Q: ABOUT SEEDS: In your granola recipe, you indicate soaking sunflower/pumpkin seeds overnight makes them living plants. I had understood this (making them living plants) didn’t happen until you could see the beginning of sprouting. Can you do this with flax seeds, soak them overnight and add them to the green smoothie? I was told if you break/soften the hard shell of the flax seed, the body is able to digest it, getting all the benefits. Can you grind flax seed and put it in the fridge to be used later?
A: Soaking seeds makes them living, yes. Plants? Not quite yet. They’ve germinated even with just a few hours of soaking, and their enzyme inhibitors (as well as phytic acid) are neutralized. But the seeds are in the beginning stages of life that fuel the growth of the plant–you’re stealing those enzymes/vitamins/ minerals for yourself before the budding plant can use them. You could get a sprouting contraption with lights to continue growing them until they are GREENS (or put them in the sun until they “green,” though you risk them molding). A Yahoo group called “sproutpeople” is dedicated to this. But I usually eat my sprouts when they are just soaked, or sprouted to ½ the length of the seed or a bit longer. Soaking flax seeds before adding to your green smoothie—YES, great idea if you don’t mind it thickening your smoothie. We will do a lot of this in Step 7 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods on sprouting/dehydrating (I always soak flax seeds to make crackers, etc.). I’ll be doing some YouTube demos on sprouting, making flax crackers, etc. in the next few weeks. You can subscribe to my YouTube vids so you’re notified when I have a new one. You can grind the flax seed in advance, but use them within a few days, as flax (especially broken down in any way) oxidizes quickly.
