#163: The More Self-Sufficient You Are, the Less You Need School

In this episode, we step outside the traditional conversation around education and take a deeper look at something bigger—how we’re raising our kids in today’s world.

Cheryl sits down with Doug Evans, founder of The Sprouting Company, to talk about self-sufficiency, food, environment, and why more families are questioning the systems we’ve always relied on—from school to the food we eat.

They explore:

•  Why play-based learning may be more powerful than structured classrooms 
•  How environment (indoor vs outdoor living) impacts children’s development 
•  The connection between food, health, and independence 
•  Simple ways families can become more self-sufficient (even if you’re busy) 
•  What it looks like to raise kids outside the traditional system 

While this conversation isn’t just about homeschooling, it touches on a core idea many parents are starting to realize:

We have more control over our children’s lives—and learning—than we’ve been led to believe.

If you’ve ever questioned the way things are “supposed” to be done, this episode will give you a lot to think about.

Episode Resources:

The Sprouting Company

Instagram- The Sprouting Company

https://www.youtube.com/@TheSproutingCompany

• Cheryl’s eBook- The Homeschool How To: Complete Starter Guide

Transcript

Meet Doug Evans And His Family

SPEAKER_02 0:02

I didn't plan to homeschool. I started asking hard questions, realized how little control parents actually have, and made the hard decision to leave a government job to homeschool my kids. Now I interview other homeschooling parents to learn how this all works. I'm Cheryl, and this is the Homeschool How-To podcast. Let's learn this together. Welcome. And with us today, I have Doug Evans. Doug, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Cheryl, it's such a joy to connect with you. I love your work. I love your mission. And thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Awesome. So yeah, when you messaged me, it was like, hi, I do sprouts. We do this for for my three-year-old and her pot. And I was like, yeah, come on the show. No, no further questions asked. But you want to know what I have like this curiosity about sprouts because two decades ago, I something made me want to um purchase like the truth about cancer series. I don't know if you've ever heard about that from Ty and Charlene Bollinger. And they talked a lot about health in it and eating the right foods. And sprouts was a huge thing that they discussed. So over the years, I've kind of been like, Where are sprouts? You don't hear about them. I don't like see them in the store. I don't know how to grow them. So let's first start out with okay, so are you homeschooling? Do you have kids?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I have a daughter that is three and a half. She's gonna be four in July, and she's never been in a structured classroom. Most of her time is running around naked, you know, in the yard. We have a teacher who comes here twice a week, and then her friends come, so there's a little pod, and they just basically play all day in a structured environment. And then two days a week, she goes to the boulders and she has an outside uh teacher. So her and her friends run around outside in the boulders and they play outside. So all of her schooling is really play.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah, as it should be, especially at three. Oh my goodness. She must be having the time of her life.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Um we have a we have a we have a trampoline in the backyard, and we have a lot of stuff for her to climb on, and we have hot springs, and she's aquatic. We're near Joshua Tree at Wonder Valley Hot Springs in Southern California.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Wow, beautiful. So it's a it's a little warmer there than in New York here right now, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, yeah.

Outdoor Play Over Indoor Classrooms

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Okay, so what even made you decide to not go the traditional schooling route? Because she would typically be in like a preschool right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

I mean, like classrooms, like off-gassing VOCs, you know, all sorts of forced medical tyranny on her that we just want her to be a kid. We want her to be like an animal. What's a VOC? Volatile organic compounds. These are the gases that come out of tiles and paint and carpets and plastics.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Wow. So I've never even heard of that term. And I mean, I know they're not good to be around, but it's like there's a there's a reason to stay away, especially as a young kid.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Probably allergies and of course. Like you want you want kids to be outside, you want them to play, you want them to not like even just heating and air conditioning is a challenge, right? Free on or free on alternatives and stabilizing their body at 68 degrees, 365 days a year. No, let them, you know, let them have some natural stressors.

