Recultuivating Kitchen Scraps

  Have you ever wanted to have your cake and eat it too? Bad news, cake doesn't grow... but several food plants, you can, actually, both grow it and eat it.



  We'll start with the basics : anything that has seeds, those seeds can be planted. If you've got space for trees, a few cherries or an apple or a peach or a pear or avacado or the like can give you these foods forever... and if not, just chuck the seeds at the local park and let future generations enjoy. Hybridization means that, sometimes, it may be a different variety, but a cherry will still be some kind of cherry, and a pear will still be some kind of pear. You're not really getting much from eating the seedy bits of a tomato or cucumber, so why not practice seed saving and grow them? And so on...

  Buy it once, buy it for life.

  Speaking of seeds, any grain that hasn't been milled - wheat, oats, barley, rye, or whatever - is a seed, and you can grow it. Yes, this means that you can probably regrow a few grains of your store-bought rice and have... more rice.

  Another technology is cuttings. The top of each stem of most plants, and a few other places, tends to have a growth bud. If you cut that branch off, pluck off all but the top few leaves, and place it in a vase or glass full of water, it will start to grow roots in a few months, and become a whole new plant. This means you can harvest your mint or basil, turn around, and have a hundred new mint or basil plants from just one plant.

  Then, there's the really good, magic plants.

  Just one section from a garlic bulb will regrow a whole new plant, and a whole new bulb. Similarly, the just a bit of the base of an onion will regrow whole new onion plant with a new bulb - just dry it a bit so it doesn't rot, stick it in some soil, and water it. When you buy an onion, you buy it for life, and harvest over and over.

  Potatoes are similar; each of the little "eyes" of a potato will grow a whole new potato plant with many potatoes, and you can still cook and eat the potatoes between.

  Breaking the little nodules off a ginger root will let you grow a whole new ginger plant from each. Most commercial ginger is 'jamaican' ginger, which is sort of a mid-size bush rather than the petite native ginger, so you will need a full-size pot - but you can have several growing around.

  The concept of cuttings can be extended; if you cut the top off a carrot, scoop out a hollow, and fill it with water, it won't grow a new carrot, but it will grow a new top, and can be convinced to flower and seed. Fennel bulbs tends to regrow like onions. Lettuce and celery can be regrown from cuttings after you eat, well... most of it.

  Directly or indirectly, a lot of the food you eat can be both eaten and grown. Metaphorically, at least, you can both have your cake and eat it too.


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