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You walk in from the grocery store with the bag of vegetables, and you start sorting them onto the counter. A bunch of green onions. A head of celery. A bunch of leeks. Some carrots. A few bulbs of garlic. You cook with them all week. And then, at the end of the week, what is left of them goes in the trash. The white root ends, the celery base, the carrot tops — half a pound of vegetable parts, perfectly good in their own right, thrown out with the egg shells and the coffee grounds.
Almost every one of those vegetable parts will grow back into a new plant — some giving you a full new vegetable, some giving you fresh leafy greens, all of them giving you something. The white root end of the green onion, planted in a shallow dish of water, becomes new green onions in seven days.
In this video, I walk you through 15 vegetables and herbs you can regrow from grocery-store scraps — the old kitchen-window habit that careful farm wives across this country and around the world have practiced for generations:
✔ The 8 vegetables that regrow from scraps — green onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes, lettu
You walk in from the grocery store with the bag of vegetables, and you start sorting them onto the counter. A bunch of green onions. A head of celery. A bunch of leeks. Some carrots. A few bulbs of garlic. You cook with them all week. And then, at the end of the week, what is left of them goes in the trash. The white root ends, the celery base, the carrot tops — half a pound of vegetable parts, perfectly good in their own right, thrown out with the egg shells and the coffee grounds.
Almost every one of those vegetable parts will grow back into a new plant — some giving you a full new vegetable, some giving you fresh leafy greens, all of them giving you something. The white root end of the green onion, planted in a shallow dish of water, becomes new green onions in seven days.
In this video, I walk you through 15 vegetables and herbs you can regrow from grocery-store scraps — the old kitchen-window habit that careful farm wives across this country and around the world have practiced for generations:
✔ The 8 vegetables that regrow from scraps — green onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes, lettu
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00:00You walk in from the grocery store with the bag of vegetables, and you start sorting them onto the counter.
00:06A bunch of green onions, a head of celery, a bunch of leeks, a package of carrots, a few bulbs
00:13of garlic, a small piece of fresh ginger.
00:16You cook with them all week, and then, at the end of the week, what is left of them goes
00:22in the trash.
00:23The white root ends of the green onions, the base of the celery with the stub of roots still attached,
00:30the bottom inch of the leeks, the leafy tops of the carrots.
00:34Half a pound of vegetable parts, perfectly good in their own right, thrown out with the eggshells and the coffee
00:41grounds.
00:42Every week, 52 weeks a year.
00:46And then, in the same trip, you spent $4 on the green onions, $3 on the celery, $4 on the
00:54leeks, $5 on the carrots.
00:56Money for vegetables, half of which you are about to throw away.
01:01And next week, you go back to the same store and pay the same money for the same vegetables.
01:08Now, I want you to sit with this.
01:10Almost every one of those vegetable parts you are throwing away will grow back into a new plant,
01:16some of them giving you a full new vegetable, some of them giving you fresh leafy greens for soups and
01:23salads,
01:24all of them giving you something.
01:26The white root end of the green onion, planted in a shallow dish of water, becomes new green onions in
01:34seven days.
01:35Seven days.
01:37The base of the celery becomes new celery stalks in two weeks.
01:41The leftover clove of garlic becomes a full new garlic bulb in eight to nine months.
01:49And every one of them means nothing more than a windowsill, a bowl of water, and a little patience.
01:56This is one of the oldest and quietest practices in the kitchen garden,
02:01and the cheapest way I know to start growing your own food without buying a single seed packet.
02:08My grandmother did it.
02:10Esther's mother did it.
02:12The old folks across this country, in every farmhouse and city tenement and small kitchen for the last 200 years,
02:21did it.
02:22Because the family that grew the small thing in the kitchen window did not have to buy it again next
02:28week,
02:29and the family that did not paid for it again every week.
02:33Today I am going to walk you through 15 vegetables and herbs you can regrow from grocery store scraps.
02:41The eight that come from the vegetable drawer.
02:44Green onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes, lettuce, leeks, celery, and bok choy.
02:53The carrot tops that I have to be honest with you about because they do not regrow into new carrots,
02:59only new greens.
03:01And the six herbs, basil, mint, rosemary, oregano, sage, and thyme, that all regrow from a single stem cutting set
03:12in a glass of water.
03:14I am Amish, and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
03:18I will not pretend this is Amish secret knowledge.
03:22These methods belong to every kitchen garden tradition across the world.
03:27Pennsylvania Dutch farm wives knew them.
03:30Italian grandmothers knew them.
03:33Korean and Japanese cooks knew them.
03:36Mexican and Caribbean households knew them.
