Food Scrap Fun

Using kitchen scraps can be a great low cost or no cost way to interact with and explore food.

There are so many ways to do this, from re-growing scraps to arts and crafts: 

Re-grow kitchen scraps

Many veggies will re-grow using the ends of the produce - Little Green Thumbs has a great resource on how to re-grow many common kitchen scraps. Green onions are one of the very easiest to start with - they re-grow quickly, kids can watch it, and don't require any special equipment. 

Cut the root end off: 

Put in water, change periodically, and wait. The onions will re-grow! Note: if you would like to re-grow them longer term, you will want to plant them in soil. 

Compost in a Cup 

Make your own mini compost in a clear glass container using these instructions. Kids can watch things breakdown before their eyes! 

Paint

Some farm to early care activities including painting or stamping with produce. In general, we prefer not to paint with produce that could be eaten, but scraps can be a great way to eat the produce, then paint with the scraps. For example, cut the end off romaine lettuce, eat the lettuce and stamp with the end! 

 

 

 

Other Resources

Further information and options for Kitchen Scrap Gardening from Kids Gardening.

While not necessarily a scrap, check back to our video about rooting herbs for another fun way to use up herbs (and grow more)! 

 

How have you used kitchen scraps?