Resilience Through Cold And Heat

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Very true. I have heard a little bit about that, and that that would be a cool rabbit hole to go down. Like what what it really is doing to our body to be at such a comfortable temperature all year long.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

We know what it does. It just makes us weak. It makes us incapable of dealing with circumstances outside of that, right? Which is the extreme version of that, right? The extreme is like Jessie Itzler, cold plunge, you know, sauna, right? Zero degrees to 200 degrees. Like the people are doing it. And that's great. So they're forcing the stressing of the environment.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

But is that healthy for your body though?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah, it creates a hermetic response where the body needs to respond. So if you get like my daughter loves the cold plunge, right? And she goes into the cold plunge, her body needs to respond. And so it it raises the whole response system to generate heat. So you don't want to leave her in there to freeze, right? But she's so cute. Like maybe at the end she may walk in and say, Leaf, do you like the her name is Leaf, L-E-A-F. Do you like the cold? And she goes, Cold never bothered me anyway. But can like a zoom frozen character. It's very good. Like in Europe, they put all the kids, like in Denmark, in strollers outside in the winter to take their naps.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

I have heard that. I've I think I heard it on Oprah, and then I stopped believing in Oprah. So all their all her credibility went out the window for that. But that's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Wait, can I just ask what what what what happened with Oprah?

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Do we have the time? So, no, but she, I mean, she's I all right. Well, do I want to sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist or just like like this is what's out in the news is Cheryl.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Let me let me just share with you that I haven't read a newspaper or TV, we have no TV or watched the news in over two decades.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Well, that's amazing. So that's amazing. So you don't even know what's happening outside.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

No, I have no no idea. Because for me, like my mission is feed the world sprouts.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Like I want to produce content that connects with people, inspires people, and all the other stuff is a distraction. Like I remember watching, you know, a prior war, and I was just glued to the TV. And you know, it wasn't helpful for me.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

No, and that's exactly what they wanted from it was people to just be glued and in fear in constant fight or flight, but not in the healthy kind. And I'm in bliss. Yeah. So Oprah, well, she happens to have a lot of friends who happen to be maybe pedophiles, and it's and then she has a lot of money that's funneling to Haiti, and where a lot of children supposedly go missing for things. And in that school that she built in Haiti, a lot of girls in that school were physically assaulted by people that worked in the school. So it's just like, you know, there's a lot of coincidences there. So I just stopped watching her.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah. But yeah, you gotta, I mean, we have to take a stand for the kids, right? We have to take a stand for the kids. And I think we also, as leaders, need to get to the root of like what's really happening because I don't believe anything that they say on the news. I agree with you a hundred percent. Build people up and then they tear them down. And like, you know, I have a three-year-old, like I take a bullet for my daughter, right? There's no question about that. And so I'm very protective and I look at all people, like I want to protect all people from this. And so that's let's go on with the the homeschool.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah, but you know, I do have a question for you with not having TV and stuff, and you said you're you're in California though. So what was COVID like for you if you didn't have a TV and you really had this sort of disconnect from the outside world? Do you do you and your spouse like work in the office setting? We don't really so you're like, we don't we had no idea COVID happened. You were like, you and the Amish had no idea.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yeah, no, I mean there was no social distancing, no masks. You know, we would go to town and like they'd say you need to wear a mask, and we're like, what? And so we'd we might get thrown out of the supermarket if we went, but you know, we had 200 pounds of organic sprouting seeds and jars. And so while people were fighting over macaroni and cheese and Coca-Cola and toilet paper, you know, we were using a bidet and eating sprouts and and we were just fine. Like, like really don't have any COVID trauma. Our daughter doesn't have any COVID trauma. You know, it it wasn't even coincidentally. Now that you mentioned COVID, I did a podcast yesterday with Dr. Peter McCullough. Wow, he's a hero. I was a guest on his podcast. Congratulations. Yeah, he's a big sprouter. Yeah. So he knows about sprouts and the like. And we talked about the anti-inflammatory and preventing disease. And so, you know, I did read his papers, and so I was familiar with with him, which was very, very powerful. So I'm not like total head in the sand, but I have layers of filter that that prevent me from going down like doom scrolling. Yeah. Everything is filtered for me. Like if you said something like I'm not gonna go down, you know, the Oprah, you know, experience, like, you know, for me, and it's interesting what what you said on that, I've read many of Oprah's books, right? And like one of the things that that I remember every and it it affects me every day, is when someone is wild or crazy or angry or rageous, most people say, Well, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with them? And in my voice, I hear Oprah saying, What happened to them?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah. What happened to them? I I love Oprah too. I have I was a super soul Sunday watcher every week, but and it was, you know, going down the crazy rabbit holes I went down. Um, and I know everything. You can't believe everything that you hear, whatever. You have to make sense of like, does this make sense or does this not? And her and like Ellen were very hard. Tom Hanks were very hard for me to grapple with, like, no, these are people I feel like I know and I trust. Like they'd be like my aunts or uncles. But I had to like wrap my head around, like, there's people in the live in like a different culture. They might be in America, but like, I don't know if it's the Hollywood, the politician, or just anybody with a certain amount of money and power, like level that they are, they live in almost a different culture than we do, and they see things differently. And I don't know, it's yeah, I I'd stay out of that. Stay out of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, like I mean, look, what what I what I can say, right, is you know, there's there's people that are in the e-files. I don't even want to say that. There's people that are in the e-files. Say whatever you want here, right? But there are people that are in the e-files, and some of them, like aside from them being in the e-files, did a lot of good work, right? And then there was something about this charismatic charlatan pedophile, money, cars, planes that appealed to people's desire for X, like for X. And, you know, so it's hard to look at, you know, like we all have shadow. Now you look like Mary Poppins, Cheryl. So like I can't imagine you doing anything bad, right? Anything ever, like just ever. Like, I'm I'm sure you wouldn't even jaywalk in New York City in the middle of the night with no cars coming. Like you're probably waiting for the for the light to turn, right? But everybody else, other than Cheryl, probably has done something that that they regret, gives them a pit in the stomach or or something. And so I want to believe, like certain people who've made mistakes in life and admitted it have been redeemed. Like Mike Tyson, like went to jail for rape, right? Paid the price, came out, and now he's the hero. Like everybody, maybe you don't, but most people like I don't follow him, love and accept Mike Tyson, you know, as a champion, you know, and because he paid the price. Mike Tyson paid the price, right? He did something wrong, he paid the price. Mike Milken, like, went to jail for insider trading, paid the price, and is now, you know, a honorable contributing member of society, right? Martha Stewart, right, went to jail and didn't get canceled because she paid the price. So I think when people pay the price, so they can go. The people who hide, who do something wrong and hide or in denial, that's when it's hard to make a comeback because they don't own up to the mistakes that they've made. Now, Cheryl, have you made any mistakes?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

