Comments on: A Word to the Wise: Not Everything You’re Growing in your Kitchen Container Garden is Edible

By: from dirt to dish: making pasta at home. do it!

from dirt to dish: making pasta at home. do it! — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:41:02 +0000

[...] dough. Success! You can do this with the greens from turnips, kohlrabi, etc. Although be careful, because according to an article from Life on the Balcony, carrot greens contain a chemical that is related to caffeine and cocaine, which is either awesome or [...]

By: An Easy Rule of Thumb for Deciding When to Direct Sow

An Easy Rule of Thumb for Deciding When to Direct Sow — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:11:13 +0000

[...] A Word to the Wise: Not Everything You’re Growing in Your Kitchen Garden is Edible [...]

By: Fern

Fern — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:44:05 +0000

Viggies — I think they are mildly poisonous and so if eaten in small quantities, won’t kill you. You might find this article interesting: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2221473/are_carrot_greens_safe_to_eat.html?cat=22

By: Viggies Veggies

Viggies Veggies — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:37:38 +0000

Hmmm color me confused. I always see carrot tops on lists on secondary edibles and know people that eat them.

By: thepoisongarden

thepoisongarden — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:52:51 +0000

Helen,

The idea of not composting rhubarb leaves resulted from the belief that the oxalic acid in the leaves would pass into the compost making it unsuitable for acid-hating plants.

It’s now accepted that the acid breaks down during composting and one of the UK’s leading celebrity gardeners, Alan Titchmarsh, is on record as saying you can compost as much as you like.

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:34:40 +0000

Ok I knew about Rhubarb leaves, but not about carrot and parsnip leaves. Glad you told us. I have read, wish I could remember where, mental pause strikes again, that you shouldn’t put too many Rhubarb leaves in the compost either.

By: Adriana

Adriana — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:43:10 +0000

I’m going to grow a lot more carrots this year.

By: Fern

Fern — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:48:07 +0000

LOL Shawn!

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:04:33 +0000

Mentioning this one might have the opposite response

“Carrot greens contain a chemical that is related to caffeine and cocaine.”

I can see the conversations now, “Uh dude.. why are your teeth green and your fingers orange? Oh my god, are you hopped up on the carrot greens again?! You promised you would stop after that episode at the farmers market!”