21 Day Practice of Capitalism – Day 13 – Sprouted Grains

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

If you look closely you can see the little sprouts on the wheat berries.  These little sprouts create enzymes that make digesting bread much easier and the nutrients more readily available from the digestive process.

If you look closely you can see the little sprouts on the wheat berries. These little sprouts create enzymes that make digesting bread much easier and the nutrients more readily available from the digestive process.

What do sprouted grains have in common with capitalism?   Quite a bit actually.   You see one of my main hobbies is making bread from scratch – and by scratch I mean starting with the wheat berries.    I have been studying how to grow grains on several patches of farm land I own as well.   This hobby is soon turning into a business as I am going to be teaching a class called Alaska Sour Dough Artisan Breads at our new Bed and Breakfast in Haines Alaska.   Over the years my bread making pursuits have yielded better and better results, as I went further back in the process (starting with milling my own flour) and become more innovative and experimental.   The same characteristics help me improve my other business efforts – better understanding the fundamentals then being innovative and experimental from the base foundation of excellence.

I used to purchase commercially milled flours – until I learned about the significantly improved health benefits from milling my own organic wheat berries from various varieties of wheat.   I rely on the staples of the hard red or white winter wheat berries.   But I also make numerous other breads from a more ancient grain called spelt.   In reading the cook book “Nourishing Traditions,” I learned that if I let some of the wheat berries sprout, that it could improve the nutritional characteristics of my home made bread even more.   So, I wanted to test this out.   I took about a cup of wheat berries and soaked them like any other sprouts.   After a day – and only a day – the berries had sprouted.   I was so excited.   I had tried to get a bag of mixed beans to sprout for three days – and not a one sprouted.   I later learned that if the beans get irradiated as a method of preserving them, they won’t sprout (makes me wonder just how nutritious irradiated food actually is?).

That excitement about the sprouted wheat berries led me to making my first bread with the sprouted wheat berries kneaded into the dough – at 10:30 PM after all the guests had left from my birthday party.   And isn’t this what innovation and experimenting does for all creative pursuits – gets you excited, energized and ready to try more new things.   Innovation is the fuel that keeps me going in my business – whatever the business pursuit.

Comments are closed.