3 Fun, Easy Ways to Grow Your Own Food in Your Kitchen

Now that warm weather is setting in, do you find yourself perusing farmers' markets and fantasizing about growing your own super fresh, organic produce? Only to remember you hardly have a room for a garden, let alone a green thumb?

Good news: These cool products can help you grow stuff to eat, no matter how much (or little) space you have, or how serious (or not) your gardening skills. You may not be able to get your "five a day" with these, but hey, it's a start. Plus, they're a fun, tasty way to teach kids about where healthy fruits and vegetables comes from: the ground!

Herbs

Growing fresh herbs is as easy as opening a can with this simple kit from Garden-in-a-Can ($12, amazon.com). It comes with organic seeds, nutrient-rich soil, organic fertilizer, and biochar, which helps aerate the soil and manage moisture in case of over-watering. Open the can, plant the seeds in the provided soil, water, and place in a sunny spot; in about seven days, you’ll have basil for your pizza or cilantro for your salsa.

Mushrooms

Do your kids scrunch up their noses at the idea of eating fungi? This cool Organic Mushroom Mini Farm ($18.25, amazon.com) will give you at least a fighting chance to get them more interested. Open the box, spray it with water twice daily, and in 10 days you get a crop of organic oyster mushrooms. We bet the kiddos will at least want to try a bite after a week-plus of watching them grow.

Strawberries

This Alpine Strawberry Garden-in-a-Pail ($29, hooksandlattice.com) set is designed to be child-friendly, but you don’t need one to enjoy it. It comes with a recycled steel pail, strawberry seeds, a light soil, coconut husks to aid drainage, and a pair of kids’ gardening gloves. Plant the seeds and you'll get pretty heart-shaped leaves and flowers and then, of course, strawberries (though it’s possible that fruit won’t show up until the second season, so don't count on shortcake right away).