Food From Scraps - Part 1

This will be a short 3 part series. Originally I had only one aspect of food from scraps in mind when I started to write but thanks to The Alpha I was informed that our family has at least three ways we turn scraps into food for our family. This time know-it-all-itis was helpful because she was right.  There is more than one way our family saves money and resources by turning scraps into food.



Food From Scraps method #1: Know what you can re-grow.

How many stumps of romaine lettuce do you toss in the trash can or shove down the drain? You don't have to throw those stumps away anymore. Using any old thing you have as a container you can easily and successfully re-grow romaine lettuce in your kitchen. We use wide mouth pint canning jars on our windowsill in the kitchen. Currently we have about 10 newly sprouted romaine lettuce stumps on the windowsill.

Romaine lettuce isn't the only food you can re-grow with this technique.  Also on our windowsill in canning jars with water is celery, and kale.  Both celery and kale use the same technique as lettuce.  Celery is a slower growing vegetable than lettuce and kale.  It will sprout quickly but takes longer to come to any maturity. Kale is fairly quick to sprout, much like lettuce. However, not all fresh kale from the market has stumps.  Some of it is loose leaf.  You must have a stump or at minimum a joint where the leaves come together.  If you do not have a stump the jar and water technique will not work. We eat kale at least once a week in some form and I actively look for a bunch with a joint or stump so I can re-grow for future use.

Other foods that can be started from scraps are potatoes, garlic, and onions.  We don't currently have any potatoes started.  In seasons past we have had pots worth of purple potatoes that were started from tiny potatoes I accidentally misplaced in the pantry from a farmer's market purchase. It was a most happy accident.  I think it made purple potatoes my favorite potato.

We do have garlic started. I started garlic from the last bulb from our fall CSA box. It was a hardy red garlic.  If you've only ever had basic grocery store garlic you are missing out.  There are so many delicious types of garlic out there but you have to look for them most of the time. Garlic is slow to mature but that doesn't mean they are a food waste until then. The tops of the garlic can be snipped and used to flavor food while the bulbs are maturing. Be conservative on the amount of the garlic top you snip.  No more than 1/4 of the entire length.

I know others have had success with re-growing onions.  This is not something we have done at this point. When I purchase green onions I use the entire thing so there is rarely anything left for me to re-grow.  At some point I do intend to try to re-grow green onions just out of curiosity.  I'll let you know how it goes for us.

Are their any foods you re-grow from scraps?  Saved seeds from purchased produce?  That's one I haven't had success with yet but look forward to trying with some lemons.  Are there other foods we can try and re-grow to save money and resources?

Keep chasing perfection, people. Eventually we are going to Catch Excellence.

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