5 Foods You can Grow from Organic Store-Bought Produce

Mother nature is right under our noses, along with the ability to grow our own food, even if we live in an urban area. Growing the following 5 foods in containers or a garden won’t feed your whole family, but it is a great way to start making your own food and developing food sovereignty in a world where the GMO monopoly seems to grow stronger every day.

If you would rather eat food without pesticides, and questionable ingredients, there is no better way than to grow your own.

Just be sure to buy organic produce since many conventionally grown crops won’t reproduce. Here are five foods that you can start growing the next time you go to the grocery store:

• 1. Avocados – This is a great calorie-rich super food that has so many benefits you could use them as a meal in themselves. The great thing too, is that you can grow your own avocado tree, which produces fruit in as little as a year. The easiest way to plant an avocado seed is to extract it from the fruit, and plant it in at least six inches of organic potting soil that has been well-moistened. You can try to poke some tooth-picks in the seed and grow it in a glass jar, but the soil-method is really a no-brainer. The best part – you would probably have just thrown the seed away, and now you are using it to grow your own non-GMO food. Here are some health benefits of avocados.

• 2. Potatoes – These little gems are not only tasty, but are good for you! Even potatoes grown in Ireland are at risk of being genetically modified, so why not grow your own in a deep pot? All you have to do is take an old, shriveled, organic potato with a few eyes that have started to sprout and place them in a deep container full of moist potting soil. Potatoes will grow a leafy green plant, but you will harvest the roots – where more potatoes will grow. In containers you can expect finger-sized potatoes in as little as six months. You can also cut a single potato with the eyes starting to sprout in order to get a higher yield.

• 3. Carrots and Beets – Once you’ve sliced and diced carrots for winter stews or summer munching, you can retain the leafy green tops with about an inch of the carrot and place the carrot tops in a saucer with about ½ inch of water and some pebbles to help it to sprout new greens. Once the new greens start to show, remove the carrot top from the saucer and plant it in moist soil and soon you’ll have new carrots. The same process works with beets, too!

• 4. Pineapple – Pineapples can take longer to regrow, and some won’t reproduce unless they are cross-pollinated, but pineapples can be regenerated from a store-bought plant by slicing off the top (with the green top) and planting this in a similar manner. It can go directly into the soil, and left to grow in this manner. Pineapples are full of bromelain, an important natural digestive enzyme that may also ward off cancer.

• 5. Basil – The health benefits of basil are not only incredible, but they can be experienced in countless meals. Many stores are now carrying live, organic basil that you can plant and use as it grows, instead of just offering packaged basil that wilts and browns after just a few days.