You Can Grow More Food Than You Think
It might be hard for those of us who live with small patio backyards or apartment balconies to think we can grow food. Or for those who are so busy with work or chasing children, there is no time to dedicate to a thriving garden. However, I am here to tell you that it's possible. In fact, you can grow more food than you think very easily without trying too hard. In this post, I want to change your mind and open your eyes to the possibilities. I hope I can convince you to realise you can grow more food than you think.
The first thing you need to do is change your thinking around what you actually classify as food, that's how you know you can grow more food than you think. Many of the foods we eat contain more edible parts than we are even aware of, others we don't even consider to be food at all.
What is food?
The food I am talking about is the primary reason we grow something and the secondary, tertiary and in some cases quaternary. Aka, some plants have more than one thing on offer for us to eat. Often gardeners will grow a particular type of produce for one reason only when there are actually multiple things edible about them. I also want to note that when I say it is edible I am not just referring to something that can be eaten, but something that can also be brewed into beverages like tea.
Below I have listed 10 foods that provide more than one edible component. Within this list of things are some pieces of plants that are not so common in our diets, well at least not here in the western world. At the end of this list you will realise you can grow more food than you think!
1. Pumpkin
Pumpkins are incredibly tasty, especially roasted or made into pumpkin soup. But there is more to a pumpkin than the orange flesh we use. There are three other edible parts to make the most of, the leaves, the seeds and the male flowers.
Leaves
You don't even have to wait for the pumpkin because the leaves are also edible, the tastiest leaves are the younger, smaller ones. The older, larger ones are spikier and more fibrous.
Pumpkin seeds
Next time you cut up a pumpkin, keep your seeds for eating. Pumpkin seeds, or pepitas are extremely nutritious and delicious. To prepare pumpkin seeds, wash them in water first then dry. Next, spread them over an oven tray and sprinkle some olive oil over the top. Place them in your oven at about 180c until golden brown.
To finish, let them dry and store in an airtight container until you're ready to eat them.
Flowers
Lastly, pumpkin flowers are also edible. It's best to eat the male flowers, rather than the fruit setting females. To use pumpkin flowers, remove the stamens and rinse with water. Next, stuff them with anything you want, bake them in the oven and serve as a side dish or snack.
I know what you're thinking, I live in a tiny apartment, I don't have the room to grow pumpkins, they are huge. If you live in a tiny apartment you may not have the space to grow a large variety of pumpkin but you can grow smaller varieties like Small Sugar or Golden Nugget. These pumpkins are great for small space gardeners because they are compact. Their fruits are also quite small, about the size of an adult's palm. They also grow really well in pots.
If you're interested in buying pumpkin seeds you can purchase some here:
- Pumpkin Small Sugar (Perfect for small space gardeners)
- Waltham Butternut Pumpkin (also known as butternut squash, these are better suited to those with a bit more room)
Alternatives to pumpkin
There are alternatives to pumpkins that feature the same edible characteristics. These include zucchinis, squash and cucumbers. The leaves and flowers of zucchinis, squash and cucumbers are also edible and are great substitutes to pumpkins.
Here are some links to purchase zucchini, squash or cucumber seeds:
2. Nasturtiums
A popular flower for gardeners, nasturtiums provide flowers for pollinators and they emit a beautiful aroma. But they are also surprisingly useful in the kitchen. Possibly unbeknownst to many people, the entire plant is edible. The nasturtiums flowers, leaves and seed pods are all perfectly fine to eat.
Flowers
Nasturtium's beautiful flowers are perfectly safe to eat and have an incredible peppery flavour. They look amazing on top of a garden salad.
Leaves
Just like the edible flowers, the nasturtium leaves can be eaten straight from the plant and also have a really peppery taste. The leaves are perfect to add to a very average boring salad
Seed pods
Nasturtium flowers usually last a few weeks before they eventually die off and produce seed pods. If left they will drop and sprout, forming more nasturtium plants, spreading across your garden.
