How to Regrow Your Grocery List and Get Free Food

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Turn your everyday groceries into a continuous supply of fresh produce! Learn how to regrow your grocery list from scraps, regrow food in water, and discover cheap ways to regrow food scraps. Save money, reduce waste, and enjoy a thriving mini garden right from your kitchen!

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With a little creativity and know-how, you can regrow your grocery list and enjoy fresh vegetables without spending a fortune. In this post, I’ll show you how to regrow from scraps you already have at home, regrow food in water, and discover cheap ways to regrow food scraps for your family. By learning these simple techniques, you can turn your everyday grocery list into a continual source of fresh, free produce!

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Buy Organic to Regrow Your Grocery List

It’s best to buy organic vegetables whenever possible, especially if you want to regrow your grocery list successfully. Organic produce tends to have a higher success rate because it hasn’t been chemically treated to prevent sprouting. Choosing healthy organic vegetables gives you the best chance to regrow food in water and explore cheap ways to regrow food scraps, turning your grocery staples into a sustainable, fresh supply.

How to Regrow Your Grocery List

Knowing how to regrow from scraps successfully is the key to building a thriving, self-sustaining garden. I’m sharing the tips and tricks that have helped me regrow food in water and in my garden over and over again—without buying a single seed. Most of these vegetables are staples on any grocery list, making them perfect for anyone looking to regrow your grocery list at home.

The vegetables I’ve chosen are easy to regrow for a continuous harvest, considered essential survival foods, and many are shelf-stable for long-term storage in your pantry. This way, you’re not just saving money—you’re creating a reliable source of fresh, homegrown food from scraps you’d normally toss.

Let’s go over the best vegetables to regrow your grocery list.

Best Vegetables to Regrow Your Grocery List

Potatoes

Regrowing organic potatoes is one of my favorite, low-effort ways to regrow from scraps and get free food from what I already have on hand. If you’ve got a sprouting potato in your pantry, don’t toss it—plant it! I start by cutting the potato into chunks, making sure each piece has at least one healthy “eye” (those little sprouting spots), then let them dry for a day to prevent rot.

Next, I plant them about 4 inches deep in a garden bed or a large container filled with loose, well-draining soil—perfect for small spaces, decks, or patios. As the plants grow, I gradually add more soil or straw to “hill them up,” which encourages bigger tuber growth. Within a few months, I’m harvesting homegrown, organic potatoes—saving money and skipping the store entirely. This is one of the easiest ways to regrow your grocery list while enjoying fresh, organic produce right at home!

Learn more about growing potatoes in my other posts:

Sweet Potatoes

Growing sweet potato slips is a fun, hands-on way to regrow from scraps and expand your grocery list for free. I start with a healthy, unpeeled organic sweet potato and place it in a jar of water—either suspended with toothpicks or laid flat in a shallow dish—so that about half is submerged. I set it in a sunny window, and within a couple of weeks, leafy shoots called “slips” start to sprout. I also started regrowing the slips in soil in my indoor mini greenhouses. You can check out how I do this in my post in the link below.

When the slips reach 4–6 inches, I gently twist them off and place each one in its own jar of water to grow roots. Once they develop a strong root system, I transplant them into the garden or a large container. With this method, regrowing food in water turns a single sweet potato into dozens of plants, giving you a continuous supply of fresh, organic vegetables without buying new ones!

Learn more about how to grow sweet potatoes from potatoes: How to Grow Sweet Potatoes from Potatoes

Garlic (one head grows 10 to 12 garlic plants)

Image illustrates how to regrow your grocery list with garlic.

Garlic is hands-down one of the easiest crops to regrow from scraps and a fantastic way to regrow your grocery list. I grow a year’s worth of garlic every year—without buying a single garlic seed! One head of garlic can produce 10 to 12 garlic plants, which is incredible considering I started my garden using regular garlic from the grocery store.

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I typically keep at least 500 garlic cloves in my fall garden bed each year, producing enough garlic for my family’s needs. To do this, I plant about 50 heads of garlic saved from the previous harvest or bought from the store. Doing a little math ensures you plant the right amount to meet your yearly needs.

If you’re buying garlic from the store, grab a few extra heads to plant in the fall. By saving some cloves for the next season, you can create a continuous, homegrown supply of garlic—cheap ways to regrow food scraps that keeps your pantry stocked without ever needing to buy garlic again!

Growing Garlic Bulbils

Garlic can be grown as a perennial. I love growing a regularly massive garlic bed to harvest in the summer; however, I also love growing garlic plants around my small cottage homestead in the form of garlic bulbils.

Garlic bulbils are tiny garlic seeds that can be planted in the soil in spring in areas where you want the garlic to produce consistently. Growing garlic from bulbils helps me keep garlic plants around my cottage homestead in areas where I can harvest garlic whenever I want.

