- 1 day ago
Open your kitchen scraps in a new way and turn leftovers into fresh food for free. This practical gardening guide reveals 10 of the easiest crops you can regrow from everyday scraps, from green onions and celery to garlic, ginger, potatoes, lemon grass, herbs, and pineapple tops.
The video explains which scraps can give you real harvests and which only produce useful greens, so you know what to expect before you start. It also shows the simple method behind each one: begin in water, then move stronger plants into soil for longer growth and better results. A sunny windowsill, a jar, a bottle, or a small pot is often enough to get started.
Along the way, it shares clear home gardening tips, food-saving ideas, and a more self-sufficient way to think about kitchen waste. If you enjoy regrowing vegetables, container gardening, indoor herb growing, or learning how to grow food from scraps, this is a useful and satisfying watch.
Perfect for viewers searching for kitchen scraps gardening, regrow food at home, easy crops to grow for free, indoor vegetable growing, herb propagation, and self-sufficiency tips. It also fits searches for food waste reduction, windowsill gardening, and beginner-friendly ways to grow fresh produce from scraps.
The video explains which scraps can give you real harvests and which only produce useful greens, so you know what to expect before you start. It also shows the simple method behind each one: begin in water, then move stronger plants into soil for longer growth and better results. A sunny windowsill, a jar, a bottle, or a small pot is often enough to get started.
Along the way, it shares clear home gardening tips, food-saving ideas, and a more self-sufficient way to think about kitchen waste. If you enjoy regrowing vegetables, container gardening, indoor herb growing, or learning how to grow food from scraps, this is a useful and satisfying watch.
Perfect for viewers searching for kitchen scraps gardening, regrow food at home, easy crops to grow for free, indoor vegetable growing, herb propagation, and self-sufficiency tips. It also fits searches for food waste reduction, windowsill gardening, and beginner-friendly ways to grow fresh produce from scraps.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Look in your scrap bin right now, the peelings and the root ends and the stumps you throw out
00:05every day without a thought, and I will tell you a thing that will change how you see them,
00:11that half of what is in there is not rubbish at all, it is food that will grow back. From
00:17the
00:17bottoms and butts and sprouted bits you toss, you can grow fresh food again, on your windowsill,
00:24in an old bottle, for absolutely nothing, over and over. Today I am going to give you ten of them,
00:31quick, one after another, the ten easiest foods that grow right back from the scraps you were
00:37throwing away, so keep up, for by the end you will never look at your scrap bin the same,
00:43and you will grow a little garden of free food from what the world calls garbage. I am Elias,
00:50and wasting nothing, and growing food from what others throw out, is the very heart of the old
00:56thrift, so let me hand you these ten, and be honest with you along the way, about which give you
01:02back
01:02a real crop, and which just a bit of green. Quick word before I go further, the old methods my
01:10family
01:10uses. There is more of it than fits in any one video. I gathered the whole of it into a
01:16book
01:17at EliasYoder.com. The book is the long version. If you want it, it is there. I will not mention
01:25it
01:25again. My grandmother kept a row of little jars and cut tins along her kitchen window all winter,
01:32green onions rooting in this one, a celery stump leafing in that, an old carrot top feathering
01:38green in another, and to a stranger it looked a clutter of rubbish. But it was a garden, feeding her
01:45a
01:45little fresh green all the cold months. Nothing that still wants to grow goes in my bin, Elias,
01:52she would say. She taught me to see the life left in a scrap, and that is the whole of
01:57what I am about
01:58to give you. The first, and the easiest of all, the one to start with, is the green onion, the
02:05scallion.
02:06When you use your green onions, do not throw out the white root ends, that little inch of white with
02:12the roots on. You stand those root ends up in a bit of water in a jar or a cut
02:17bottle on the sill,
02:18roots down, and within days, days, they begin to grow new green shoots right up out of the top,
02:25and in a week or two, you have whole new green onions to snip. And they do it again and
02:31again,
02:32cut the green, and it grows back. So from one bunch you bought, you have green onions near forever.
02:39Stand the roots in water, and never buy green onions again. Only mind to change that water
02:45every couple of days for fresh, or it fouls and turns slimy and rots the roots. And set it in
02:52the
02:52light, and after a few rounds of cutting, when it starts to weaken on water alone, tuck it into a
02:58bottle of soil to keep it going strong and long. Fresh water, good light, and soil when it tires.
