odd Garbanzos someday, but if we don't, it means that our famous mix; Garbanzoid will fade into history. We will keep it available as long as possible, though frankly it is already only a shadow of its once great self.

The Future of Raw Almonds
A lot of you have asked about the future of almonds. It is true that our government very quietly (and without public notification or call for comment) passed a law to pasteurize all almonds. We need to make some serious noise if we want live organic almonds to be available in the future. We have to fight to get our raw almonds back, so write your elected officials (all of them) and the USDA to demand that organic almonds not be pasteurized (Click to download a Sample Letter (This link will download a Word file)). This is another case where we can say that certified organic seed has never been blamed for a single outbreak of food-borne illness. That recent research shows organic crops to be more nutritious is only more reason for us to stand up and be heard while we can still fight for healthy food. Visit our friends at The Cornucopia Institute for further information.

The 2007 Wheat crop was better than the 2006 crop (when Wheat, was off 67-75%! You are seeing that right - the yield was only 25-33% of the normal yield per acre.) but not much better. Good Wheat is once again hard to find, but we have wonderful Wheat thanks to our long and thriving relationships with farmers. Despite the horrible growing season the grains grow exceptional grass. Seeds and plants truly are amazing adaptors, which we all NEED them to be in this time of dramatic global warming. We have enough to get us all through to the next harvest. We continue to do what we can, and to hope for better weather for our farmers, and our planet. Now that Wheat is being used in fuel production, the supply is greatly lessened, and the cost is skyrocketing. Fortunately, our farmer is not raising his prices so much that we can't absorb it.

Once again we have run into the brick wall that is the manufacturer of Sprout-Ease Lids and The Tube. All of you loyal customers will likely remember this oft repeated sad refrain, we apologize. We have given these people every possible opportunity but they do not fill orders, do not respond to e-mails, their voice-mail is always full and they disregard faxes. Our current order was placed in September of 2006 (yes, 2006!). We have had this identical problem more than a few years now and we are finally fed up completely. Waiting many months, running out-of-stock and living with all the stress is just no way to do live, or do business. We will no longer be carrying their products. We are very sad to see them go. Their products remain on our site for now as we hold out that very last ray of hope; that they will fill that September 2006 order. If they do we will place another for as much as we can afford - hopefully a supply that would last for 2-3 years. Of course we won't expect that to be filled for at least 6 months, so even if the best happens and we get our order, we will certainly run out again before they fill the next one. So don't be surprised when you get an out-of-stock warning when putting those products into your shopping cart. As we always say at this point, as much as we love their products we do have better. Sproutpeople's own 3-Lid Set of Stainless Steel Lids are way better than the old Plastic Lids, and Easy Sprout is better than The Tube. Check out those devices and feel lucky - they really are better.
We had found a small supply of The Tube, through a big distributor here in California, so for a while we were selling our Kids Sprout Exploration Kit again, but that supply has now gone and though we are once again hoping to uncover more, we have little real hope.

Beyond News
This isn't the first year weather has been weird, it has been like this since we got into agriculture (1989), and before, but it is surely worse than ever - way too much heat and inconsistent moisture (too much or too little and often at the wrong time). As concerned as we are about global warming, we like to think that "life will find a way" - which means, in this case, that seeds will adjust to the new conditions. Seeds are alive and they work for the survival of their species. One way they do that is by acclimating. Seeds are amazing - they are what made us become Sproutpeople.

We won't go on about the bad crops. Like we said - the weather has been difficult for many years, yet we always seem to find high quality seeds in the quantities we need. We now know that that will be the case again this year (all the seeds we purchased exceeded our expectations). We have all the new seeds in house now, so enjoy the selection.
Here is a page about storing your seeds.

As always, we are trying to do better - as Sproutpeople and as human beings.

Thank you again for your continuing support and kind words.
Happy Sprouting!

Gil & Lori
Sproutpeople