By Twinflower Wilkie, WSU Master Gardener
As I finish cleaning up the garden each fall – hoping to be done by snowfall – I feel grateful for a rest. I ignore advice for extending the gardening season; I’ve had enough of endless garden chores. But I want a simple indoor project that can give me a little fresh food without a big grocery bill. Online, at the website for the School for the Environment and Sustainability of the University of Michigan, I found an idea: the kitchen scrap garden. Here’s how it works:
The bases of vegetable stalks from grocery store vegetables will begin sprouting new growth if placed in shallow water, given light, and left in a spot that isn’t too cold. Within a week or a little longer, there should be enough growth that you can trim some off to add to a soup or a salad.
Bunching Onions
Usually, there are still roots at the base of bunching onions, giving them a head start. Use the greens from the onions, put the roots along with the bulb in water, with the top of the bulb above water. A narrow container is best, so they will stand upright. Keep the water fresh and topped off so your onions don’t dry out, and you’ll soon be harvesting green tops for kitchen use. Keep harvesting; they’ll continue to regrow. This may be the easiest kitchen scrap crop to grow.
Lettuce
After you’ve used the leaves from your lettuce head, don’t drop the base in the compost. Place it in water in a shallow dish. Keep the water fresh and top it up frequently, leaving an inch or so above water. It will take longer than the bunching onions to get new growth, but it is also fairly easy.
Celery
The instructions are the same as for lettuce. Leaves, which can be used to season soups or sauces, will grow, but not stalks.
Beets
Place a baby beet in water. Leave the top of the beet intact. Let the greens regrow. Then eat them. They should regrow repeatedly.
I experimented with a few other things. I took some small garlic cloves and stuck toothpicks through them and hung them in a muffin tin with water in the muffin cups to see if they’ll grow tops to use. They immediately sprouted roots. I expect them to grow tops, but they haven’t grown much yet.
I also placed a fennel base in water. It has regrown one frond. I hope to see more growth soon.
As for oregano shoots, I placed some in water, and they look healthy. I am not seeing any growth, though. I placed some arugula leaves in water, just covering the stems. They immediately drooped and after four days they have entirely dried out, although the water is still covering the stems…you can’t win them all.
Resources: Propagating veggies from kitchen scraps