You might score yourself highly when it comes to making sure you’re minimising food waste, but what about when you consider all the parts of a food-producing plant that are edible which end up either in the compost, the chicken coop or in the green bin?
We have all heard the phrase nose-to-tail eating, but the same philosophy can be applied to our vegetables. Just like there’s a move towards whole-animal eating, we need to be ‘honouring’ the whole plant and not eating just the popular parts of our fruit and vegetables.
So much of what we grow ends up being discarded while we are missing out on not only the opportunity to reduce waste, but also extra vitamins, fibre and nutrients. Many of the parts that we discard can also hold many hidden medicinal benefits. Here are a few ideas to get you celebrating your whole-plant harvest.