Do you have guilt when tossing away your carrots tops, beet greens or snap pea shells?
No need to! When you’re spending your hard earned money on organic produce you don’t need to toss away the tops or ends. They can be used in multiple ways and are fully loaded with nutrition!
Here is a list of produce that is typically tossed away and SOME ideas so you can use ALL of the produce you buy! Click on the pictures to check out pages of some folks who will give you inspirational ideas and recipes for using your loose ends!
Carrot tops- Cut off tops of carrots and store in a bag in the fridge to use later when making a juice or make a pesto!
Beet greens- Cut off tops of beets and store in a bag in the fridge to use later when making a juice or chop up and throw in the skillet with some butter, garlic, salt and pepper!
Strawberry tops- Let strawberry tops sit in a pitcher of water to get strawberry-infused water.
Broccoli stems- peel and chop up and use in stir fry or roasted.
Cauliflower stems- chop up for stir fry or juice or great roasted too
Lemon or orange peels- use to for household cleaning products!
Leek greens- rinse well, chop fine, and braise or saute with butter and garlic. Why not substitute scallions with them. Maybe throw them in a fried rice dish?
Snap pea shells- use in a stir fry!
You can also collect all your odd and end scraps and save them in a freezer bag to make veggie stock!
WHHHATT?!?!? How awesome and yummy is that? We found a tasty recipe to follow on Oh My Veggies (How much do you love that name?).
Or you can start composting!! Which you can later use in your own garden. This is a seriously cool experience and you greatly reduce your waste by not throwing produce odds and ends in the trash. Throw them back into the earth! There are ways to be an urban composter and it’s not as much work as you think. There are several easy to use products out here, but this one will give you an idea of how easy it really is. You can use your own soil for flowers or planting herbs, or give it away to your green thumb friends! 
A little extra work will help you reduce your footprint and really get your full monies worth! We love our greens just as much as we love being green!