🥕 Using the Whole Vegetable

I’ve been listening to the BBC food programmes recently, and they keep highlighting how much of a vegetable we throw away without realising it can be eaten. I grow lots of carrots and beetroot, yet the green tops often end up in the compost — but they’re delicious and versatile.

Using the whole vegetable means cooking parts like stems, leaves and peels that are normally discarded. Popular examples include carrot tops, beet greens, and broccoli stems. It reduces food waste, saves money, and adds new flavours to your meals.

🌿 Ideas for Using Every Part

🥕 Carrot Tops

Blend into a fresh herb pesto or chimichurri.

🥦 Broccoli & Kale Stems

Chop and add to stir‑fries, soups or slaws.

🍃 Beet & Radish Greens

Sauté like spinach or use raw in salads.

🧅 Vegetable Peels & Ends

Save onion skins, carrot peels and herb stalks in a freezer bag to make a rich homemade stock.

🎃 Pumpkin & Squash Seeds

Clean, roast and enjoy as a protein‑rich snack. A great way to use more of the crop.

🍅 Dehydrating Your Harvest

Dehydrating tomatoes is an excellent way to store the summer glut for winter use. Tomatoes with a high pulp content work best, but all types can be dehydrated.

Dehydrators start from around £100, though many air fryers now include a dehydration setting.

🥣 Got Too Many?

We all try to grow just enough veg, but somehow we end up with mountains of carrots, courgettes and tomatoes. Freezing is always an option, but soups are a brilliant way to use them too.

At this time of year, I make courgette and tomato soup, and having grown a bumper crop of carrots, I’ve just tried carrot soup with great success.

If you’d like the recipes for Tomato, Courgette & Dolcelatte or Carrot & Coriander soup, visit our website:

🌐 whgga.org → Plot to Plate

You can download them directly from the page.

📬 Share Your Recipes

If you have a great idea for using a glut of fruit or veg, or simply a favourite chutney recipe, email it to:

📧 whgaa2801@gmail.com

It may be added to the website for others to enjoy.

🫐 Protect Your Fruit

Cover fruit bushes as they ripen — pigeons and blackbirds will happily help themselves.

Raspberries are usually safe, but strawberries, currants and blueberries will be guzzled if left uncovered.

🌸 Flowers in August

🌼 Sweet Peas

At their peak now. Pick regularly and remove spent flowers and seed pods.

🌺 Gladioli

At their best from mid‑July through August. Excellent for allotments and superb as cut flowers.

✂️ Deadheading

Continue deadheading all flowering plants to keep things tidy and prolong the season.

🏷️ August Sale

• 50% off selected lines
• Sunflower seed packets — 50p

🌻 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary