Sprouting. Turned Blue.

Lately, there’s been a lot of DIY projects going on at my home. Mostly because we recently got an industrial balls-to-the-wall Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I'm told it can hold 14 cups of flour. Whoa. We introduced it to our home by making Julia Child’s challah. And then there’s pickled grapes and green garlic, pickled radishes and pickled turmeric (yes!). The Kombucha (used to scare away any squeamish visitor). I also planted a few seeds to grow edamame, although it's turning out to be more finicky than anticipated. And hopefully some wildflowers will be growing shortly.

Now, I understand that DIY experiments are inherently risky. And that’s okay in our house. In fact, it is preferred. But the other day, while sprouting, something happened with our latest DIY project that has left all of us baffled. Including the Doctor! We used broccoli seeds to sprout a large batch, gave it some sunlight, harvested the sprouts and collected a hand full of sprout tails that got disconnected. We put it in the fridge to store, but, within a few hours, the tails that were formerly a delicate white color had turned blue. BLUE.

It was kind of like when garlic turns blue when its sulfur compounds meet something that has a trace amount of copper (water, butter, lemon juice, vinegar) and forms copper sulfate. It’s very strange. After some research, I learned that broccoli sprouts have a large amount of sulforaphane. So there must be traces of copper in our tap water. I learned something today.

Very interesting, Watson.