Wednesday 28 May 2014

10 Vegetables Herbs you can regrow from waste


Some foods are easy to regrow at home from leftover scraps, and some of them can even be grown right on your kitchen counter.
Onions, garlic and fresh herbs are staples in a lot of dishes, and they may be inexpensive, but when you use them on a daily basis it can add up.
Here are 10 vegetables and herbs you can buy once and regrow forever.

#1. Garlic
When garlic starts to sprout, the little green shoots are too bitter to cook with. Rather than throwing away sprouted cloves, you can put them in a glass with a little water and grow garlic sprouts. The sprouts have a much milder flavor than garlic cloves and are great in salads, pasta and as a garnish.

#2. Carrot Greens
The ends of carrots you usually chop off and throw away will grow carrot greens if you put them in a dish with a little water. Set the dish in a well-lit windowsill and you'll have carrot tops to use as a garnish or in salads

#3. Basil
Put a few basil clippings with 4-inch stems in a glass of water and place it in a spot with direct sunlight. When the roots are about 2 inches long, you can plant them in pots to grow a full basil plant.

#4Leeks
Leeks are awesome for soups, and it turns out they're easy to keep around because they grow in water just as easily as green onions. Just take the base of your leeks, cover them in water, and leave them in the window with some sun for a few days. You should start seeing them sprout right away, and within a week or so you'll be able to trim off parts to use in recipes.

#5. Lettuce
If you have a stem from a head of romaine lettuce that's still intact, place the stump in a bowl with about ½ inch of water and put it on a windowsill. You'll start to see new leaves in about 2 weeks, and they'll be full grown in 3 to 4.

#6. Bok Choy
Just like romaine lettuce, bok choy can be regrown by placing the root end in water in a well-lit area. In a week or two, you can transplant it to a pot with soil and grow a full new head.

#7. Onions
Plant the discarded root end from an onion in a pot or directly in the soil outside to regrow. You can harvest it early and get fresh green onions or wait until the bulb is fully developed.

#8. Ginger
Like onions, ginger root can be planted in soil to regrow, but the process is a lot more lengthy. It can take a few months for it to sprout, and you should be able to harvest a fully grown bulb in 8 to 10 months.

#9. Mushrooms
Plant mushroom stalks in soil with some compost or used coffee grounds and keep them in a moist environment, preferably where it will be cool at night. They can be tricky to grow, and within a few days the stems will either start to sprout new heads or rot.

#10 POTATOES
Taking potatoes from produce back to growing is a great way to keep more waste out of the garbage. You can grow any variety of potato you like, it should just make sure the scrap has ‘eyes’ growing on it. With a potato that has a strong presence of eyes you can chop it up into 2 inch square pieces. Make sure each piece has 1 – 2 eyes. After you’ve cut your potato into pieces leave them out in room temperature for a couple of days. Leaving the pieces out allow the cut surface area to dry out and become callous which will prevent the pieces from rotting in the ground.

#Bonus Fennel
Fennel has a strong enough taste that it's pretty rare you'll need more than just a small cutting from one. If you'd like to keep one around all the time, it's worth just regrowing one you have. Just take the bulb, put it in a cup, and fill it up with water so the bulb's covered. Stick that jar in the sun and within a few days it'll start sprouting up. Replace the water every couple of days and trim off a bit of fennel when you need it.


Source: http://nurserylive.com/10-vegetables-herbs-you-can-regrow-from-waste

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