Sobe Bottle has slight edge in Sprouting Contest While Camping

The high today will be 72 F and it will get down to 54 F tonight.  I wake up in the cool morning air cozily warm in my new sleeping bag.

For breakfast this morning I had half a persimmon and granola with water on it. Whoever invented granola should get a special award.  It's not a very sexy food, no Epicurean's delight, but when you are camping and trying to get as much nutrition from the lightest most convenient food, few things compare.  I can go the whole morning without getting hungry on half a cup!

This is Day 4 of my lentil sprouts and they are now perfectly edible and delicious.  It's like eating sunshine.  My body adores them.  I was wondering how they would fare in the various containers I was sprouting them in.  My preference is to use glass, but they were stored raw in the only glass jar that I had.  What did I have?  I had a MacDonalds $1 drink cup, and Dasani water bottle (made from 30% plant material according to the label), and a SOBE Lifewater bottle (Number 1 PETE plastic rating).  Would the sprouts do better or worse in any of these PLASTIC containers?  Well, here's the results...

The answer is no.  The sprouts in all of the various containers seemed to do fine.  It was harder to do the daily rinse in the MacDonald's container because I had discarded the lid.  Also, since I didn't have the lid, I could not shake and swirl as easily to rinse the legumes.  The Dasani water bottle was harder to drain during the rinse, but I eventually learned that one finger was enough to drain without letting individual legumes from escaping.  The Sobe bottle required two fingers to block escaping lentils while draining.  

Consequently, the Sobe bottle is sort of nice because, once sprouted, I could throw the lid back on and carry them around for a snack during the day.  It is very convenient to sprout lentils in a plastic bottle because then you can just cap the container and store them without any transferring.  The width of the Sobe bottle mouth was perfect for convenient draining and pouring sprouts out later when snacking.

The nice thing about sprouting is that it is a good way to have healthy food without cooking.  It does require a container and clean water, and time--about 4 days.  The sprouts can be used on salads, in sandwiches, or for snacking.

Why I Camp

I pulled into the campground late last Friday night.  It was after dark and I was exhausted after the 3rd 30 mile trek of the day.  I 'm not crazy about arriving after dark because setting up the tent takes twice as long.

My favorite campsite by the creek was taken so I went to another one that I like almost as well--far away from the creek beside a grove of trees.   

It took maybe half an hour to get the tent set up using a couple of flashlights.  I worked as quickly as I could thinking mostly of getting it done with and crawling into bed afterward.  It was only when the tent was set up and I looked around in the darkness of the  campground that I realized what a lovely night it was, warm and quiet with the stars shining overhead.  I was exhausted and had planned to go to bed.  Instead, I dragged the lawn chair out and completely reclined it so I could lay on my back and gaze at the stars overhead.  It felt like heaven. Two planes flew over.   I continued to stare up into the darkness until I drifted off to sleep, thinking that everything was perfect.  

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In the stillness of the stars, I find myself.

In the stillness of the tent, I find myself.

In the warmth of my sleeping bag in the cold night air, I find myself.
In the silence of the trees, i find myself.