My Copy: 9780760361603 (image from bn.com)

If you’re trying to minimize your garbage impact, running out of compost pile room, big on experimentation (for yourself or the kids), or just wanna grow your own food… then this is a book to try out.

No-Waste Kitchen Gardening doesn’t require you to have much more than an open mind and some desire for experimentation… and maybe a little room. There are far more vegetables and herbs you can try to grow from the remnants that usually get tossed out than I thought possible. Certainly the popular avocado is in these pages (definitely the one people want in my neck of the woods), but also you can grow from onion roots, carrot tops, leek stalks, celery bottoms, etc.

There are plenty of illustrations in the book to give you an idea of what needs to be done with each type of vegetable. You can even re-grow pineapple if you got the right parts! Potatoes, ginger, tumeric, turnips, melons…the list goes on.

I am impressed by the simple setup in these pages. It gives you a bit of the basic science behind fruit and vegetable growth, but it’s not terribly hard to follow. As long as you have plants that have roots still attached, haven’t been sterilized to prevent sprouts by shipping to store (which you may not know until you try–experiment away), then you can grow things.

Might take a while, but if there’s a good science experiment to start with kids (that’s eventually edible), then I’d say this one’s a doozy.

No-Waste Kitchen Gardening is a useful book, rather short, and chock full of good info. Definitely worth a look if you want to curb your food waste and turn it to something good.