Grow Your Own-GYO

There are an estimated 50,000 edible plants grown throughout the world, many within our growing zone, which is 6a. Our zone is determined by the USDA in their Plant Hardiness Zone Map and the variety of plants it’s capable of supporting are mostly unknown to us; our American diet relies primarily on corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and oats. Notice that four of the five listed are grasses.

So, what are we missing out on? Flavor, variety, an appreciation of food, cultural influences and differences that expand and add richness to our lives. We also miss out on the communal relationships that revolve around food preparation and consumption. I’ll save my rant about what outsourcing food preparation has done to our culture for another day, but as we emerge from a year of sheltering in place, there’s an opportunity to manage our own diet, rather than handing over control of what we eat to commercial food processors. In short, they really don’t give a damn about you and me. But we at Green With Indy do.

So, in this edition about reducing food waste, we will begin with what’s right in front of us -- how to grow what we like, in the quantities that we need.

Starting with easy stuff, we’re compiling a list of of foods you can regrow from scraps e.g., basil, bok choy, cabbage, carrot greens, celery, etc. You can even grow your own avocado producing tree indoors, in Indianapolis, if you’re willing to wait a few years. From this point you‘ll learn to take control of your food, health and money.

Note: We won’t recreate the wheel, so we’re listing sites that we like to help with the process. So here you go:

See: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/reduce-food-waste-regrow-from-scraps/.

Share easy, practical tips for using food scraps before you give them to Green With Indy Food Waste Composting Service. Shameless plug…we know;)

That’s it for now.

Fin
Coming next: Creative Ways to Use Food Scraps