Sunday, April 11, 2010

Springboarding from a Spring Onion


I just sat down to take a quick look at my daily blog read and the very first blog inspired me to write this.  I was visiting PVE Design, a blog by a very talented artist whose work you see all over blogland.  Go check her out. She posted on Spring Onions this morning.  I started commenting on it and thought it was getting so long that the comment deserved its own post.

Celebrating Spring plantings, but not necessarily part of my Garden Trek series...

The Green Onion (also known as scallion, spring onion, Welsh onion) is an edible little plant from the genus allium.  The same family as the shallots, but a different species.  My understanding is that the green onion is just a baby version of the ubiquitous large onions.

They are extremely easy to grow.  Here is all you have to do:

  • Buy a pack of starter seed onion from a hardware store or garden center.  You can grow all sorts of varieties:  regular yellow onions, red onions, sweet onion...
  • Place a few of the bulbs about half an inch from the top of some soil in your garden bed or in a pot, wait a couple of weeks and plant some more. By 3 to 4 weeks, you will have a succession of fresh green onions to enjoy.  Just remember to keep the bag of unused bulbs in the refrigerator.
  • Continue to plant as you harvest and you will have fresh green onions through the whole growing season. Don't forget to plant enough to share with the neighbors.
Also be sure to wash it really well inside the folds of the blades. Green onions are notorious for harboring harmful bacteria.  These little fellows are delicious, easy to grow, and they even look good in arrangements, albeit a little stinky.

8 comments:

Karena said...

Aren't they beautiful and so great for spring and summer dishes!

I have an interview with Robert Anders up on my site that is fascinating!

Karena
Art by Karena

pve design said...

Inspiring others is part of my mission, so thank-you for springing into action and posting on Spring Onions too! I love them and I love learning about them too.
Enjoy your onions -
Off to wash mine!
pve

OneCraftyFox said...

I love to garden back home on my parents farm. Hope you are having a lovely weekend!

Splenderosa said...

Hi Catherine, so happy to read this post. Last week I bought my first vegetable plants, tomatoes & parsley - just to see if I could produce a real edible tomato. Now, I shall march out tomorrow and buy some of these. What a crafty idea about putting the green onions in
table decorations. Anyway, I don't think they smell bad. xx's

The Shiny Pebble said...

Hi Karena, can you believe it that I didn't start eating onions or anything onion related until my mid 20's? What a bore!

PVE - I bounced off it as soon as I could. :)


CraftyFox - how absolutelly fantastic that you actually have roots to a real life farm. That is my dream lifestyle

Splenderosa - parsley is awesome because it will come back in the fall and again in the spring. I don't eat tomatoes... long story. :) The onions are so darn easy to grow, they pretty much grow themselves. Good luck with your new planting project.

Anonymous said...

What a colorful addition to salads and more! I've never seen purple spring onions, only the green. We will be planting these in our garden for sure! Thanks Catherine!

The Shiny Pebble said...

Kel, thanks for stopping by. Yay, I introduced you to something new!

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