I have. You know, I jaywalked when we visited Florida a couple weeks ago. And it's funny because I had to ask my friend's permission. I was like, she was f I'm from New York, where you aren't supposed to jaywalk. And we were in Florida and I like called her up because she was meeting us, and I said, Are we allowed to jaywalk here? She's like, Yeah, because the beach was like right across from where we were staying. Right. But the crosswalks were like, you had to go half a mile that way or half a mile that way. But I did, I had to ask her permission. Am I gonna be in trouble? But but yeah, of course, of course. You know what I think it is too, the politicians and the people in Hollywood? I don't even know if there's ill intent to start with. I think it's like, hey, you you're trying to make it in the big leagues, like whether it be, you know, in in the political realm or in Hollywood or music or whatever. And it's like, oh yeah, you find yourself at this gathering or a party or someone's house, and then there's like like Epstein did, there's this system of like, oh, get them under the influence of something and on camera doing something that they don't want others to know about, but they're under the influence and not making their own, you know, good judgment calls. And then I think that's how a lot of that Epstein stuff got so carried away. You know, yeah, yeah. I mean, and then it's like you're blackmailed, you're stuck.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah. Well, let's stay out of it. Let's stay with the sprouts and you know, out of it.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

So, so lesson of all of that is you can look at this crazy world and be like, okay, do I want to send my kids into the system or do I want to find ways to live self-sustainably? Because we can't change Hollywood, we can't change the politicians other than maybe locally you can change some politicians. But what can we do to make our lives more self-sustainable, to not depend on the government for whether it be, you know, for food, for even in a natural disaster, like a hurricane or something. I don't want to have to depend on FEMA to come rescue my family. I want to be able to do that. And I think sprouts, it sounds like from what I've researched, is a very good way to do that.

