Growing Gardeners: Growing Veggies from Veggies

Growing fresh veggies from the part of a vegetable that's often thrown away helps keep fresh vegetables on hand.

Romaine lettuce, celery, and carrots are all veggies that grow well from their tops or bottoms. 

Let's start with romaine lettuce and celery. With an adult's help, cut all of the celery stalks or head of romaine about two inches up from the base. 

Reserve and refrigerate the cut stalks or romaine leaves for later use. Place the uncut bottom piece in a flat container. Pour a 1/2 inch of water into the bottom of the container and put it in a sunny spot. Add room temperature water to maintain a 1/2-inch level.

It is essential to clean the container every 3 to 4 days, as vegetables require clean water to grow properly. To clean the container, set the veggies aside on a paper towel. Rinse the container with warm water. Place the veggies back into the container and add 1/2-inch of room-temperature water. Do not use soap to clean the container. Soap can harm the plants.

Once the roots form, the vegetables begin to absorb the water more quickly. Always keep the water level in the container at about a 1/2-inch. Continue changing the water and cleaning the container every 3 to 4 days.

While lettuce and celery regrow from the bottom, carrot greens grow from the carrot's top. To begin, ask an adult to help cut one inch from the top of a carrot. Be sure to use whole carrots and not pre-cut baby carrots. Place the cut end of the carrot top in a flat container. It's OK to use the same container as the lettuce and celery because all the veggies regrow using 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the container.

The growing carrot tops, like the lettuce and celery, require their containers to be cleaned every 3 to 4 days. Clean the container in the same manner used above for the lettuce and celery.

Once the carrots form roots, they’ll begin to absorb water more quickly. It’s important to keep the water in the container fresh and at a depth of about 1/2 inch.

Though the carrot top grows roots, it will not grow the long part of the carrot known as a taproot. But that's OK, because fresh carrot greens grow quickly and taste delicious!

Grow and harvest your winter garden veggies by using the carrot greens, along with the fresh celery greens and Romaine, to create delicious meals like the ones pictured.