Ollie's Kitchen Scrap Garden

What you need

• Clear cups, 1 per plant
• Water, enough to fill cups about 1 inch deep
• Paper, 1 strip per plant
• Crayons or markers, a few
• Green onion, 1, with roots
• Celery base or lettuce heart, 1 (optional)
• Knife, 1, for the grown-up
• Cutting board, 1
• Jug, 1, for water

How to do it

Grown-up prep: You will need to cut the vegetable ends with a knife, so do that part before the kids join in. Check for allergies to onion, celery or lettuce before handling. Use plastic cups if your windowsill is low or a child might knock them over.

1. A grown-up cuts the ends off the veggies. A grown-up does this
   Ask: Which part do you think will grow, the top or the bottom?
2. Look closely at your veggie ends before they go in water.
3. Stand the root end in a shallow cup of water.
4. Draw your plant in its cup on day one.
5. Put the cups on a sunny windowsill.
6. Mark the starting height on a paper strip.
7. Change the water every day.
   Ask: Does the water look clear or cloudy today? What do the roots look like?
8. Mark any new growth on the paper strip.
9. Draw your plant again on day seven.
10. A grown-up snips your green onion into dinner. Then try regrowing another scrap! A grown-up does this
    Ask: What veggie scrap will you try to regrow next?

Play it again

• Scrap race: grow two different veggie ends and guess which one sprouts first.
• Sunny or shady: put one cup in the sun and one in a darker spot, then see which grows more.
• Growth guess: before each check, guess how tall the plant is, then measure on your strip.