Why Sprouts Are So Powerful

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah. I mean, look, look, you asked why everyone isn't sprouting. It's because of Fruit Loops and Pop-Tarts, right? It's because the food system is engineered for long shelf life, high margins, high processing. So everything that's not that, you know, there's no market for it. So as a result, right, in 2026, where sprouts are the most nutrient-dense food on the planet, up to a hundred times more nutrient-dense than mature vegetables. Fresher because you're growing them on your countertop, like right here. I'm growing my sprouts like right here, right? In a jar. There's no national or international sprouting companies, period. Period. How is that possible? Short shelf life, low margins, they require refrigerated transportation, plastic packaging. So wherever sprouts are sold, it is a local or regional business at best. And okay, so how quick? Yeah, okay, go ahead. Yeah, so my insight was I don't want to sell sprouts that are perishable. Like I lived, you know, starting in 2017, when I started to write the Sprout Book, and I'm very, very proud of my book, The Sprout Book, became a national bestseller, almost a hundred thousand copies sold. Amazing. When major publisher, St. Martin's McMillan, when I wrote the book, I had just completed living in one cubic foot with six jars. I was growing thousands of calories a day of sprouts. Wow. And I was getting, I thought initially, like maybe this was too good to be true. So I called up Dr. Oz, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Axe, Dr. Joel Furman, Dr. Joel Kahn, Dr. Alan Goldhammer, and all of these doctors had one thing in common, right? Even though some were keto, some were Dr. Mark Hyman, functional medicine, they all had their own shtick. What they all had in common is they all loved sprouts. They were all like sprouters. And I said, hey, why? And the interviews that I did with them ended up being like the basis of my book proposal. So I went to the publisher and I went and I said, hey, I want to write a book on sprouts. And the the publisher was like, there's no market for sprouts. This is a non-category. And I was like, no, no, DIY is big, people are fermenting, they're growing mushrooms. And mark my words, I'm going to create a movement about growing sprouts because it's too good that you can take, you know, a quarter cup of seeds, put them in a jar, and get a full jar of sprouts in five days without soil, sunshine, or fertilizer. Like it's just too good. It's so good. And that's the essence of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Did our ancestors do this?

SPEAKER_00 17:42

They've been sprouting in cultures like Japan, Korea, China, India. They've been sprouting since the beginning of time. Sprouts are the original ancestral food, right? Seeds germinate, grow into vegetable. There would be no grass-fed cows if they weren't eating sprouted grass, right? So everything begins with a seed. All nutrition of all land animals, all amino acids, come from sprouted seeds. So when I see like an apple or I see a head of broccoli, those are just mature sprouts in my mind. And it's so multiplicative, combinatorial, exponential that one seed, when sprouted, will grow into like a five-pound head of broccoli. And if you let it continue to grow, it will flower and then it will fruit. And then that one seed will multiply into a thousand more seeds. So, and when you sprout a seed, like one seed can make weigh, like, for example, like a gram, it will turn into 10 grams. So it's it's exponential.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Okay, so is there a difference between a seed growing into broccoli and then this is that the same seed? Same seed that's gonna be the sprout that you would eat that has more nutrients than the head of broccoli.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Well, yeah, the reason why is at the seed stage, it's concentrated. So you're getting the maristomatic stem cells of the plants in the seed stage. So as the plant gets bigger, it's getting more water, it's getting more fiber, it's getting more vitamin C. But the core concentrated elements, like you, you know, you when you see a baby, the baby, you know, grows into its eyes, right? The eyes come out big and then the body grows into it. Have you seen that? I guess I never noticed, but sure. Yeah, well, just a like you look at it.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

All that's going through my mind though is from Jerry Maguire, the little kid going, the human head weighs eight pounds.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

So, so the thing is at the at the small level, it's concentrated and potent and valuable and fresh. And you're in New York, right? The average lettuce that you're eating in New York is coming from California, right? 3,000 miles across the country, right? Over a two-week period. And once it's cut away from the root system, right, it's degrading, it's diminishing. So to me, I'm a fresh guy. I want fresh. And turns out with sprouts, like I just nailed it. It was like, boom, this is what we all can eat. And the fact that I lived exclusively on sprouts for 30 days at a time, and I had energy and vitality. And Cheryl, I'm gonna be 60 years old in three months. Wow. And I'm at like the optimum physical, mental, spiritual, you know, position. Like I just, every aspect of my life is flowing because I have my authentic purpose. Like to sh I'm the voice of Sprouts.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Okay, so what got you into Sprouts in the first place? After three years of interviewing homeschooling families, I realized how overwhelming it can be to piece everything together. So I took the best advice, tips, questions, and resources that I've learned along the way and put them into one practical ebook. If you're looking for a clear starting point, you'll find the link in this show's description.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