However, you don't have to let your nasturtium seeds do this, well at least not all of them, because they are edible. The best way to eat nasturtium seeds is to preserve them in a homemade brine. Pickled nasturtium seeds are called nasturtium capers or sometimes referred to as poor man's capers. Nasturtium capers resemble actual capers and taste just as delicious.
Hannah Moloney from Goodlife Permaculture recently created a video on this exact process. Click the video below to watch it.
Nasturtiums are a must grow for all gardeners. If they aren't already growing on your property you can buy seeds by clicking on the link below.
3. Dandelions
Most people would classify dandelions growing in their backyards as a weed, but they are very useful. Dandelions produce beautiful flowers, a favourite foraging source for our most important pollinators, but they can also be food for us too. The humble dandelion is edible from the flower, right down to the root. It happens to be one of the most nutritious greens on the planet.
Flowers
Dandelion flowers can be added atop salads, eaten raw or brewed into a refreshing tea. To create a dandelion flower, first, rinse under water to remove any dirt or bugs. The next step is to remove all petals from the flower head. To make one cup of dandelion flower tea you will need between 1/3 and a 1/2 cup (depending on how strong you want it to be) of loosely packed petals. The last step is to add it to a stainless steel tea strainer (like this one), place in a cup and pour in boiling water. If you want your tea to be stronger you can let it steep for 5-10 minutes. If you prefer a sweeter tea, add a teaspoon of honey.
Leaves
Dandelion leaves can be eaten raw, straight off the plant but the bitterness makes them an acquired taste. Mixing raw leaves with other greens like red, green and butter lettuces and a vinaigrette dressing can assist in balancing out the bitter flavour.
However cooking dandelion leaves removes some of the bitterness and makes them much more palatable. Leaves can be sauted or blanched and used in place of other greens in things like soups.
Root
Dandelions produce a rather large taproot which can be harvested and brewed into dandelion coffee. This coffee substitute is very simple and easy to make. To make your own dandelion root coffee all you need to do is pull up your plants and remove the greens (eat them in one of the ways listed above) and wash the roots of all soil. Once cleaned, cut them into similar sized pieces (there is no need to peel the root) so they cook evenly. Next, place them on a metal oven tray and place in a pre-heated oven at 180*C for 20 minutes, check them every 5 minutes and remove when they are dark brown and brittle. Any smaller pieces will cook quicker so remove them earlier if needed.
Once cooked let them cool down for 5 minutes then grind them up in a mortar and pestle or use a coffee grinder. Add the powder to a tea strainer and pour in the boiling water. For a stronger tea, let it steep for a few minutes. Dandelion coffee, just like instant coffee tastes really good with milk.
If you're not ready to use your coffee yet, store it in a air-tight jar in your pantry as you would instant coffee.
Other uses
There are so many other ways to use dandelions I couldn't list them all and I haven't tried them all but they can be used to infuse oils, honey, vinegar and even vodka. Dandelions are a highly under utilised food source, once you see the potential for them you wont want to remove them from your garden or lawn ever again.
4. Peas
One of my absolute favourite foods to grow and eat are snow peas but there is more eat from a snow pea plant or any edible pea plant that produces delicious fruit.
Flowers
The flowers are also edible and make a perfect addition to salads. Pea flowers can also be candied and used to decorate cakes or frozen in ice cubes and used to cool drinks. Just be aware that eating the flowers will mean fewer peas. If you have plenty of highly productive pea plants then I would recommend eating some flowers but to let most of them fruit.
Please be aware that only vegetable pea flowers can be consumed. Sweet pea flowers are toxic.
Leaves and tendrils
The leaves and tendrils are also perfectly fine to eat and have a slight pea flavour. I think they taste best raw in mixed salads or cooked in curries and stir-fries.
5. Sweet potato
Sweet potatoes can be easily grown in-ground or in larger containers. They are most commonly planted for their tasty tubers, but you don't have to wait months for them because the leaves are also edible. Sweet potato leaves can be eaten either raw or cooked.
Sweet potato leaves are commonly eaten in many Asian cultures.