03:05The second is your leafy stumps, the bottoms of your lettuce and celery and cabbage and bok choy,
03:12that hard core you cut off and bin. Do not. You set that base, cut side up, in a shallow
03:20dish with a
03:21little water in the bottom, just wetting the roots, on the sill. And from the center of that old stump,
03:27new little leaves begin to push up. Now here is an honest word. In plain water,
03:32it will regrow you a nice flush of fresh small leaves to cut and eat. But water alone will not
03:39feed it for long. So once it is rooted a bit, plant that base in soil in a bottle planter,
03:45and there it will grow you a far fuller, longer crop of fresh leaves. Set the stump to root,
03:52then pot it, and it leaves again. Now an honest word, so you are not disappointed,
03:57that a regrown celery or lettuce stump does not give you back a great full new head like the one
04:03you bought. It gives you a smaller flush of tender leaves and stalks from the middle. Good for the pot
04:10and the salad, but not a whole new head. So take it for what it is, a fine, free, extra
04:16picking off a
04:17thing you were throwing out, not a whole new vegetable. Good leaves, freely, but not a new head.
04:24The third is garlic. When a clove sprouts a green shoot, that clove you were about to throw out for
04:31being past its best, do not toss a sprouted garlic. Plant it. Poke it in a bottle of soil on
04:37the sill,
04:38and up come tender green garlic shoots like garlic flavored chives, and you snip them for your cooking,
04:45and they grow back, cut, and come again. So a sprouted garlic clove gives you fresh garlic greens
04:51all winter from the sill. The same with a sprouting onion. Plant it and cut its green shoots. Do not
04:59look for a whole new head of garlic off a sill in a pot, mind, for that wants the ground
05:04and a winter's
05:05chill, as I have told you, but the tender green shoots you get freely and fast, and they carry all
05:11the garlic flavor for your cooking. The fourth is ginger, and turmeric its cousin the same way,
05:18that knobby root from the store. You take a piece of your ginger, a knob with one of those little
05:24eyes or growth buds on it, a bit that is starting to sprout is best, and you plant it in
05:30a bottle of
05:30soil, shallow, the bud pointing up, and keep it warm and damp, and it sends up a fine, leafy shoot,
05:38and down below it grows you more ginger, a whole new knob of it in time. So from one piece
05:45of ginger,
05:45you grow endless ginger, and turmeric just the same. Plant a budded knob, and grow your own. Only know,
05:54it is a slow and warmth-loving thing, the ginger, wanting a good warm spot and some months of growing
06:00before there is much new root to dig. So it is a patient crop, not a quick one, but a
06:06fine one,
06:07for a hand of ginger from the store is dear, and it grows you all you want for the once.
06:13The fifth is the potato, which I have shown you in full before, but it belongs here too,
06:19for the sprouted potato in your bag, the one growing eyes you would throw out, is free seed.
06:25You cut it so each piece has an eye, let it scab a day, and plant it in a deep
06:31bottle or bucket of
06:32soil, and it grows you a whole new crop of potatoes from the one you were binning.
06:37The eyes of a potato are its whole next crop, free. The sixth is the tops of your root vegetables,
06:45your carrots and beets, and here I must be honest with you, for folk get this wrong.
06:50You take the top inch you cut off a carrot, the crown end, and set it in a little water,
06:55and it will sprout fresh, green, feathery tops. But hear me plain, that will not grow you a new
07:02carrot. It grows you carrot greens, the leaves, and no more, for the carrot itself does not grow back.
07:10Now those carrot top greens are good, mind, fine chopped in a soup or a salad, so it is not
07:16wasted.
07:16Only do not expect a new carrot from it. Same with the beet top. It gives you beet greens, not
07:23a new beet.
07:24So regrow your carrot and beet tops for the greens, which are good eating, but know it is greens you
07:30get,
07:30not the root. Honest greens from the tops, not a new root. The seventh is lemongrass, if ever you
07:38use it, a stalk of it. You stand a fresh lemongrass stalk, the bottom bulb end, in a bit of
07:44water on
07:45the sill, and it roots, and then you plant it in soil in a bottle, and it grows you a
07:50whole clump of
07:51fresh lemongrass, more stalks than you started with. A stalk in water, then in soil, and a clump of your
07:58own. The eighth is fresh herbs from a cutting, the basil and the mint and the like, and this is
08:05not
08:05a scrap exactly, but it is the same thrift, growing more from a bit you have. When you buy or
08:12have a
08:12bunch of fresh basil or mint, take a few stems, strip the lower leaves, and stand them in a jar
08:19of
08:19water on the sill, and in a week or two they root, white roots down in the water, and you
08:25plant those
08:25rooted cuttings in soil in a bottle, and grow whole new herb plants, endless, for free. One bunch of
08:33basil becomes a windowsill of it. Root a sprig in water, pot it, and never buy the herb again.
