Grow Your Own Food From Scraps
If you prepare meals from home, you’ll often have scraps of peels, leafy tops, vegetable ends, and other food parts that don’t belong on the dinner table. Hopefully you’re composting food scraps when possible, but there is a lot of food scraps that end up in the trash. According to the Department of Environmental Quality, “The largest portion of U.S. food waste, about 37% of total generation, occurs in people’s homes.” (Source: ReFED Inisghts Engine)
But did you know that many leftover kitchen scraps can be used to start new plants at home? This prevents residential food waste and can save you money by growing your own food. Here’s how.
Method #1: Off with their heads!
When cutting up green onions for a recipe, the bottom inch or so that’s white isn’t used. If you look closely at the base of the white part you’ll see little hairs – which are roots. Get a small flowerpot with some good soil (backyard compost if you have it) and push the white base of the green onion into the soil. Keep watered but not soggy until you see new growth.
Similarly, once you’ve cut off the tops and stalks of celery the base can be planted in a small pot of soil. Thick leaves will grow from the base, and you’ll have free stalks of celery!
Method #2: The eyes have it!
Do you ever get to the bottom of the potato bin in your pantry, and find lumpy potatoes with growths protruding from them? Those potato “eyes” are new roots that can be grown into new potato plants. If the potato is large and just has one or two eyes, cut off that portion with the couple of new roots on it, and bury it about 4” directly into the soil in your garden or flower bed that gets full sun. For smaller potatoes with a couple of eyes and no good part left to eat, the whole potato can be planted. In a couple of weeks you’ll see a new leaves growing from the soil. In a couple of months, you’ll see the blossoms (pink for red potatoes, white blossoms for white potatoes). Wait until the blossoms fade, indicating the potatoes are ready to be dug up and eaten for supper.
Method #3: Nice to seed you!
Hot peppers bought from the farmers market, or any quality vendor, are a source that you can use to grow more peppers. When you cut up the peppers for your meal, just set aside some of the seeds. Put the seeds in light soil (or compost if you have it) in small pots or shallow trays (try using upcycled cardboard egg carton cups) until the new pepper plants are a few inches high. Transplant to an area in full sun and water often.
Tomatoes are another food that can be easily grown from seed. Rinse the tomato seeds left on your cutting board during meal prep, and let them dry. Start the seeds indoors, then move them outside when they’re about 6” high. They require full sun, warm temperatures (after the last frost for your area), and regular watering. But in return, they’ll give you free tomatoes — that come with more free seeds to plant!
While you’re at it, here’s an article about upcycled household items you can use to start your seeds or plants. With a little bit of effort, your kitchen scraps will prove that you CAN get something from nothing!