03:39The old folks everywhere passed them down because the kitchen has always been the cheapest place to start a garden.
03:48The only thing that has been lost is the habit of doing it.
03:52Today we put the habit back.
03:54Quick word before we go further.
03:56There is too much of the old kitchen garden practice to fit in any single video.
04:02I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
04:07If you want the long version, it is there.
04:11I will not bring it up again.
04:13Now let me show you 15.
04:16Number 1. Ginger
04:18I have covered ginger in its own video on this channel before, so I will be brief.
04:24A chunky, knobby piece of fresh ginger from the produce aisle, with visible eyes, the small bumps where shoots will
04:32sprout, planted shallow in a wide pot of rich potting soil, half an inch under the surface, eyes pointing up.
04:40Watered lightly, set on a warm shaded window sill or porch, three to eight weeks of patience while the rhizome
04:50puts out roots below ground.
04:52Then a clump of grassy green shoots three feet tall by midsummer and one to two pounds of fresh ginger
04:59harvested at end of season.
05:01Two dollars at the grocery store turns into a year's supply of ground ginger.
05:07Esther dries the harvest into a pint jar of ginger powder on the warming oven each fall.
05:14Number 2. Green Onions and Scallions
05:18This is the easiest of all of them and the one to start with if you have never tried regrowing
05:24before.
05:25The next time you cook with a bunch of green onions, save the bottom inch of each stalk, the white
05:31part with the small roots still attached.
05:35Place them upright in a small drinking glass or jar with about an inch of water at the bottom, so
05:41the roots are submerged, but the green stems are dry.
05:45Set the glass on a sunny window sill.
05:48Within two to three days, you will see the green tops begin to grow upward.
05:53Visibly, daily, you can watch them.
05:57Within seven days, you have green onions long enough to harvest with a pair of scissors.
06:02Snip what you need for cooking, leave the rest in the water.
06:07Change the water every two days.
06:09The same bottom inch will keep producing green onions for three to five rounds of harvesting.
06:16Call it about a month of free green onions from each original bunch.
06:21After that, the original root tires out and you start with a new bunch.
06:25Or, transplant the rooted stub into a pot of soil and it will keep producing for many months.
06:33The fastest, most reliable regrowing in the kitchen.
06:37Costs nothing.
06:39Takes zero skill.
06:41Works for everyone.
06:43Number three.
06:45Garlic.
06:46The garlic clove planted in soil becomes a full new garlic bulb.
06:51This is one of the oldest agricultural practices in the world.
06:55The entire commercial garlic industry plants single cloves every fall to harvest full bulbs the following summer.
07:04The method.
07:06In the fall, break a bulb of garlic into individual cloves.
07:11Use only the big cloves for planting.
07:14The small inner ones are too small to develop into full bulbs.
07:18Plant each clove pointy end up, flat root end down, two inches deep, six inches apart in good loose soil.
07:28Cover with soil.
07:30Water lightly.
07:32Mulch with straw or leaves for the winter.
07:35Walk away.
07:37In the spring, green garlic shoots push up through the mulch.
07:41Through the summer, the bulb grows underground.
07:44Around July, when the lower leaves begin to brown and dry, harvest time.
07:50Lift the bulbs carefully with a garden fork.
07:54One small clove planted in October becomes one full bulb in July.
08:00Multiply by all the cloves you plant, and a single grocery store bulb planted in fall becomes 10 or 12
08:07full bulbs harvested the following summer.
08:10The one honest caveat.
08:13Much of the garlic at conventional American grocery stores has been treated with sprout inhibitor chemicals to extend its shelf
08:21life.
08:22Treated garlic does not regrow well.
08:25For best results, use organic garlic, or garlic from a farmer's market, or any clove of grocery store garlic that
08:34has begun to sprout on its own in your kitchen.
08:37The green tip pushing out of the top is your sign that the clove is alive and ready to grow.
08:44Number 4. Potatoes
08:46Same principle as garlic.
08:49A potato with visible eyes, those small dimples with sprouts pushing out, can be planted whole or cut into chunks,
08:57each chunk with at least one eye,
09:00and each piece becomes a full potato plant producing multiple new potatoes.
09:05The method, cut a potato into chunks if it is large, with each chunk containing at least one or two
09:13strong eyes.
09:15Let the cut surfaces dry on the counter for a day so they callus over.
09:20Plant each chunk 6 inches deep, eyes facing up, in loose, rich soil.
09:27Water lightly.
09:29In about 2 to 3 weeks, green shoots emerge.
09:32As the plant grows, hill up more soil around the stem.
09:37This encourages more potatoes to form along the buried stem.