So I moved to Wonder Valley Hot Springs in 2018, full time. There was not only this an environmental desert, right? Joshua Tree is a desert, it was also a food desert. No farmers markets, no health food stores, no restaurants, and I didn't want to go to the grocery store to buy overpriced things that were in bags and boxes and jars and cans. So I had the fantasy of homesteading, homeschooling. So, and turns out it's really hard to grow food unless it's sprouts, and sprouts it's like easy. So I got a few jars, I started to sprout, and then like I didn't have to leave. I was getting all my nutrients, and then so I'm living on the sprouts, I'm writing the Sprout book, you know, I'm living, you know, just this happy life. And then my book was done. My book published April 2020, right in the beginning of COVID. And so, you know, I didn't have to leave. I was playing on doing a book tour, going to New York, Barnes and Noble, Union Square, and everything got canceled. So I was like, okay, you know, I was whatever. Six years ago, I was 55, you know, 53 years old or whatever. I was like, oh, I gotta go onto social media. So I'm like cold calling, getting onto podcasts, started my Instagram account, started my TikTok. Fast forward now, I have like over 500,000 followers across my platforms, and you know, I'm sharing this gospel sprouting. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Okay, so if I wanted to start growing sprouts, it sounds like they've you said they have a five-day shelf life. So are you constantly like every day putting in a couple more seeds?

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Always growing.

The Simple Weekly Sprouting Routine

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Always putting in a couple more seeds. Yeah. Give me could you give me my one week to-do list if I want to have sprouts every day for me and my kids?

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Go to thesproutingcompany.com. There are bundles. You could I always recommend the double sprouter so you could have two jars growing at all times, so you're always eating. And the thing about sprouts is in the beginning, I thought that they were a garnish or a side dish. And now sprouts are the center of my plate. Like I eat entire sprout salads. I don't use protein powders and smoothies. I throw sprouts in there. I add them to wraps, to soups, to entrees, to salads. Like sprouts are everywhere because in my heart and in my head, I know these are the freshest, most nutrient-dense foods, and they're they're crispy and they're crunchy and they're alive. So when you said, did our ancestors sprout? Yeah, they've been sprouting through. But then when the industrialized revolution came and you're buying produce from the supermarket, I was just watching uh my friend Cash talking about how the founder of Moderna started another um company to be able to put mRNA vaccines in spray that they're spraying on produce to deliver vaccines to the produce that you eat. Jesus. How is that legal?

SPEAKER_02 24:25

How? I know it's happening. I know it's happening, but how is that legal? I mean, I don't know. You can't jaywalk, but you can spray mRNA on people's feet.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

I mean, it's it's all like this, you know, politics. That's where I want to be responsible for my own, you know, supply and growing. So it's like what what I eat, what my family eats, you know, what your audience eats is sprouting. So now, like, you know, we have, you know, it's tens of thousands of people are buying these sprouting kits, they're buying the seeds, it's just going and they're shifting away, like they're tuning in to fresh consciousness. They're tuning in to everything that they put in their mouth is a life or death decision.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yeah, I mean, thank goodness for RFK Jr. in there because that probably helped promote, you know, your mission as well. Because people really didn't pay much attention to it before. I hope they are now.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Yeah, I mean, look, I I'm non-political. Like, I I've met many of these people. I don't know, like, I really don't know. What I do know is that like sprouts are better than processed food. There's no dyes, there's no additives, and there's also no saturated fat. So, you know, the the food pyramid to me could be 100% sprouts. Like it just could be.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

