Okay, I am totally taken with this little book that arrived in the mail yesterday. If you've ever sprouted an avocado in a windowsill, you'll get what's so fun about this.
This clever little book from Storey -- priced right at 11 bucks in paperback --offers up suggestions for sprouting not just avocados, but also carrot tops, garbanzo beans, peanuts, jicama, lemongrass, ginger, and just about any other kind of grocery store produce.
It lets you know what spices and nuts can be sprouted as seeds, what fruits and vegetables will grow from cuttings, and what to expect in terms of a harvest. (A mango might be fun to grow in a windowsill, but don't expect fruit right away.) For kids, this is an endless source of science projects. (And by the way, although this graphic says that it contains 59 windowsill plants, the copy I have in my hand has the number 68 on the cover. That's publishing for you.)
There's something so thrifty and retro about sprouting food from kitchen scraps that makes it seem just right for the times. Like, wow, I don't even have to go buy seeds -- I can just plant my trash!
I try not to worry too much about the economy, but I gotta say -- this is kind of a nice backup plan to have. If we can figure out how to start new chickens from eggshells and sprout new bottles of gin from the bottle caps, we might really have something.
Cute, cute, cute. Check it out. Available here: Don't Throw It, Grow It or wherever books are sold.
As a kid, I fondly remember growing peanuts. I think the kit was just three peanuts and a piece of yarn in a sauce container. All you had to do was keep the yarn moist for awhile. I loved seeing them sprout and planting them one they formed roots. I only harvested a handful of peanuts, but that was quite amazing.
Posted by: Kevin | May 29, 2008 at 11:03 AM
Rooting ginger makes for a lovely plant.
Posted by: suzq | May 29, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Wow, you are returning me to my avocado-pit youth.
Posted by: Michele Owens | May 29, 2008 at 11:57 AM
If I bury my crappy Hyundai will a new car grow?
Posted by: John | May 29, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Speaking of Michele's avocado-pit youth, did you ever burn dried avocado leaves? Smells EXACTLY like pot.
I casually picked up some dead leaves off the floor a couple winters ago and threw them in the fireplace. They smelled more like pot than pot does. The smell went throughout the house and probably through the neighborhood. My wife wondered what the hell I was doing. Literally. But I never inhaled.
Do you think that activity is in this fun, family-oriented, gardening book?
Posted by: Jim/ArtofGardening | May 29, 2008 at 04:50 PM
That IS cute! It totally makes me think of my childhood in Florida, when at any given time we'd have three to five avocado pits sprouting on the windowsill. Never did figure out why, since we had amazing, mature avocado trees already in our yard. LOL!
Posted by: Cynthia | June 01, 2008 at 04:10 AM
Love it! We have a 4 year old avocado grown from the pit of huge Florida avocado our friend Andres sent us from his farm in Florida. It's so cool!
Posted by: Willi | June 11, 2008 at 04:37 PM