Edible parts of plants

[solarliving]

I notice when I'm juicing or even just cutting up vegetables, there is always something I am tossing out, such as the stems, skins, seeds etcc.. There are things I'm not used to eating, like grape seeds and find out they're packed with nutrition. I would like to utilize the whole food as much as possible because I do believe there is a synergy that takes place between each portion. And.. I don't want to waste anything that might be useful. As I was cutting up my pineapple today, I wondered if I could eat the green leaves? Anyone juice these up or use in green smoothies? If anyone has some unusual thing you eat that most people throw away, please share.

[solarliving]

Ok, I answered my own question. Thought I would share this:

Stephan’s mission is to educate people about the tons and tons of edible leaves that we throw away. He says leaves exemplify "cycling;" that is, using something that's already here but not being used.

Leaves are not just ornaments on trees; they are the plants’ organs which specialize in photosynthesis. These leaves we throw away are rich in phyto-nutrients. Stephan says “Perhaps the single most important thing we could do to help end world hunger (not to mention malnutrition and obesity) is to export some of the MILLIONS OF TONS of edible leaves we throw away each year!”

Did you know that strawberry, papaya, pineapple, beet, carrot, celery, pomegranate, coconut, pepper, sweet potato, cucumber, mung, parsnip, leek, onion, garlic, bamboo, and Jerusalem oak leaves are edible? To name a few. I’ve not seen a coconut or pineapple leaf, have you? And how many times have we all thrown away the top of a sprouting onion instead of using it?

“The tragedy is that while most of these are mass produced, the leaves are mass discarded.” The Department of Agriculture database says beet leaves have more vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B-1, vitamin B-2, niacin, calcium, potassium, omega 3, and protein than the red beets we eat.

[sport]

I bought nice organic carrots in the farmers market 2 weeks ago and made carrot and ginger crackers using the leaves from the entire bunch and about 4 of the carrots.
I buy the bunch of radishes just to get the leaves. I just tolerate the radish finly chopped in my salad

[luckitri]

OK, then I need much more education. I had no clue that radish leaves are edible. I also thought that carrot greens are poisonous. How can I learn?

I LOVE beet greens. Glad to know they are so good.

[Ama]

Check out this site for some interesting information: http://www.rawgetarian.com/

Look under Blenders & Dehydrators... they speak about blending the whole food, melons with seeds, fruits with pits, keeping the white skin on lemons, oranges and grapefruits etc.