Recipe Box- Recipe #2

PITS: FROM GARBAGE TO GARDEN

So, recipe #2 isn't really a traditional recipe but a fun newspaper clipping about how we can turn some of our kitchen garbage into part of a lovely garden!

This little gem from the recipe box couldn't have shown up at a better time.  I live in a state that gets the winter season and this particular winter has been brutal.  It's always about now that I start to get itchy for spring to arrive.  I'm determined to have a little vegetable garden this year and this article speaks to starting some spring in our homes using vegetable pits and actual veggies themselves (article calls them our "kitchen friends").  I love the end of the article which says, "Pits from pennies produces plants"!

AVODADO:  One of my personal favorites! Take out the pit, wash it and let it dry.  Then, stick 3 toothpicks in it, one on either side, and then one facing you.  This part is KEY (and I never could remember this)...Make sure that the small end is up, the large end down.  Put in a glass with the toothpicks resting on the side, the bottom third of the pit in the water.  Set in a sunny window, soon the seed will split and a long tap root will emerge from the base.  After a thick set of roots form, plant the whole seed in soil and you will end up with a large, tree-like plant.  Giving it a try today!

PINEAPPLE:  Whaat?  Cut the top off a pineapple with an inch or two of fruit attached.  Scoop out fruit (and enjoy eating fresh pineapple!).  Let it dry for three weeks.  Then, put in a pot and bury it up to the foliage to root.  In time, it will produce another pineapple.

Encourage it to produce the fruit by covering the whole plant in a clear plastic bag with a few holes in it.  Drop any ripening fruit in, preferable an apple, for a week.  Set it in the shade.  The gas produced will promote flowering.  The flower turns into the fruit.  After apple and bag are removed, the pineapple needs full sunlight.  Cut it back from time to time to promote bushiness.

Here is my experimental pineapple...poor thing doesn't know what its in for!  This will be a very interesting thing to do and I'll keep you posted.

LIMA BEANS:  Plant a few lima bean seeds in a pot of soil.  Place the pot in a very sunny window.  You'll grow a plant with green leaves, blossoms and even pods with beans on them. 

CARROTS, BEETS, RADISH, PARSLEY, PARSNIPS:  Buy the veggies fresh with foliage still attached.  Cut off one inch of the root and place it in a shallow dish of water.  It will root and then you can bury an inch deep in soil. 

PECANS, WALNUTS, CITRUS AND SWEET POTATOES:  These also can be cultivated into thriving plants!

I think these things would be fun to do with kids as well! 

I don't know what other things will show up from this recipe box as I have not peeked ahead...Should be an interesting adventure!!

If you want more information, just post in comments and I'll get back to you.