#apartment homestead

Got another garbage onion started, this time a sweet yellow onion. Looking at all the divisions in the center, it may send up shoots from multiple places meaning I can divide it and get more than one onion out of the deal. We’ll see!

For those who mentioned having trouble getting this to work, you do have to change the water daily. Not just add more, but pull the onion out of the dish, dump out the water, rinse out the dish, and put new water in (and obviously put back the onion). Other than that and temperature control (don’t let it bake in the sun or freeze in a draft), just leave it alone and it should sprout.

My garbage onion (I grew it from the root end of a store bought onion, something that normally goes in the garbage) finally sent up a shoot! And look at all those gorgeous roots!

I also had some sprouting store-bought garlic (you can see it on the counter behind the onion) so I decided to put those in some dirt as well. So one onion, five cloves of garlic.

I’ll probably sprout another onion bottom after dinner, since I have a couple of yellow onions that need to be eaten and my little sprouting dish is now empty.

Finally getting my seeds started! Since I live in an apartment with no balcony or patio this will all be a 100% indoor garden. Never done this before, so we’ll see how it goes!

I’ve got:
▪rainbow mix carrots,
▪red Russian kale
▪salad bowl lettuce
▪Bloomsdale spinach
▪Oregon spring tomatoes
▪red cherry tomatoes
▪habanero peppers
▪sweet basil
▪Greek oregano

All are heirloom seeds.

Now, this seed starter tray is really nice. I’ve seen a few different versions, but I went with this one (years ago) because the company offered refill pellets so you can reuse the plastic tray and clear greenhouse lid (not pictured).

I will say that these little pellet refills also work well when put in eggshells for those who like to use their old eggshells as seed starter containers. They have biodegradable mesh around them that allows them to more or less keep their shape in case they’re too tall for the eggshell.

To use, just soak them for about 10 minutes or until they’ve expanded, then sink a single seed in the center of each one.

It’s amazing to me that food grows literally everywhere, but we’ve become so out of touch with nature as a society that we’ve forgotten much of this information.

Purslane and wild amaranth growing between the parking lot and the sidewalk. Both have leaves that can be simply picked and eaten raw (young leaves are best), and amaranth seeds can be used as a grain.

I imagine when I finally get land to grow fruits and vegetables, the weeds will only get pulled because they’re going on the dinner table.

Really though, I will have a section of land I’ll call my native garden where I transplant all the weeds and wild plants I find that are edible. Since they’re wild plants I’ll be able to just leave them alone until harvest. Easiest food garden ever!

Turning these plastic creamer bottles into pots for the seeds I’m going to start soon. They fit perfectly on my window sills which means I can put them in every window and not have to buy shelves.

I’m not going to put drainage holes in the bottom because I don’t want to deal with water damage from overflowing saucers. Instead I’m going to put an inch or two of gravel in the bottom, top it with cardboard or newspaper, and then add my soil.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who saves sauce packets from to go/delivery/fast food places, but how many people actually end up using them? Personally, I’ve found that sorting them into bags or containers like this makes it more likely that they will get used because I don’t have to dig for what I want.

For those that are wondering, the last place my fiance and I lived didn’t have a functional kitchen, so fast food was a frequent thing. We learned how to eat pretty cheaply that way though (lots of dollar/value menu stuff), and we have plenty of sauce left over.

Everytime I go grocery shopping I get a few extra things to put in the pantry and/or freezer. It’s comforting to know that if something happens, whether natural or financial disaster, my fiance and I won’t go hungry. At this point we could probably hibernate for the rest of winter and be fine.

I still haven’t learned how to can food, but I plan to do so sometime this year.

I put the root end of a store bought white onion I ate into some water and it’s growing quite nicely; plenty of new roots and an obvious swelling in the center on top. Once it starts turning green I’ll put it in a pot.

Never grown onions before. This will be a fun experiment.

Freezing onion and garlic ends, and bits of chicken fat, tendons, arteries, and other stringy bits I don’t like eating (it’s a texture thing don’t judge me) for use making chicken stock at a later date.

This is a book that I think every homesteader will find intriguing. The bottom says:

“Deftly steering clear of dogma, never sounding like a sanctimonious scold, Eric Brende makes a persuasive case that most of us would enjoy life more by radically minimizing our reliance on modern technology. Better Off is a buoyant, thought-provoking, and very entertaining read.”
~ Jon Krakauer

I think it’s time to plant my garlic.

A hack I learned from a more seasoned urban homesteader: saving the juices from canned/packaged foods for later use in soups and other recipes. This container has my meat juices in it (it’s frozen which is why there are layers). I have one for vegetable juices as well, haven’t started one for fruits. As you can see, I’ve just added the broth from these chicken Vienna sausages. I know they’re terrible processed garbage, but they’re also cheap protein that never goes bad, and I’m on a very tight budget.

Anyway, the homesteader in question makes a point to buy vegetables canned in water and fruits canned in juice rather than syrup (she lives alone and no longer has the energy or physical ability to garden). She’s a vegetarian, but buys canned veggie meats and uses the juices from those to make surprisingly delicious vegetarian gravies. Canned veggie water gets used as soup stock, and canned fruit juices get made into interesting variations of fruit punch. Personally I think it’s way better than dumping it down the drain.

Made a spaghetti squash yesterday and decided to save the seeds. Whether I decide to try and sprout them or toast them and eat them is still up for grabs.

Maybe I’ll sprout a few and eat the rest…