Saturday, March 24, 2007

Winter Onions


Don over at An Iowa Garden has been posting pictures of all the beautiful little early spring flowers that are poking their heads through the leaf litter in his yard. Since it was in the 60's here yesterday (!!!) I took the opportunity to take a walk through my yarden and see what was going on. You can imagine my surprise to see these things peeking out of my herb bed!




I remember planting some green onion bulbs last summer before the herbs got too full. But, as you can see, they quickly disappeared beneath the chaos and so I forgot about them.

Several years ago I bought some "winter onions" from Millie Madsen. She told me to plant them and forget them and they will winter over and come up in spades the next year. And let me tell you - she wasn't lying! They totally took over my behind-the-garage garden. They literally spread all over the place. And, frankly, I didn't care for the flavor as they are very strong.

So, when I pulled these yesterday, I knew for sure that I'd gotten hold of some winter onions. Whew! They may be small, but man, are they mighty! Now I have to decide what to do with these puppies. I'm thinking French Onion Soup. Or maybe the compost pile.

9 comments:

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Surprising what grows in the cold of winter isn't it?

Sally said...

Hi Tanna - Yea; I don't understand why they don't just die!

Green thumb said...

Hi Sally,these small onions can be pickled in vinegar.They are very commonly used as accompaniment to the main course in Indian cuisine.

Sally said...

Hi GT - That would be something I could do. It might alleviate the strong flavor too. Thanks for the idea.

Helene said...

Hello Sally,
thanks for the hint that the pics where swallowed somehow. I loaded them again.
http://neuesausderkueche.blogspot.com/2007/03/zwergentaschen-dwarfsbags.html
So now you can see how they look like.

A wildlife gardener said...

Thanks for your comments on my blog, Sally. I've had no time to blog recently, only to post my photo a day and my watercolours, as my two sons and my beautiful Chinese daughter-in-law were visiting us.

I think French onion soup sounds great. Save a bowl for me!

Sally said...

Hi WG - Tanna suggested I saute them before I totally committed to Fr. Onion Soup. Let's just say they are now lying in a shallow, unmarked grave in the compost pile. Whew!

Anonymous said...

hello i have been growing and eating these onions for many years they do get strong toward the middle of june but they are real mild in the spring as green onions and when they do get hot we just use them for cooking, they are easy to grow and i just put the top sets in a small 3 foot space each fall and move the spots around from year to year it works great ---MAC

Sally said...

Hello MAC - Quite a few people around here specifically grow winter onions as their all-around onion. I wonder if it might be an "acquired" taste! Thanks for stopping by.