Saturday, February 11, 2017

Stuff's growing onboard

We've returned to Malaysia and will be doing some big projects over the next 3 months.  Keep tuned for some good DIY information.  

In the meantime, no, we didn't have a moldy boat when we returned after spending 9 months back in the US.

One of the problems with buying local food is that there are countries with questionable water quality.  One way to solve this problem is to grow your own food.  We used to have a tomato plant but the yield is low for the effort required.  Also, customs people don't like you bringing food things into their countries.  There is a great cruiser book floating around called Sailing the Farm.  It's a handy go-to guide for growing things onboard. 

Our first project from the book was so easy.  We went to the store and bought a large mason jar.  The top was then replaced with some fly screen and that was the total extent of the hardware needed.

It all starts like this
Next, we put some seeds (we used Mung Beans) in the jar and some water for 24 hours.



Then drain and wash the beans.  Put them in a dark cool place and rinse them every 8-12 hours for the next 3 days.  We lay the jar on it's side to provide better air circulation.

After 24 hours they get little shoots
After the end of the 2nd day











After the 3rd day



After the 4th day




























Ready for cooking
So in the end, we end up with safe, fresh food that we can have access to anywhere in the world.  Wish we would have known about this at the 2 week point after leaving Mexico for French Polynesia.  All our freshies were gone and we were down to just canned goods.  This would have been such a treat. 
 
It doesn't get any better than having freshly sprouted beans for dinner