Well, that’s it. The season is now over! 2500 bags of sprouts later! I am now about to get into writing about the project. It feels good to be done, but I am already thinking about next year. I am still hoping to get a mechanical sprout harvester designed and Read more…
Well, now that production is mostly under control it is timeto start writing the production manual for small-scale and urban sunflower sprout production. This will be quite a project and wil include an annotated version of the Code of Practice for the Hygienic Production of Sprouts (CFIA document) and all Read more…
And on we go still. Just did the Saturday market today after doing the Friday harvest by myself for the first time. It took two of us six hours to do the harvest and it took me seven on my own. Go figure. However, I find it was easier to Read more…
I wish I had the time to update this blog mroe regularly, but the sprouts take a lot of time. Let’s go over a few glitches we have come up against and worked out. As a start we are still having great success with the machete as a harvesting tool. Read more…
Well, the past few 2weeks has been a wild ride! I shift between being elated and overwhelmed with anxiety. The sprouts have been selling well at the market. I do 2 markets each week – Wednesday and Saturday. The Wednesday market has been inconsistent so it is hard to determine Read more…
I feel bad that I have not been keeping this blog too up to date, but here we are again! I have now done my first two markets. The first one was on Saturday and I sold out before the market was over. The second was on Wednesday and did Read more…
Well, we are now rolling with the sprouts! I did my first harvest on Friday (May 22) and harvested much more than I expected. 12 trays gave me 78 bags!, which is 6.5 bags per tray – much more than the 4 I predicted. I sold 36 bags to local Read more…
Well, after a few test runs, which are still running, the system seems to be holding up pretty well. But there are a few glitches still – mostly in process, but a few infrastructure problems as well. As I am preparing the batches I am noticing little sources of potential Read more…
And we’re off. I have started my first batch of sprouts so we are officially in production. I did only 13 trays to start off with which I am going to sell in front of my house this Saturday. I will also approach some grocers to see about regular sales Read more…
Well, I have officially have one bench all ready to go. Now I just need to find someone to sell sprouts to. The first market is not until June 6 so I would like to do a few test runs before then. Perhaps to a few supermarkets or restaurants and Read more…