6. Beets
Beetroots are another food you might not be taking full advantage of. Beets are usually grown for their root, but the leaves are also really tasty.
A lot of pre-mixed salad bags found in our leading grocery stores actually contain beet leaves. But you can easily grow them at home and harvest them as you need them while you wait for your beetroot to mature.
Beet leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, I personally love the taste of them raw as a salad green.
There are many varieties of beetroot that come in different shapes, colours and sizes. If you're interested in buying beet seeds check out these three below:
7. Coriander/Cilantro
Coriander, more commonly known as cilantro in the US, is a very easy herb to grow, great for homemade Mexican or Thai dishes. The coriander leaves are most commonly used but like a lot of the other plants listed here, the entire plant is edible.
Flowers
You might be surprised to learn the very small and beautiful flowers are edible and can be used to garnish your next dish.
Coriander roots
Coriander roots are also edible and are quite commonly used in Thai cooking. In Thai, coriander root is known as rak phak chi (รากผักชี) and is a very popular ingredient used to make famous Thai curries. It is usually crushed down in a pestle and mortar with garlic and chilli.
Coriander seeds
If you let your coriander/cilantro plants go to flower and then seed this is another opportunity for food. Coriander seeds are another very popular and very flavourful ingredient. They can be left to dry and be used as-is, ground up in a pestle and mortar and stored in a jar or placed whole into a salt/pepper grinder and ground like black pepper when needed.
8. Carrots
Carrots are one of the most versatile vegetables around, but there is more to this tasty root crop. The green leaves of the carrots are also safe to consume and are quite delicious, with a subtle carrot flavour. just like beetroot, carrots come in oranges, purples and even yellows and come in all shapes ranging from small and round to short and fat and long and skinny.
You can buy three different types of carrots on Biome below:
9. Roses
Probably the most popular ornamental flower grown here in Australia, it seems like almost everyone grows them. It's so clear to see why because everyone loves to see a beautiful rose garden. The flowers are eye-catching and they smell amazing. But did you know all rose varieties are edible!
Rose petals and rosebuds
Rose petals make for an excellent tea, either raw or dried. Just add them to hot water (not boiling) and sip. Young rosebuds (unopened flowers) can also be used in the same way as rose petals to make a more intense tea flavour.
Rose petals can also be added to a salad.
Rosehips
Lastly, rosehips, or the 'fruit' that develops after a rose has finished flowering can be used in the kitchen. Rosehips are probably the most delicious part of the rose, they can be brewed into a tea, made into a jam, syrup or sauce.
10. Sunflowers
Sunflowers are more than just another very pretty flower used to bring in bees, they are completely edible.
Seeds
Probably the most commonly eaten part of a sunflower is the seeds. Sunflower seeds are often used in bread and muffins but they can also be just be eaten raw or roasted and salted.
Sunflower seeds can also be grown indoors in a small amount of soil to create microgreens. Microgreens are extremely nutritious and can be added to almost any dish.
Leaves
Sunflower leaves are also a great alternative to other greens like kale or spinach. They can be sautéed or blanched, stir-fried and even baked into chips.
Stalks
Probably a surprise to many, including myself, the stalks of young sunflowers can be eaten. Cut them up into 10cm sections and eat them raw as you would raw celery. The stalks have a similar texture and crunch to celery sticks so can be eaten as a snack alongside a hummus dip.
Root
The roots of one particular sunflower is also edible. Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sunchokes or sunroot are a type of sunflower that produce an edible root rhizome that can be cooked and eaten in much the same way potatoes are used.
Buy your next lot of sunflower seeds here:
You can grow more food than you think
Thanks for reading about how you can grow more food than you think. Growing food is important but it can be difficult for those who have limited space or time. By changing your mind and looking at the entirety of plants, not just what they are commonly grown for you can grow more food than you think. I hope this article has convinced you and has made you realise that you can grow more food than you think!
If you want to stay up to date with my own gardening adventures you can follow me on Instagram @soulfullygreen and on Youtube here.