09:41By late summer or early fall, when the plant flowers and then begins to yellow and die back, dig the
09:48potatoes carefully with a fork.
09:50A single original potato chunk produces 5 to 10 new potatoes in good soil.
09:57One pound planted becomes 10 pounds harvested.
10:00Same honest caveat as the garlic.
10:03Conventional grocery store potatoes are often sprayed with sprout inhibitor chemicals to prevent sprouting on the shelf.
10:11They sometimes do not regrow well.
10:13For best results, use organic potatoes, farmer's market potatoes, or any conventional potato that has begun to sprout on its
10:22own in your pantry.
10:24Number 5. Carrots.
10:27And I have to be honest with you about this one.
10:29The carrot is the one regrowing project where I have to set your expectations carefully,
10:35because carrot tops planted in water do not regrow new carrots.
10:41They cannot.
10:42A carrot is a taproot, meaning the orange part you eat is the root itself, not a stem.
10:48Once you cut the root off, the plant cannot make a new root from the top.
10:54What the carrot top will regrow is the leafy green carrot greens, feathery, fern-like greens that grow up from
11:03the top of the cut carrot.
11:04Those greens are edible and quite useful.
11:08They have a slightly peppery, parsley-like flavor and work well chopped into salads, soups, stocks, or made into pesto.
11:16But you will not grow new carrots from carrot tops.
11:20Folks who try expecting full new carrots are always disappointed.
11:25The method if you want the greens.
11:28Cut the top inch off a fresh carrot, the green stem end.
11:32Place the cut piece in a shallow dish of water, cut side down, stem side up.
11:38Set in a sunny spot.
11:41Change the water every two days.
11:43Within a week, new green fern-like leaves appear from the top.
11:48Cut and use the greens as you would parsley.
11:51Honest, useful, and the carrot greens are genuinely good in the kitchen.
11:56But no new carrot.
11:58The same is true of beets, radishes, turnips, and most root vegetables.
12:04You regrow the leafy tops, not new roots.
12:08The leafy tops of all of them are edible and useful, just not what most folks expect.
12:14Number 6. Lettuce
12:16Romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, leaf lettuce, and head lettuce all regrow partial new leaves from the base.
12:25Cut off the bottom 2 inches of a head of lettuce, the stem and root base, and place it cut
12:31side up in a shallow dish of water about half an inch deep.
12:35Set on a sunny windowsill.
12:38Change the water every two days.
12:40Within 3 to 5 days, small new leaves begin to push up from the center of the base.
12:46Within 2 weeks, you have a small, loose cluster of fresh young leaves ready to harvest.
12:53Cut what you need for a salad or sandwich.
12:57Honest expectation setting.
12:59You will not get a full new head of lettuce.
13:02You will get about a third to a half of a head over the course of two or three small
13:07harvests.
13:08After that, the base tires out and goes bitter.
13:11Or, transplant the rooted base into a pot of soil after it has developed visible roots, usually about two weeks,
13:19and it will produce more lettuce in the soil than it would in plain water.
13:24Worth doing.
13:25Free salad greens for two or three weeks from every head of lettuce you buy.
13:30Not a full new head, but real food.
13:34Number 7. Leeks
13:36The same method as green onions, scaled up.
13:40When you cook with leeks, save the bottom 2 inches with the small root cluster intact.
13:46Place upright in a small jar with about an inch of water, roots submerged.
13:52Set on the windowsill.
13:54Within a few days, the green tops begin to grow up.
13:57Within 2 weeks, you have new leek tops long enough to use for cooking.
14:02The same root will produce several rounds of regrowth over 2 to 3 months in water.
14:08Or, transplant the rooted base into a pot of soil after 2 or 3 weeks, and it will keep producing
14:15for half a year.
14:16Leeks are slower than green onions, but more rewarding because one leek is a meal's worth of allium.
14:24Well worth regrowing every time you cook with them.
14:27Number 8. Celery
14:29One of the most classic kitchen window regrowing projects.
14:34Cut off the bottom 2 to 3 inches of a head of celery, the base with the small stub of
14:40roots.
14:41Place it cut side up in a shallow dish of water, about an inch deep.
14:46Set on a sunny windowsill.
14:48Change the water every 2 days.
14:50Within 5 to 7 days, new, pale green leaves begin to push up from the center of the base.
14:57Within 2 weeks, you have small, new celery stalks, thinner and more tender than the original.
15:04Transplant the rooted base into a pot of soil after 2 to 3 weeks for stronger, continued growth.
15:12Honest Expectation
15:14The new celery stalks are smaller and more delicate than store-bought celery.
15:19They work beautifully in salads, soups, stocks, and stir-fries.