So, what kind of sprouts are you eating? Like, what are they? For someone that's never even probably eaten one.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Like, you know, one of the easiest things, this is like a lentil sprout. You know, I've been snacking on these all day. Alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts, radish is very like it's daikon rodish, so it has the spiciness. Green peas are sweet, mung beans are protein-oriented, garbanzo beans are like totally like we we make hummus where we just take sprouted garbanzo beans and we blend them with fresh homemade sauerkraut and we make it into a hummus. And so the the idea of knowing your ingredients. So the the basically broccoli, radish, clover, alfalfa, mung beans, lentils, green peas, and garbanzo beans are like the core, like little sweet that that is more than enough. And then you could add pesto sauce, marinara sauce, um, you know, oil and vinegar, like you know, srirachi, like whatever you want to add onto it, and the sprout the sprouts will pick up that flavor on their own.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

They're small, right? Like, are you eating a lot of sprouts to eat a whole salad?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

You know, a quarter cup of seeds, right? About 40 grams of seeds will fill up a whole jar, 400 grams, which is approximately five cups. So, and a cup is a serving. So you can get from one jar of sprouts, you get five or six serving. So for me, like I'm like the sprouts guy. I'll eat a lot of sprouts, so I have many jars going, but from a medicinal level, you know, you could just have one cup and get a great dose. It's a great prebiotic, it's great for the microbiome, it's soluble, insoluble fiber, contains vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, iron, like and it's enzymatically active in alive. And every sprout contains every amino acid to form complete protein. Like, so so this information has been suppressed. And also, sprouts are anti-inflammatory, they help regulate insulin levels on diabetics, you know, they can create heat shock proteins that reduce symptoms of you know all sorts of brain, you know, malfunctions. So if there was a panacea, they might cure cancer. Yeah, yeah. Chemoprotective, there's probably more than 2,000 peer-reviewed published studies on how sprouts, you know, can do all the things from cancer to anti-inflammatory to reducing oxidative stress to regulating the insulin levels, you know, and diabetics. There's so much. And how the sprouts work is just harmonious with nature. They're water-based, high fiber. We have all this weight management issues, like so many, like right now, most of America, and I say that sincerely, most of America is overweight or obese. Sprouts are naturally weight loss foods, fat loss foods, because they're high nutrient, low fat, low calorie. So what do you think happens if you're filling up on food that is high fiber, high nutrient, low fat, low calorie? You're naturally just gonna lose weight.

The Easiest Setup For Busy Parents

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Okay, but for the busy mom that's homeschooling and maybe working too, what do I have to do? Actually, what is what do I physically have to do to grow sprouts and have an and like serve my kids enough where they maybe don't know that I'm sneaking this into their food, but it's actually beneficial to them. I'm putting it in a jar with water.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

I mean, I originally started using a mason jar and cheesecloth. And then I realized the mason jar was designed for canning and cheesecloth for cheese. As an artist, I wanted to design a custom sprouting jar that was bigger, that was easy to hold, that had a stainless steel filter and easy to clean, and that was aesthetically beautiful to fit on the countertop. That was the perfect angle. So I designed this sprouting kit, and that's all you need and buy the seeds. So that's where at the sprouting company, we're just helping people make a simple investment of a hundred bucks, and then they're growing the sprouts. And if you buy sprouts in the in the grocery store, it's five or six dollars a serving. So it pays for itself if you want sprouts. And our number one customer, you know, is a mother, family mother. And it only takes a couple of minutes to do it. Like literally, you keep them on the countertop, you soak them overnight, you rinse them in the morning, like literally two minutes, and then you get a constant harvest. And then you throw them in the refrigerator and you always have fresh food. And my daughter, she's eating sprouts all the time.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Okay, so so say I have the kit, I get the seeds and water, and that sits on the counter overnight.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

And then the next it soaks. So it's soaked. What you're doing there is you're initiating the germination process, right? Then you strain out the water, and then twice a day, every 12 hours, you add water and you rinse them. You're basically flooding them with water, you're giving them a little flooding, and then they just grow exponentially.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

So twice a day for how many days until you eat them?

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Certain sprouts you do for three days, certain, you know, other ones you do for five days.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Okay. So, like, worst case scenario, the most work that you'll do with sprouts is putting them in water at night and then say every morning at eight, you're rinsing them for two minutes, and every evening at eight, you're rinsing them for two minutes. That's like the most work.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Yeah, it's it's it's so easy.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Like when I think about my garden that I, you know, started growing during COVID, and I'm just all the weeding I have to do that I don't do, and then my husband's like, why did you spend all the money on these seeds? You never weed. You don't have to worry about weeds.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yeah, no, no weed, no weeds. I mean, this is something, you know, for your let me just see if I can pull this off. Um, I'm gonna share my screen. Share my screen, share this window. Okay, here. Are you seeing this, Cheryl?

