Quick to grow food plant?

[clare8allthepies]

My daughter has been set a homework task to cook something using a food that she has grown herself.

She’s got 5 weeks, apart from cress is there anything that will grow enough to cook with between now and then? Can you tell that I’m not much of a gardener? 🤣

Tomatoes?

Rocket?

Mung beans and sprouts (not Brussels 🤣) in a jar of water. Then a nice veggie stir fry.

You cannot grow tomatoes from seed that produce fruit in 5 weeks!

@clare8allthepies here are 20 options

You haven't said how old she is so this may not work but basil then make pesto

Lettuce is fast growing

Peas - may produce in 5 weeks but otherwise you could use the leaves and tendrils as pea shoots

Strawberry plants already in flower would produce strawberries

I think there is some stuff online about growing food from offcuts which could work

Radishes! I planted some radish seeds a week ago in a pot that I’ve kept indoors so far and the green part is over an inch tall already! I planted 20 and only 12 have come up though so would recommend planting more than you need.

Bransprouts

separate garlic cloves and place in a shallow dish with water. It will send out green stem that looks like chive, tastes like mild garlic and can be used in salads as well as a sprinkle on food. Also sturdy

That should be ‘stir fry’

@Arregaithel that’s really helpful, thank you! I’ll have a look at the supermarket later to see if they have any plants but I’ll probably go to the garden centre tomorrow to find something

Nasturtiums. Personally I think they taste how caterpillars smell, but you can eat the leaves in salad.

Chives are quick growing as well, an 11 egg omelette flavoured with chives would be good. ( sorry wrong thread! 🙂)

Radish - difficult veg to start with perhaps

cress - egg and cress

some salad leaves

but some plug in strawberry plants with flowers just starting - strawberry tart? Much more fun

@CCSS15She loves pesto, that’s a great idea! I do actually have a basil plant on the kitchen windowsill but I don’t think that you would get a lot of pesto out of that 🤣

Radish is easy to grow from seed and it’s quick, I started some 5 weeks ago and I’m just harvesting mine now.

lettuce leaves, or maybe as others have suggested things like carrot top sprouts etc

Some of the options on that list of 20 are a bit ambitious for a beginner needing something reliable.

I am in the beansprout and microgreens camp - I have them going all summer for salads and stirfrys. I get mine here. https://skysprouts.co.uk/product/organic-mixed-bean-seed/

Are you kidding? Do you know how long they take from seed? Even if she bought a young plant from a garden centre, it’d almost certainly be many weeks before there were ripe tomatoes.

As a pp suggested, rocket is true to its name! Only make sure you get the right seed - there are different varieties and I don’t think they all germinate quickly and grow like weeds.

I was just thinking out loud! They’ve always grown quickly for me.

Does it have to be from seed? If not, then cucumbers grow quickly. I planted cucumber plants two weeks ago and they already have flowers and tiny little baby cucumbers. Cucumbers are my favourite vegetable to grow, they produce 1 or 2 cucumbers per week throughout the summer.

Alternatively, you could buy rosemary or mint which are pretty much ready to go.

You can grow lettuce, celery, spring onions and leeks in water on the window cill? Sill? Have totally forgotten how to spell that ledge bit on the window they all take around 2 weeks.

I find it so bizarre that the school would set such homework without giving the children ideas about what foods they could grow! What about the DC whose parents don't help them with stuff?

Rubbish of the school to give homework which for most kids will require money and adult help.

In 5 weeks you could grow lettuce if you do the mixed leaves type and grow it on a windowsill. Basil is relatively easy to get hold of, split a live supermarket one into a couple of pots and pinch off the top leaves of the plant to encourage it to grow bushier.
Chives grow quite quickly too.

First thought was radish, but they can taste hot and peppery to children. You can roast them though which mellows them.

Pea shoots is another one where you just cut off the stems for a salad and they keep growing.

If they don't need to be grown from seed, many plants will regrow from the base. Spring onions, celery, asian green veg like bok choy etc. Its also free to use the waste bits.

www.ruralsprout.com/regrow-vegetables/

Given the the average time from seed to fruiting is 100 days and even the fastest are 80+ days, I'm calling that a non-starter.

Radish, rocket, cut and come again salad leaves, microgreens and mung beans (beansprouts) are all reliably usable in under 3 weeks so should give her plenty of time.

Herbs like basil and coriander can do very well depending on the conditions. Parsley's more temperamental unless you start with a small plant.

I already posted upthread about radish, pea shoots and using the rooty end of shop veg which will re grow.

These spring onions were used/chopped up 2 days ago then sat in water and already have re-growth. I've now planted them outside in soil and they will be usable in a few weeks to cut again.

The radishes and pea shoots were planted just over 2 weeks ago- both from seed. The radishes need thinning out and haven't developed a bulb as yet. The pea shoots could even be cut now, but ideally I'd wait till longer.

IF you are able to use seedlings as a start and not just seeds, my strawberries are flowering now, so if you got some with flowers, they'd be ready in time.