Waste not, want not

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

We all try to make sure that nothing we grow goes to waste after all the time and love we put into our plots. What are your favourite unusual thinnings/cuttings to take from plot to plate? And how do you use them?

Answers may be edited and published in the August 2013 issue of Grow Your Own.


Laura

[Florence Fennel]

A firm favourite of mine is carrots. Posh baby veg lightly steamed on my dinner plate, or tossed in salads instead of thinnings finding their way on to the compost heap. Sprout tops shredded, blanched and frozen.

[Bren In Pots]

I add any thinning to my salad plate, that's unless they get eaten before they make it indoors

[scarey55]

Another vote for Brussels sprout tops here, love 'em!

[veggiechicken]

I try to take a crop from every vegetable plant at least twice! Most of my veggies are treated like Cut and come again before they mature. So I snip the green tops off onions, garlic and shallots, take leaves from beetroot, turnips and carrots, pick the lower leaves from cabbages and sprouts, the tops from broad beans and pick broad beans and peas when they are small so that the pods can be eaten as well as the contents.
I leave in situ the root plates of celery, fennel and leeks so that they can regrow. Lettuce and brassica stumps are cut with an X and left to sprout anew.
Its amazing what you can do with a little imagination

[Aberdeenplotter]

I sow beetroot at 2 " spacing and take alternate beet as baby beet leaving the others to mature to tennis ball size. My favourite thinning though is from my exhibition shallots. To obtain the best size and shape, a maximum of 4 bulbs per cluster are allowed to develop to maturity and the others are removed when immature. The thinings can be used as spring onions and are delish chopped and fried or used in a salad.

[VirginVegGrower]

Beetroot leaves go in my salads. Radish leaves are also used as salad leaves. Celery or celeriac leaves are ripped as a soup garnish. Anything inedible - peelings, go to the chickens, who turn out compost activator/plant feed or gets added to my ever growing compost heaps. I do not thin out.

[Moopmoop]

Radish seedlings make a great substitute for cress in egg mayo sandwiches. I always sow radishes too thickly so unfortunately I never seem to need to sow any cress.

[SeleneMourie]

Most growing vegetable leaves such as beetroot and onions get used in salads or things such as chard gets sautéed like spinach. Vegetable tops get whizzed up for soup or frozen into ice cube trays to last throughout the year as stock.
For my sneaky scrimping measures I tend to chop of my bigger leeks near the root and let that grow back as thin leeks that go great in salad and stirfrys!
With such a small plot I have to be extra careful not to waste anything!