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Okay, so look at this. You take, you take um a quarter cup of seeds, you put it in there, 35 grams, you add water, you let it soak, and then you move this out of the way here, and then you know, you just rinse them twice a day. And I did this for six days, and you could see they're starting to germinate, they're starting to grow. This is just broccoli sprouts, and then they're turning green, it's filling up the jar and just growing like right in front of you. It's like, whoa, whoa. And like literally that quarter cup of seeds is filling up the whole jar, and now I'm harvesting, and you get 350 grams of sprouts.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Okay, awesome. So, how long are they are they good for now that they've spinned?

SPEAKER_00 32:53

They're good for several days. You know, what you would do is then fill them in the salad spinner, rinse them off, and then uh start, you know, put them in the refrigerator and start eating them. But I'm always doing it every every couple days, starting a new batch. So we always have sprouts. Always be growing, Cheryl.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

I mean, listen, I started sourdough two years ago, so I feel like I'm ready for the next step.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Yeah, sourdough is much, much harder than sprouting. I only do it once a week. What's that?

SPEAKER_02 33:24

I only make it once a week. The rest of the bread I make in the bread maker, it's way easier. Okay, well, at least you're doing it.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

At least you're doing it. How old are your kids?

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Well, my daughter's the same age as yours, three and a half. She'll be four in August, and my son is seven.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

So Wow, and the seven-year-old is watching the three and a half year old?

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Yes, I'm paying him five dollars.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

For the whole time?

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Yeah, I mean, I don't hear any screaming. Yeah, yeah. He's he's pretty mature, I'd have to say. I mean, he drives a dirt bike, he drives a four-wheeler, he drives his dad's tractor. Um, yeah, he's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

What work are you?

SPEAKER_02 33:57

In between Albany and Vermont.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yeah, no, he I I guess I don't think about it because I'm like, yeah, of course you're gonna watch your sister. What other choice do we have? Dad's not here. But um, yes, I should maybe I'll give him seven dollars this time.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

What does he do with his money?

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Oh my goodness. He well, so he likes to do the remote control vehicles, but they're always breaking. So he takes them apart, finds the piece that is broken, and orders the new par and then installs the new part and puts it back together.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Well, have you seen the tin can phone? No, yeah, it's a it's a Wi-Fi, which is you know, it is what it is, but it's a phone, dumb phone, that you can only have whatever numbers on it, they can only call their friends or their grandparents. He has that on his watch.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Oh, well, we do have a home phone, so he's got that with our pictures on it. And because I wrote a children's book a couple years ago about let's talk emergencies, like teaching your kids what to do in emergency situations. So I was like, we better get a landline phone if I'm like promoting this in a book. And then he does have a watch where yes, it's just the numbers I put in that he can call. So he can call me.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

If he's ever lost in public, he should be calling out your name, not just mommy.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

No, I know that's in the book. That's in my book. Yep. Yep, practice it. I yeah, you should check it out. I'll send you the link.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Ebook or printed book?

SPEAKER_02 35:20

It's printed, yeah. It's printed. I think I think you can get it on ebook too, but I it's yeah, I did get it printed for um like KDP. Yeah, yeah, these things you don't think of until you have kids, and you're like, we we need to know what to do. But you're right, because I asked my brother-in-law, he was a cop. I was like, what is the one thing that kids don't know that they should know? And he goes, they never know their parents' names, their real names. Yeah. So that was kind of the Yeah, that was kind of the basis where I was like, Yeah, that's it. There's probably a lot of other stuff that we don't know. But Doug, this has been amazing. I am definitely going to do this because I'm ready for my next step from sourdough, and I'm all about not needing to depend on other people to live. You know, we have switched all of our meats and um our poultry to local farmers, which is I recommend anyone do too, you know, stop going to the grocery store, try to find someone local. And this is just amazing. It's so much easier than a garden. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Yeah, I mean, you're you're gonna you're gonna love sprouting and like but like the service and the work that you're doing, Cheryl. You should just stop and acknowledge yourself. Like you, you having this and you know, just putting your love out to the universe. It's just so beautiful. And I'm gonna see if my daughter and my wife wanna just be here for the closing ceremony.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Yeah. Sweet. Yeah, and what a great homeschool experiment to do with the kids. We're growing food, and then they will have more of an appreciation about actually eating it and the nutrition that goes into it, especially if you explain to them what good nutrition does and all of that.

