A business sprouts in Sheridan

SHERIDAN — In the early 2000s, Bobby Longhurst suffered from a variety of maladies, including anemia, a sinus infection and Epstein-Barr virus. As a result, she received two weeks of care in San Diego. One of the foods she received was a sprouted almond.

The food planted a seed of an idea for her husband Rey Longhurst, who was working as a general contractor remodeling kitchens and bathrooms but looking for a new, less labor-intensive job. He began researching sprouted almonds on his own, buying more than 1,000 pounds of the nuts and testing and examining them in the couple’s garage in Utah for about a year. After he perfected the process, Sprouted Almonds, LLC was born in 2004.

The couple moved to Sheridan the following year. Initially, they rented a garage on Val Vista Street to process almonds but outgrew the space in about two and a half years. They then moved the business into the current location near the intersection of Broadway Street and Eighth Street.

When the business began in Utah, the couple sent almond samples to stores around the country. A few of them bought 25-pound bulk boxes right away and have been customers ever since. The couple only sold in bulk until about three years ago and now offers small packages of original, Himalayan salted and dark chocolate-coated almonds. Rey Longhurst said they sell to stores in all 50 states.

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