1. Bean Sprouts
A bag of mung beans costs pennies at the supermarket. We placed a handful of dried mung beans on a sheet of wet kitchen paper and topped up with a little water every evening for a week and hey-presto... beansprouts!
2. Marrowfat Peas
A bag of dried marrowfat peas costs less than a pound in the supermarket. We planted eight of the dried peas into a plastic tub filled with compost. The pea plants can be planted out into buckets, plant pots (or the ground) once the reach about 10cm tall. The plants should mature and flower in about 10-12 weeks. Let the pea pods grow fat and round before picking. It won't be a big crop but oh my, they will taste good. My two girls eat the peas straight from the plant!
3. Celery
I have wanted to try growing celery from a used celery base ever since I first saw it on Pinterest. Cut the stems off carefully to use as normal and when they have all been eaten, keep the base and place it in a saucer or small tub of water and it will magically re-grow! Once it has started to sprout, you can plant it in the ground to give it the best chance of continued life!
4. Avocado
I'm not sure how successful an avocado tree will be in our temperate climate but it is fun trying to grow one! Pierce a clean avocado pit and then pierce with cocktail sticks and suspend it above a class of water so that the base of the pit sits in the water. The roots will grow down and eventually the pit will split open to reveal a small tree sapling. This is a brilliant activity for teaching young children about roots and shoots.
5. Kidney Beans
I have no idea whether our supermarket dried kidney beans will germinate but Lara was insistent that we try! We planted our beans in moist compost and shall see what comes of them!
6. Poppies
As with the kidney beans, I'm not sure if these poppy seeds will germinate but I thought it was worth a try. Lara distributed a large number in a flower pot of compost and we have also sewn lots of them in our front garden flower beds. I can't wait to see whether or not we have fields of poppy flowers in a few weeks time!
7. Garlic
Lara just pushed these garlic cloves (unpeeled) into the soil - with some sun over the next couple of weeks they should sprout long green shoots. The green shoots will be really tasty to eat alone or we can wait for new bulbs to mature - fresh garlic has a very strong and distinctive taste.
8. Ginger
Ginger isn't really well suited to our climate but it can be grown indoors. Simply buy a hand of root ginger from the supermarket, tear off the small fingers and place them all directly onto the top of a pot of compost. Keep moist and in bright sunlight on a window-ledge.
9. Chillis
All of our best chillis have been grown from seeds we picked and dried from supermarket chillis. Chillis make bright and fun plants to grow and they are very tolerant of over- or under-watering!
10. Rosemary (and other cut herbs)
We eat a lot of herbs in our family. A very cheap way of growing your own herbs is to buy a packet of cuttings from the supermarket, soak them in a glass of water overnight and then plant into moist compost. With a bit of luck on your side, they will take root and grow into plants of their own! These Rosemary cuttings will take a full year before they can be cut for food themselves but we should know within a week if they are going to take root or not.