15:25They will not match a fresh head of grocery celery in size.
15:29But they are free, fresh, and reliable for many weeks.
15:34Number 9. Bok Choy
15:37Same method as celery, but faster and more reliable than nearly any of the others.
15:44Asian greens like bok choy and napa cabbage are some of the easiest base regrow plants in the kitchen.
15:51Cut off the bottom 2 inches of a head of bok choy, the white, pale base with the small root
15:58stub.
15:59Place cut-side up in a shallow dish of water about half an inch deep.
16:05Sunny windowsill
16:06Change water every 2 days.
16:09Within 3 to 4 days, you see new leaves pushing up from the center.
16:14Within 7 to 10 days, you have visible new bok choy growth.
16:20Transplant into soil at this point for the strongest continued growth.
16:25Bok choy planted in a pot or garden bed at this stage will keep producing for many weeks.
16:32This one is the most satisfying of the base regrowing projects because the results come so fast and reliable.
16:40If you have never regrown a vegetable before, start with green onions or bok choy.
16:46Both will work for you on the first try.
16:50Before I go on to the herbs, let me pause for a moment.
16:54Watching these videos will give you ideas.
16:57But inside our Amish home savings system and community, we help you turn those ideas into real household habits.
17:05You get courses, challenges, checklists, savings ledgers, and direct access to ask Esther and me questions about your own home.
17:15The link is in the description.
17:18Now, the herbs.
17:20Six of them, and the method is essentially the same for all six.
17:25Once you learn it on one, you have learned it on all of them.
17:28The herb method, in general.
17:32All six herbs that follow, basil, mint, rosemary, oregano, sage, and thyme, regrow from a stem cutting placed in water.
17:44The principle is that the cut stem develops new roots from the cut end,
17:48after which the rooted cutting can be planted in soil to become a full new herb plant.
17:55The general method.
17:56Take a cutting four to six inches long from a healthy herb plant or a fresh sprig from the grocery
18:03store.
18:04Strip off all the lower leaves.
18:07The bottom two or three inches of the stem should be bare.
18:11Cut the bottom of the stem at a 45 degree angle.
18:15More surface area for roots to form.
18:18Place the cutting in a small glass of clean water.
18:22Chlorine-free water works best, so filtered or sat-out tap water,
18:27with only the bare lower stem submerged and the upper leaves above the water line.
18:34Set in a bright spot, but not direct hot sun.
18:38Change the water every two to three days to prevent rot.
18:42The herbs that follow root at different speeds, but all of them root eventually if the cutting
18:48is healthy and the water is changed regularly.
18:57A 4-inch basil cutting placed in water develops visible roots in 7 to 14 days.
19:05Pinch off any flower buds before placing in water.
19:08If the cutting is putting energy into flowers, it cannot put energy into roots.
19:13Once roots are an inch long, transplant to a small pot of potting soil.
19:20One basil cutting becomes a full new basil plant within a month.
19:2511. Mint
19:27Even faster than basil, sometimes roots in 5 to 7 days.
19:33Mint is the most aggressive grower in the herb family.
19:37One honest safety word about mint.
19:39It is invasive.
19:41Mint planted in a garden bed will take over the whole bed within two seasons,
19:47sending runners out underground in every direction and crowding out everything else.
19:52Plant mint only in containers or in a sunken pot set into the ground to contain its roots
19:57or in a separate raised bed where it cannot escape.
20:01My mother kept her mint in an old metal wash tub by the back door.
20:06Pretty, fragrant, contained.
20:09Mint is wonderful when it stays where you put it.
20:12It is a problem when it does not.
20:1612. Rosemary
20:17Slower than basil and mint, usually 4 to 6 weeks to root.
20:22The trick with rosemary is choosing the right stem.
20:25The cutting must come from a young green stem, not an old woody one.
20:30Look for a stem that is still soft and green along its length.
20:35Brown woody stems will not root.
20:38Strip the lower needles, cut at a 45 degree angle, place in water in a bright spot.
20:45Patience.
20:46Once rooted, plant in well-draining soil.
20:49Rosemary hates wet feet.
20:52Number 13. Oregano
20:54Roots in 3 to 4 weeks.
20:57Same method as rosemary.
20:59Choose a green stem, not a woody one.
21:02Strip the lower leaves, 45 degree angle, water glass on the windowsill.
21:08Oregano is forgiving and reliable once it is started.
21:11Plant in soil after rooting and it will spread happily for years.
21:17Number 14. Sage
21:19Slower again, about a month to root.
21:22Sage prefers dry conditions, so be careful not to leave the cutting in water too long after rooting.
