Jackson Free Press

You don't have to have a large garden spread to grow your own organic food. In fact, you can grow plenty of food to supplement your diet in a small space.

While growing enough grain for bread might be a challenge in, say, a small apartment or tiny yard, you can grow nutritious grain sprouts anywhere to add to your sandwiches.

Start with one to four tablespoons of food-grade organic seeds. Put them in a wide mouth jar, and cover the jar opening with nylon mesh or tulle cloth from a fabric store and affix it with a rubber band. Add water, swirl it around and drain. Repeat the water, swirl and drain cycle twice a day for three to six days, and you will have sprouts ready to eat.

A word of warning for growing sprouts: Use only food-grade organic seeds, as some seeds are poisonous. Also, non-organic seeds could be contaminated with food-poisoning bacteria. Several online companies offer food-grade organic seeds specifically for sprouting, including Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com) and Peaceful Valley (groworganic.com).

Good sprouts to grow are lentils, garbonzo beans, mung beans, red clover, sunflowers, radish, rye, winter wheat, alfalfa, arugula, broccoli, buckwheat, canola (non-GMO) and adzuki beans.

For those who are more ambitious—and have more room or access to a community garden plot—you can grow your own sandwich. With 100 square feet (a 10-foot by 10-foot plot), you can grow enough amaranth, barley or rye to bake bread twice a month for a year.

You will have to buy (or rent) a grain mill, or find someone who grind grains in small quantities. Peaceful Valley (groworganic.com), offers a hand-cranking grain mill for $149. A bread maker would be nice, too.

Jim PathFinder Ewing is the author of five books on energy medicine and eco-spirituality published by Findhorn Press. His next book, to be published in the fall, is "Conscious Food: Sustainable Growing, Spiritual Eating." Find Jim on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @edibleprayers or visit blueskywaters.com.