Survival Skills aka Growing Your Own Food

There's nothing like a global pandemic zombie apocalypse, and the resulting shortage of certain staples at the grocery store, to encourage you to become more self-sufficient and live off of what you have.

It's been a weird year for gardening. We've had a cool early spring, and where normally I'd have tomatoes transplanted already, this is the first week that I'm starting to think about putting plants outside.

So between feeling stuck inside with quarantine, and not feeling like I can plant outside, my mind has gone to "What can I grow from scraps in my kitchen window?" And this year, I'm trying out lettuce and cabbage for the first time.

Lettuce and cabbage are supposed to be super easy - you simply put the leftover core into a shallow bowl of water, and they'll grow roots and more leaves. I gave it a try with a cabbage (from St. Patty's Day corned beef!) and two heads of romaine. There are already very promising signs after about 2 weeks.

Here you can see about 3" of new leaf growth from about 6 new leaves on the romaine. 

Here you can see a few new leaves budding on the top of the cabbage... 

... as well as several healthy roots. 

Now that they have new growth (and it's finally getting a bit warmer outside), it's time to transfer them to soil. Using an enriched soil or compost, bury the roots and leave the leaves exposed. 

I chose to plant in ceramic planters, only because it's been too cold to prep my garden bed. Some guides have said that I should use the amount lettuce of I've grown at this point and call it quits. Others say that I can keep trimming to soil level and get knew regrowth. I'm looking forward to seeing how many rounds I can go. 

End goal? If I only get 1 round of small leaves regrowth, I'll still save 25% on my produce purchasing. Hopefully, I can go multiple rounds, reducing my shopping by 50% or more.