Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Grow Leftover Veggies and Food Scraps Again - Right In Your Kitchen

Grow Leftover Veggies and Food Scraps Again - Right In Your Kitchen

The ultimate guide to “grocery store propagation.”

We’re all about eliminating waste—and learning new ways to garden. That’s why we were thrilled to read Amy Pennington‘s new book, Tiny Space Gardening: Growing Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs in Small Outdoor Spaces.

In the excerpt below, Seattle-based urban farmer offers a step-by-step guide for growing your own food scraps. Seriously, did you know your leftover onions, herbs, and celery can grow again? Here are Pennington’s tips salvaging all different types of produce.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, grab a copy of Tiny Space Gardening to discover even more tips and recipes for growing your own food—no matter the size of your space.

Extending the life of any vegetable is the ultimate nod toward living sustainably and with environmental consciousness, so why not continue benefiting from food you purchased or grew? Get the most out of all vegetables before sending them to the compost bin by cultivating a food scrap garden on your windowsill or countertop.

Plants grow. They are living things and will continue to grow roots and sprouts even after harvest. We’ve all seen this when a potato left too long in our pantry sprouts, or the garlic cloves send up green shoots. Most plants will continue to grow even without soil, needing only water, sunlight, and eventually food to continue producing. This works particularly well for anything with a leafy green that we can harvest.


Leaves grow from the center out and will put on growth slowly, so don’t expect to get great harvests from this foray into growing from scraps. It’s a fun project that ensures you’ll always have something fresh at hand, and a great way to involve kids in urban agriculture and nutrition.

The process is pretty straightforward and simple. The basic how-to involves setting the root end of a vegetable in a shallow bowl of water and placing it in a sunny spot—a windowsill that receives direct sun is the perfect setting. You can use a tall water glass, a shallow baking pan, or any receptacle in which the vegetable can stand in a shallow pool of water. Standing water is a hospitable atmosphere for bacteria and encourages decomposition, so be sure to change out the water and clean the dish regularly—once every two to three days, at least.

I suggest starting with a locally grown, organic vegetable because these are typically cultivated as a field crop in healthy soils and spend less time in transport, making them a healthier choice all around.


Celery and Bok Choy


Trim the edible portions from a head of celery or bok choy, cutting 2 inches above the root end. If the cut root end of the plant is soft and browned, slice off a very thin layer. Set the root base in a tall glass and fill with enough water so the bottom ¼ to ½ inch of root is submerged.


Herbs


Many tender herbs will develop root systems from the stem if planted into soil as a cutting or left in a shallow glass of water. (Many flowering plants will do this—zinnia, lilac, and geranium, to name a few.) Try mint and basil. (Note: cilantro and parsley are exceptions; they do not root and grow from cuttings.) To grow, cut just below a set of leaves and then remove the lower leaves. Woody herbs, like rosemary, are a bit trickier—use a fresh cutting from new growth, but they won’t quickly develop new leaf sets for harvesting.


Lettuce


Choose a non-heading lettuce for this project; crispheads like iceberg lettuces do not work well. As with celery, trim the bulk of the leaves from the stem, leaving behind about 2 inches on the root end of the plant. If the root end of the plant is soft and browned, slice off a very thin layer. Set the root base in a tall glass and fill with enough water so the last ¼ to ½ inch of root is submerged, and place in a sunny spot.


Green Onions/Scallions


Trim the edible, green portion from the tall onions, leaving behind about 2 inches of stem on the root end of the plant. Set the root base in a tall glass and fill with enough water so the last ¼ to ½ inch of root is submerged. The green tops will regrow for several weeks (don’t forget to change the water!), and you can continue cutting them and regrowing them until production slows.


Tubers: Potatoes, Ginger, Turmeric


The edible parts of these plants are grown underground as a tuber. A quick note on growing these plants from scraps. Can you do it? Sort of. You just use a piece of the food as a starting point for a new plant. To give this a try, cut pieces from the tuber and float them in a shallow pool of water until they develop root systems; then you can plant them deeply in soil.


Mushrooms


Yes, you can grow your own mushrooms, on a countertop or outdoors. In recent years, mushroom growers have started offering grow-your-own mushroom kits, making it easy to grow delicious fungi at home. Any kit you purchase will have detailed instructions about how to get them started and keep them going through multiple harvests.

Kits are available for common varieties like shiitake and oyster mushrooms and more coveted varieties like lion’s mane and reishi. The kits are shipped with a growing medium and, more often than not, decaying pieces of log that are then inoculated with mushroom spores.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×