Have you ever wondered why most of us have been taught to throw away the ends of vegetables or peel certain types while chopping and preparing them?
Mostly this comes down to traditions or cultural norms that have been passed down through our generations.
We want to share some different ways to use vegetables as you’re preparing them in your kitchen. As with all fruits and vegetables, you want to give them a good rinse.
1. Use as much of the vegetable as you can:
If you are throwing away the stalks, stems and leaves of your garden vegetables, you are missing out! Leafy greens are great added to fresh salads while the tougher stalks can be chopped and softened in a tasty soup.
Here are some often overlooked stems and leaves that are great to include in your meals. Feel free to explore others:
- Broccoli leaves and stalks
- Celery leaves
- Beet leaves and stalks
- Turnip, Mustard and Collard stalks
Note: We rarely peel potatoes and carrots but do scrub them well before cooking them.
2. Store for later use: We are blessed with a bounty of vegetables, so we are creative with ways to save them to use later. We freeze, dehydrate and can a lot of garden vegetables around here. Contact us to schedule a canning class.
You might also explore adding your discard to the freezer and when you have enough, make a vegetable broth.
Imagine using a discard bowl that can hold trimmings for the compost or freezer broth. For example: chopped off end pieces and skins of onions and garlic can be tossed into the freezer for stock. Moldy or mushy parts of vegetables will go into the compost pile bowl instead.
3. Regrow: potatoes, onions and beets are fairly easy to regrow from scraps. You can also use seeds of over-ripe okra or bolted basil to replant later. Check out this video from our friends at Epic Gardening on regrowing vegetables from discard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlp_MgVJCYc
4. Compost: any true discard can go in the compost to be used later in your garden. What doesn’t feed you can feed your soil!
I Sure, some of the vegetable ends can be less than desirable taste, but you won’t know what all you can do with them unless you explore.
Hope Springs, Author
Misty Dean