Homeschool Pods And A Family Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Here we go. She's she wants to be called Elsa because she likes frozen.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

My daughter as well.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Yeah, yeah. So Savanna talk to uh this is a homeschool podcast. Um, since you're the mother and you're responsible for her education, tell sh tell the um Cheryl's audience how do you how do you school her?

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Oh well, I found an amazing teacher, and so I brought her into my house. So twice a week we have a beautiful pod with kids from the from here, from around, but very diverse group hidden here, seven kids, and then two days a week I s I bring her to a Waldorf school in nature.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Gorgeous park, national park energy. Amazing. Leaf, do you like when your friends come over and play? Yes. Well, that's what I realized. Like she couldn't just be with, you know, an a a nanny or a babysitter, she needed her friends.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

So that's why I needed to find a teacher who could handle all those.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

And and what a great idea! Yeah. And why not into a regular classroom?

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Well, I think for me it's very important the way people speak and how they speak to our children. I think it's uh it programs our mind. And uh and there's a lot of other things. But for me, that's I'm a coach and I love I love, you know, how the mind works and doing that positively, constructive. And so the teacher that I found really builds you know.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Have you ever had a breastfeeding mom on your podcast?

SPEAKER_02 38:15

You know, in the homeschool community, it's not wouldn't surprise anybody.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Well, yeah, that's also beautiful, right? To to be close to your child and still be able to breastfeed and and still be able to to get them to nap at least, you know, maybe a year ago.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Yeah, I love that. And I I hope that that idea even inspires people too, because like I'm working on a course right now, uh digital course for parents who want to homeschool but work and they're like, No, I'd love the homeschool, but I can't because I work. But that's such a great idea. Start just small. Like, hey, could we if I have to work Mondays and Wednesdays, maybe we could have a teacher come in. And if there's seven families doing it and everyone's contributing money, then you know that that's great.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Yeah, it's great for the teacher, and you know, she's not an official teacher, but she's great, you know, she really learned just by doing, and she's amazing. Like they learned such good relationship skills from her, and they just really know how to hold space for their friends and take care of their friends and talk to their friends and speak speak their truth. Oh, that's so beautiful. You know, it's so well, it's so valuable. So, yeah, I I love homeschooling. I'm from Holland, so I never thought I would do it. But then when I came here, I was like, oh well, that that only makes sense, but I don't want to do it myself so much. Yes, I also want time for my own thoughts and for my own work, and so yeah, it's beautiful to find someone who is you know much better with a group of kids. Oh, that's I think this could also be inspiring. It's like I believe you can create anything. Oh, if you believe that it's possible and it's something that you want, manifest it, like create it, right? I said I want to find a teacher, and I think a week later I found this amazing person.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

That's so amazing. Thank you guys so much. Great information. Doug, I'm gonna put all of the information for the Sprout Company in the show's description so people can check that out. All right, I'm gonna let you handle that part then. Where can people find you, Doug?

SPEAKER_00 40:04

The Sprouting Company, and I'm Doug Evans on Instagram and Sprout Wiz on TikTok and the Sprouting Company on YouTube. So and we're just putting out information all the all the time.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

We're gonna put all of that in the show's description the correct way. So I will definitely be checking this out because I've been thinking about it for a long time now, probably 20 years since I watched The Truth About Cancer. And I was like, I gotta get on those broccoli sprouts.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Okay, well, take care, Cheryl. Have a great Monday.

Where To Find Doug And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Yes, you too, Doug. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Homeschool How to Podcast. If today's episode helped you, please be sure to follow the show and leave a review. It's the best way to support the podcast. And if you're just getting started or need a reset, head to thehomeschoolhowtu.com and grab my free 30-day homeschool quick start guide. Until next time, keep learning, keep questioning, and thank you for your love of the next generation.