Also, planting the garlic bulbils around the perimeter of my cottage brick home and around the fruit trees helps me fight against annoying garden pests that cause harm to my fruit trees and prevent bugs from coming into my home from the strong garlic perimeter presence planted around my home.

I talk more about growing garlic in my backyard orchard in this post!

Surprising Benefits of Growing Garlic Around Your Fruit Trees

Growing garlic bulbils requires a two-year growing season. Plant garlic in areas that you plan not harvest in the short term and allow garlic to grow in its perennial nature to produce garlic bulbil seeds that you can harvest in the spring.

Growing garlic as a perennial in certain areas of your garden can help massively increase your free garlic production for a massive harvest each year, and you will never have to buy garlic ever again! Plant garlic cloves or bulbils in an area you plan to designate permanently for your garlic harvest. Plan for at least two growing seasons for your garlic to begin to produce free garlic on its own for you.

Growing Garlic as Perennials

Image illustrates how to regrow your grocery list with garlic bulbils.

When you set aside garlic plants to allow them to go to seed, you will soon have yourself a perennial garlic garden. Garlic produces seeds called garlic bulbils, which drop into the ground to reseed themselves for a continuous garlic harvest that you get to reap and enjoy. This effort is worth your time to produce free garlic for your cooking needs, and you will never need to add garlic to your grocery list ever again.

Onions

If your onions have started to sprout green shoots, you’re in luck—this is the perfect opportunity to regrow from scraps and keep onions off your grocery list! If your onions haven’t sprouted yet, just let a few sit in a sunny spot in your pantry a few weeks before spring, and watch them start sending up greenery. Mine naturally do this every year!

Once your onions have sprouted, you can multiply them easily. Most will produce three individual green shoots. Carefully separate the sprouts without disturbing the roots. Cut the green shoots from the onion and divide them into three sections according to how the roots grow, making sure to keep the root tips intact.

The key is to peel down to the center sprouts without cutting off the roots—so don’t slice your onion the usual way. By following these steps, you can regrow food in water or soil, creating a continuous supply of homegrown onions and saving money while keeping your pantry stocked!

Image illustrates how to regrow your grocery list with onions.

You can dice up the onion and use it in your dinner recipe on the day of separating your onion shoots.

Once you separate your onion shoots, plant them in separate containers if your garden is not ready. Otherwise, go ahead and plant them directly into your garden.

When I regrow a sprouted onion, I usually get green onion-like tops at first, which are perfect for snipping and using fresh in recipes. If I plant the whole sprouted bulb in soil, root end down, and just the tip peeking out, it continues to grow.

Over time, the bulb may split and form ne,w smaller onions, especially if it’s a variety suited for your growing season and climate. While it may not form a full-size onion again (especially in a container or short season), I often end up with a few small bulbs or lots of edible greens. Either way, it’s free food from something I might’ve thrown away—and that’s a win in my book!

You can learn more about growing onions in your garden: How to Grow Onions for Storage

Dried Beans

Dried beans are one of the easiest foods to regrow from scraps and add back to your grocery list for free. Whenever you buy beans—green beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, or pinto beans—set a few aside for planting in your spring garden. These simple seeds will sprout and grow into fresh beans ready for harvest. I like to focus on the types my family uses most in home-cooked meals, so I always plan my planting around our favorites.

Keep your dried beans in a separate container specifically for planting, so you always know how much to sow each year. With this method, you’re not just regrowing food in water or soil—you’re creating a cycle of free, homegrown produce and truly regrowing your grocery list one seed at a time!

I talk more about having beans in your garden and pantry in this post: Stock Your Survival Garden with Bush Beans Seeds

Conclusion

Regrowing your grocery list is one of the simplest and most rewarding ways to save money, reduce waste, and practice self-sufficiency right at home. By regrowing food in water—like sprouting green onions in a jar, rooting sweet potato slips on your windowsill, or planting potatoes in a bucket—you’re turning everyday kitchen scraps into a steady supply of fresh produce.

I’ve discovered that once you start with just one item, it quickly becomes a habit, and before long, your regrow from scraps efforts can fill your home with a mini garden bursting with possibilities. Start small, stay curious, and watch as you regrow your grocery list into a sustainable, free food source!

For more of my food security resources, check out my resource hub: Food Security Resources.

Resources: Here are some helpful resources for further information.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I regrow food without a garden?

Yes! Many foods like green onions, lettuce, basil, and celery regrow beautifully in jars or small containers indoors—no backyard needed.

2. Do I need organic produce to regrow food?

Organic is ideal because non-organic produce may be treated with growth inhibitors. That said, some conventionally grown veggies still sprout—give it a try!