Maybe you are already doing all the typical aspects of frugal living, like ; recycling, composting and growing your own produce. But you can stretch it out even further by growing food from kitchen scraps. The next time you start to toss out the bottom of your celery, or those potatoes in the bin sprouting, or that onion slice, think again. Each of those leftover scraps and more can be used to regrow more produce, besides the cool factor with your kids, you can save money, and cut down on waste.
A lot of your scraps can be tossed into the compost bin but some of them can also be saved and regrown, starting them right in your very own kitchen. Ideally you should grow them from organic produce, a lot of non-organic growers spray their produce with a chemical that inhibits new growth. Here are a few that are simple to grow.
How to Grow Food From Scraps
Onions– When cutting up your onions leave 1/2″ of the root end, you can plant these directly in your garden covered with soil. Place them in a sunny patch and keep soil moist. Replant the new ends each time.
Celery – Slice off the bottom of celery as you would normally, place it in a dish of water, covering the bottom but not the entire thing. Set dish in a sunny window, within a week you will have sprouts, plant in soil covering up to your new sprouts.
Potatoes– Once your potatoes start sprouting , cut them into 2″ pieces- leaving 2 to 3 eyes on each section. Allow your potato pieces to sit out for two to three days to dry out then plant 8″ deep in rich composted soil with the eyes facing up. Keep them watered well and soon you will have your own patch of potatoes growing in your yard.
Sweet potatoes can be grown much the same way, once shoots reach 4″ in height, pull up your sweet potatoes, spread them to 1′ apart to give room to grow.
Garlic– Anytime you have a leftover bulb or two plant them in the soil, in a sunny spot, root end down. When your garlic bulb has produce shoots keep them cut back so all the energy of your growing garlic goes into the bulb. You can repeat this each time with a new bulb.
Ginger- Plant a piece of the thick, knobby ginger in soil, with the small buds pointing upwards. Once your plant has grown roots and has shoots on it remove it from soil, cut off another piece and start a new plant all over. Ginger is fabulous in dishes but it also makes for a pretty houseplant.
Marwa Farouq says
thanks Jody for this, i don’t have a garden but i enjoy planting this on my balcony. so i guess am gonna try planting the celery and onion and see how this works.
passing by from the fantastic friday link up.