Growing new food from old scraps

[ChanellG]

No, it's not cilantro. I said it tasted like celery. It's really delicious, especially with other herbs. I'm really glad I got it, I get it each year. But I can't think of the name of it.

Wonder what it could be. I'm not a big fan of celery either.... though I do like celery heart. And I use a few celery tops in split pea soup I make in the winter. If you leave that out in your recipe it's amazing the difference it makes.Too hot to think about soup now haha.

I'm going to guess celeriac, AKA celery root. I don't like celery much, but I had a delicious salad last at year's porch crawl that was made from celeriac. It was so good that I want to try and experiment with growing it myself.

 

[Ruth B]

ChanellG, thanks. That does sound familiar. It is SO good and gives foods just the right 'tweek'. I never would have thought of it in a million years as I'm not a celery fan nor would I have ever thought that taste could be so versatile.

It's an easy grow. It just goes crazy for me usually.

Thanks again.

 

[ChanellG]

It's an easy grow. It just goes crazy for me usually.
Thanks again.

Good to know, Ruth B! I'll have to look into when it does best in my climate/zone. It's so hot and now that summer has set in I'm not sure how much more food I'm going to be able to get. Right now I have a cilantro indoors and it isn't doing well at all. I think I am just going to have to put it outside and let it do what it does. Maybe if I watch it carefully I can keep it from going to seed long enough to get some decent leaves over the summer.

 

[Ruth B]

I bet if I was going to go get a celery and cut it off and try to re-sprout it, it would look just like this plant I bet, now that I've had your feedback. Then I'll feel silly for not knowing what it was called. And probably write about it here, lol.

If you find one, best wishes. Mine is in part sun part shade under a tree.

About your cilantro, I can understand! People say it's so easy, well not for me. I have had cilantro inside, no go, outside, no go, in pots, same and in the ground the same. In sun, out of sun, in shade, in part shade, on and on, until I gave up. I love it so much and it doesn't taste as good from the grocery store, but that's what I do now.

I even tried getting a plant it in a *bigger* pot and leaving it alone, not transplanting to either, and STILL no go. And no, I've tried from seed too, from the pkg AND from seed on the plant itself. I just don't like to admit defeat on plants. But hey, I just 'ain't got it. Maybe it's the evil eye, lol.

 

[Tommyotommy]

I bet if I was going to go get a celery and cut it off and try to re-sprout it, it would look just like this plant I bet, now that I've had your feedback. Then I'll feel silly for not knowing what it was called. And probably write about it here, lol.

If you find one, best wishes. Mine is in part sun part shade under a tree.

About your cilantro, I can understand! People say it's so easy, well not for me. I have had cilantro inside, no go, outside, no go, in pots, same and in the ground the same. In sun, out of sun, in shade, in part shade, on and on, until I gave up. I love it so much and it doesn't taste as good from the grocery store, but that's what I do now.

I even tried getting a plant it in a *bigger* pot and leaving it alone, not transplanting to either, and STILL no go. And no, I've tried from seed too, from the pkg AND from seed on the plant itself. I just don't like to admit defeat on plants. But hey, I just 'ain't got it. Maybe it's the evil eye, lol.

I've planted cilantro seeds 3 times this year...a couple sprout then die in a day or so.

 

[ChanellG]

@Ruth B and @Tommyotommy, I got cilantro from the grocery store a while back in a four inch pot and the instructions said to water it from the bottom. I thought that was crazy and didn't do it. The cilantro died. Then I got some at the nursery and it lived and set seed. (This was indoors on the windowsill)

I planted those seeds in little paper cups and some sprouted and some didn't. Ultimately none of the plants got enough water and they died - my fault. This year I got cilantro at a nursery again. I potted it up outdoors and it went crazy. My other half started asking for cilantro (he's really like the fresh herbs from the garden) after it stopped really producing new leaves so I got another plant.

I knew it would take too long to a) dry and cure the seed I had, b) it's getting hot for cilantro, and c) the seeds might not sprout or the plant might not do well.

 

[Ruth B]

Thanks. I just gave up on it for this year. As for waterin, I water most of the time from the bottom, I soak everything in a pot in a kiddy pool. Sometimes they get watered from the top from rain, or if I am emptying one of the other kiddy pools.

 

[Tommyotommy]

So it's best to water it from the bottom? If my seeds ever sprout I'll try that.

 

[Ruth B]

I have always heard it was. To not keep washing off the topsoil. It also kind of depends upon how deep your plants are of course in relation to the pot.

I have been wanting to try one of those automatic ball water thingies, but I haven't yet. My chiropractor has them in plants in his office, and I asked him if they worked. He said they did. They water so far in the bottom tho, that he says the top dirt can even stay dry.

I don't know about all that, but I do prefer to water from the bottom when I can. I really like washing off less dirt off the top that is inevadable even when watering slowly. .

 

[ChanellG]

Do you mean the watering globes that you insert like plant spikes? My mom gave me some of those a while back. I just put one in with one of my house plants to see how well it will work in delivering water and in keeping the plant moist. It was a set of three so I can't wait to see how successful using them will be.

 

[Ruth B]

Oh, yes, that's exactly what I was talking about. I haven't used them, so I can't talk about them. Let us know how they work for you.

 

[Ruth B]

I'm sorry for taking this thread off topic. Today I planted the leeks that have new roots, and I'm hoping they will take off. I know one probably will since it had a baby coming out of the top anyway. I will try some onions soon also.

 

[ChanellG]

No problem, @Ruth B! So far so good with the watering globe. I have it in a medium sized pot that holds my spider plant. I put the globe in some time last week, not sure if it was Friday or not, but today when I checked the water had gone down in it. So that's 3-4 days at least that it lasted. I usually only water that plant about once per week anyway.

Back to topic - i set my sprouted pineapple tops in soil a few days ago. Fingers crossed!

 

[Ruth B]

mmm my own pineapple, I can only imagine!

I'm on a roll, I am soaking Brussels sprouts and a yellow carrot and a red purple carrot to see if I can grow some roots. On the sprouts, I'm not really wanting a little cabbage heads. I'm really wanting the delicious greens that come with them. We'll see. I also want to try lemongrass, as I'm sure those little chive like things that come out would be wonderful. I'm imagining they are delicate like my parsley celery thingie. It's harder to find a lemongrass bulb around here. Maybe the farmer's market.

My leeks are looking kinda puny in the dirt so far, but it's early, and they did have good roots.

Good luck with yours. I love this idea.

 

[ChanellG]

I got leeks at the Farmer's Market last year and put the bottom of one in water. It did start to regrow, but was quite narrow (only growing in the center like onion). Then I talked to @zigs, who said something about the leek needing to be submerged in water or something that sounded way to complicated. Needless to say I didn't get far.