21:29As soon as roots are visible, move it to soil rather than continuing to wait for thick root development.
21:35Sage planted in a sunny, well-drained spot is one of the most long-lived herbs in the garden.
21:41A single rooted cutting can become a sage bush that produces for 10 or 15 years.
21:49Number 15. Thyme
21:51Roots in 3 to 4 weeks.
21:53Same method as the others, green stem only, strip lower leaves, 45 degree angle, water glass.
22:01Avoid any stem that has gone brown or woody at the cutting end.
22:05Once rooted, plant in well-draining soil with full sun.
22:09Like sage, thyme is a long-lived perennial once it gets established.
22:15One cutting can become a thyme plant that lasts many years.
22:19Now I want to take a moment because here is where it all matters.
22:23Look at what we have walked through.
22:25Fifteen vegetables and herbs.
22:28Eight of them produce real new vegetables from the scrap you would have thrown out.
22:32Six herbs propagate themselves indefinitely from a single stem in a glass of water.
22:38One of them, the carrots, gives you fresh edible greens instead of new roots.
22:43And that is honest because the carrot greens are still worth saving.
22:48The total cost of doing all 15 of these projects is essentially zero.
22:53You already bought the vegetables.
22:55You already have water in the kitchen.
22:57You already have windowsills and small bowls and jars.
23:01The only new cost is a few small pots of soil if you want to transplant the rooted starts into
23:07longer-term growing containers.
23:09Which you should because most of these do better in soil than in water for the long run.
23:14The total savings if you do them all consistently is real money.
23:18A small kitchen window operation with green onions, lettuce, celery, bok choy, and a few herbs saves a family $40
23:27to $100 a year in grocery vegetables and herbs.
23:31Plus the harder cycle projects, the ginger pot, the garlic bed, the potato patch.
23:37Each of those replaces $10 to $50 of grocery purchases per year once they are established.
23:43A family that does all 15, even part-time, can take $300 to $500 off their annual grocery bill just
23:51from kitchen scrap regrowing.
23:53There is no money in the grocery industry in teaching folks that half of what they bring home from the
23:58produce aisle will regrow into more produce on their windowsill.
24:03There is a great deal of money in selling fresh green onions, celery, herbs, garlic, and ginger every week to
24:11every household in America forever.
24:13So the regrowing knowledge sits quiet, in old farm cookbooks, in immigrant grandmothers' kitchens, in the small habits of careful
24:21folks who never forgot.
24:23And the grocery store keeps selling vegetables that could have grown themselves at home.
24:28You can be the one who remembers.
24:30So here is what I want you to do.
24:33This week, the next time you cook with green onions, save the bottom inch of each stalk with the roots
24:39attached.
24:39Put them upright in a small jar with an inch of water.
24:43Set the jar on a sunny windowsill.
24:46In seven days, you will have new green onions to cut for your supper.
24:50That is the start.
24:52Once that one is working, and you will be amazed at how fast it works the first time,
24:57add bok choy.
24:59Add celery.
25:00Add a piece of fresh ginger to a wide, shallow pot.
25:03Add a single clove of garlic to a sunny window pot, just to see what happens.
25:08Add a basil cutting to a glass of water on the kitchen sill.
25:12Within a month, your kitchen windowsill becomes a small, productive garden.
25:17Green onions you snip every few days, celery and bok choy regrowing in shallow bowls,
25:24herbs putting out roots in glasses, ginger starting its long, quiet work in a pot of soil.
25:30None of it cost you anything.
25:32All of it would have gone in the trash.
25:34Tell me in the comments below, which of the 15 have you tried before, and which ones do
25:40you want to try first?
25:41And if your grandmother or mother had her own kitchen window regrowing tradition, share
25:47what she did and where she lived.
25:49Every culture in the world has its own version of this knowledge, and the comments on this
25:54video are how we save the methods from being lost.
25:58I read every single one.
26:00Next time, since we have been speaking of the small daily kitchen garden habits, I am going
26:06to show you the old way my people save seeds from one year's garden for next year's planting.
26:12The saving, the drying, the storing, and the small habits that mean a single packet of seeds
26:18bought once becomes generations of seeds saved and shared, never paid for again.
26:24It is the natural next step after today.
26:27Until then, save the roots, fill the windowsill, and remember that almost every vegetable you
26:33bring home from the store is willing to grow you a second one if you give it the chance.
26:38That is how the old folks did it.
26:40That is how it is still done, in any kitchen window that remembers.
26:44That is what it is what it is that it is if you can wife and a pianist are prepared
26:44for
26:44a slew ofârers.
26:45That is how it is enough for you to pay for that every cook.
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