Friday 7 March 2014

Day 7 of Making it in March - Making New Food Grow

Day 7 of 31 Days of Making it in March - Making Things Grow!

A photo blog to celebrate making new food grow!

Lettuce seedling
 
We are now one week into this 31 day challenge and on the first day, I made some mini-propagators by recycling plastic cartons. I sowed some peppers in one and lettuce/salad leaves in another. The above is a photo of the very first lettuce seedling to pop its head through to prove there is still life in the old seeds. (Blog post here)
 
Vegetable scraps
 
During February, we did the 28 Days of Extreme frugaling and decided to have a go at making the end of the cabbage take root and grow some new cabbage.

Red cabbage in pot of water
 
I started this experiment off on 17th February, I set the leftover part of the red cabbage into a small jar of water then had to replace the jar with a tin. (I needed said jar for my mini macramé hangers.) (Blog post here)
 
Tiny shoots beginning to appear

Three weeks into the experiment and I can already see signs of the red cabbage beginning to form new leaves - isn't this amazing?


Tiny new red cabbage growing from old one

A closer look at the tiny new cabbage leaves beginning to emerge from between the old leaves. I am totally fascinated by this ability to regrow vegetables. I have done this with my spring onions and celery in the past but had never tried a cabbage until now.


Roots beginning to grow from red cabbage base

A look at the base shows a multitude of new roots forming. I have now sat my green cabbage in a bowl of water and will be keeping it that way from now on, cutting off what I need and then replacing it in the water. This method worked well in the past with lettuce, too!

I haven't had any time to craft anything today as I had quite a bit of web work I wanted out of the way before the weekend, but I did manage to pop out into the garden and sow the rest of the peas and beans - a few had already germinated while they were soaking, so I decided I'd do the same with my sweet pea seeds and see if I can achieve some success this year. Two years ago, my sweet peas were quite spectacular but last year not a single one grew when I sowed them straight into the ground.

NYK, Frugaldom

8 comments:

  1. Woe, well done on your growing. Nothing beats home grown veg.

    X x

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    1. This is just a little experiment to see how/if any new cabbage grows. Most of the sites say it does but I can't find one with photos showing all stages right through to picking & eating the new growth.

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  2. I never knew you could do that with cabbage.

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    Replies
    1. I knew you could keep them growing once cut but wasn't aware that they could actually regrow from shop bought ones - I'm still not totally convinced, hence my need to find out for myself. The eternal sceptic, that's me. :) Interesting watching the tiny leaves unfurl, nonetheless.

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  3. Looks like this is going to be a success and it will give you some lovely, fresh tasting mini veg. Well done!

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    Replies
    1. I'm keen to find out just how much new growth there will be, still can't believe it grows 'forever' to keep on producing cabbage but if it does, it will b small wonder the big corporations don't want everyone doing this. LOL

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  4. Have left brussel sprout plants in the ground before now and they grow new side plants that can be removed and eaten as fresh veg. I am sorry now that I didn't leave them in to see if they would then produce new brussel sprouts. Might try this again this year and see what happens

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    Replies
    1. I also noticed that the side shoots nipped out from tomato plants take root! :) I sat the end off the latest celery into water last week and already have tiny new shoots appearing, plus I had a pineapple and am now trying rooting the top of that.

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