08:40And a word on which take to it, that the soft-stemmed herbs root the easiest of all this way,
08:46your basil and mint and the like, striking roots in a jar of water in no time, where the woody
08:52ones,
08:52like rosemary and thyme, are slower and harder, and want more patience or a bit of soil to strike
08:58in. So start with the soft ones for a sure quick win, and change their water every few days, so
09:05it
09:05stays sweet while they root. The ninth, back to the roots, is that you can also just set a whole
09:12old
09:12carrot or beet or turnip that has gone soft, or the top of one, in soil, and grow it onto
09:19flower and make
09:20seed, so that even a spent root gives you next year's seed to plant. So an old root regrown is
09:28not
09:28just greens, but a way to your own free seed. Grow an old root on for its seed. And the
09:36tenth is the
09:37pineapple top, that leafy crown you cut off a pineapple and throw away, which I have shown you
09:43can be rooted and grown into a whole pineapple plant, and it belongs in this list of free food
09:49from your scraps, the grandest of them all, a whole fruit from a thrown away top. So save your
09:56pineapple crown, root it, and grow your own. Now here is the one plain truth that ties all ten
10:03together, so mark it, that water starts them, but soil sustains them. Near every one of these will
10:10sprout and start in a bit of water on the sill, and that is a fine and pretty thing to
10:15watch,
10:16but water holds no food, so a scrap left in water alone soon uses up what little it had stored
10:23and
10:23starves and quits. So use the water only to start it, to sprout and root it, and then, for anything
10:31you want to grow on and truly crop, pot it into good soil in a bottle planter with a drainage
10:37hole,
10:37where the soil will feed it, and it will grow you a real lasting harvest. Start in water, grow in
10:45soil,
10:45and you go from a pretty trick to a real crop. Now let me say a small plain word, not
10:52a who-profits
10:52sermon, for a scrap is no one's scheme. But notice the whole of what fed you here, the root ends
10:59and
10:59stumps and sprouted bits and tops you throw in the bin every day, and old bottles that were rubbish too,
11:05and a sunny sill. Not a seed bought, not a plant bought, not a pot bought, a whole little garden
11:13of fresh food grown from pure garbage and free light. There is a great trade in selling folk their
11:20green onions and their herbs and their garlic fresh at the store every week, the very things that would
11:25grow back for nothing from the ends they throw out. So folk come to think all their food must be
11:31bought
11:32fresh forever, when a good share of it grows right back from the scraps in their bin. That old thrift,
11:38of seeing the next crop in the peelings and the root ends, of wasting nothing that still holds life,
11:45is worth more than a full cart of groceries. So there are ten free foods from your kitchen scraps.
11:52Stand your green onion roots in water for endless scallions. Root your lettuce and celery and cabbage
11:58stumps for fresh leaves, then pot them. Plant a sprouted garlic or onion for its greens. Plant a
12:05budded knob of ginger or turmeric for a whole new root. Plant a sprouted potato's eyes for a new crop.
12:13Regrow your carrot and beet tops for the greens. Honestly, not a new root. Root a lemongrass stalk for
12:20a clump. Root a basil or mint sprig in water for endless herbs. Grow an old root on for its
12:27seed.
12:28And root a pineapple top for a whole fruit. And through it all, start them in water, but grow them
12:34on in soil. Do these, and you will grow a garden of free food from the very rubbish you throw
12:40away,
12:41on a windowsill, in an old bottle, for nothing at all. Now I want to hear from you. Tell me
12:47down below
12:48which of these ten you had never known would grow back, and above all whether you knew the honest truth
12:53that a carrot top gives you greens and not a new carrot, for that one folk get wrong. And tell
13:00me
13:00your county, and what other scrap you have grown back that I did not name, for there are more,
13:05and I am always glad to learn one. I read every one. Next time I want to show you the
13:11saving of your
13:11own seed from your best plants. The next great free food thrift after this, so that not only your
13:18scraps, but your very seed comes free from your own garden, and you buy neither plant nor seed again.
13:25The old people wasted nothing that still held a spark of life in it, seeing in a root end, or
13:31a
13:31sprouted clove, or a leafy top, not garbage, but the next crop waiting, and grew a good share of their
13:39food again and again from what the world throws out, on a sill, in a cast-off vessel, for nothing
13:46at all.
13:48There is a quiet wisdom in that, in looking at your scrap bin and seeing a garden, in knowing that
13:55so
13:55much of what we throw away still wants to grow. The people who built this country with their hands
14:01knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.