Are you looking for ways to grow food in your apartment or home? Not all of us have access to a garden. Yet growing food with your kids is a great way to teach them about the life cycle of plants and boost their self-reliance skills.
Even better? You and your children could help supplement your family’s weekly food supply. It’s easier than you think! Here’s how.
Grow Food Indoors or Outdoors
Our family is homesteading and homeschooling off the grid in Canada’s far north. We have a huge vegetable garden and a flock of 30 chickens too. Yet our outdoor gardening season is short. So we experiment with growing vegetables and herbs indoors.
I’m a big believer in hands-on homeschooling and teaching children life skills. Several of our children (we have seven) learn best by doing. So foraging, gardening, wildcrafting, cooking and other homesteading activities form a big part of our day.
This past winter we did our best to grow food indoors. We planted all sorts of things! And we also discovered there are a whole lot of things that grow easily in water. Yet many of these are vegetable scraps you might normally throw in the trash.
That’s why I created a simple printable of foods that can regrow in water for the front of our fridge. It’s right there for all the kids to see (right beside our Kids Composting List).
Before they toss their scraps, the kids have to make sure the scrap can’t be regrown or composted. And let me tell you, this has really minimized our family’s waste!
You’ll find a link to the printable at the bottom of this post. But first, here are five easy ways you and your children can grow food without a garden.
5 Simple Ways to Grow Food Without a Garden
One of the great things about growing food without a garden is that you need very little in the way of special supplies. Instead, you’ll use things you already have around your home. And one or two bags of potting soil. So this is an easy way to get started apartment homesteading too.
- Soak Your Dried Beans. If your pantry looks anything like mine, it includes bags and bags of beans. You can grow beans indoors by soaking your dried beans in water. Then plant them in small pots once they sprout and the stem grows about two inches.
- Save Your Vegetable and Fruit Seeds. Don’t toss your sweet pepper seeds or your tomato seeds! Save them, germinate the seeds on paper towels, and plant them in a pot on a sunny windowsill for peppers and tomatoes year-round.
- Grow Some Microgreens. Last year we found ourselves with not one but two Aerogardens. These are small, self-contained hydroponic planters with built-in grow lights. We grew lettuce and herbs through the winter and the kids were thrilled!
- Easy-To-Grow Sprouts. You don’t even need much sunlight. Grab alfalfa, mustard, or lentil seeds and a glass jar to give it a try. (Tip: sprouts add flavor and fun to omelettes and salads.)
- Grow Veggie Scraps in Water. Did you know there are at least 20 fruit and veggie scraps that regrow when you “plant” them in water? It’s true! Celery and lettuce are just two of them.
Want to find out what other veggies regrow in water? Head over to An Off Grid Life and grab your free printable right now!
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Sarita Harbour is a busy mom/step-mom, and grandmother blessed with seven kids ranging from age 32 down to seven. She lives off the grid with her family in a lakefront chalet in the beautiful wilderness of Canada’s far north. She spends her days teaching, writing, and learning the ropes of homesteading off the grid. Visit her site, Off Grid Life, for free printables and resources on homesteading, homeschooling, and self-reliance for the whole family.
