Walking Onions Galore, A Love Affair

It's been another amazing year with these heirloom North American native perennial onions. They're easy to propagate, don't need fertilizer, and are pest resistant. They're super easy to grow organically. I'm getting very creative with them; we haven't bought onions for a couple of years and that's a small locovore triumph for us!

In late July I harvested the top set bulbs. There are plenty for fall planting and for sharing with friends. 

At the end of July the 'parent' onions were cut back and the bed was cleaned up. Already, they're sprouting green tops again - our first salad onions of early fall. 

Here are my favorite ways to use these onions in garden and kitchen, plus a recap of our year with Thomas Jefferson's "Tree Onions."

USES

1. Inter-plant top sets with cucumber and squash vines to help hold off the squash bugs. Their strong scent confuses the bugs; marigolds make great companion planting partners with the onions. As the cuc season winds down, harvest and enjoy eating the tender green onions. If you leave a few in the bed, no worries - they'll come back next spring for an early season harvest. 

2. Mix the top sets into the fall lettuce planting in late summer for delicious and tender fall green onions. This companion planting can help deter flea beetles. 

3. Pickle the top sets! 

Look for the recipe in my previous blog post. 

4. Make a modern version of Grandma's Creamed Potatoes: Peel and steam the top sets with new potatoes until just tender, then gently stir them into a cream sauce. Top with shredded cheese and fresh parsley. YUM - A hearty and different side dish for your next barbecue.

5. Plant the top sets around the edges of your fall/winter greens bed, cover the bed with 6 mm greenhouse plastic over PVC pipe hoops and enjoy green onions all winter. 

6. Continuing from #5: In spring, allow bulbs to grow larger.

Harvest in May and use the bulbs as slicing onions; chop and freeze the green tops in ziploc bags for adding to stock. 

THE ONION YEAR

Winter: 

If your bed is set up as a low hoop house, harvest and enjoy onions from the established parent group.  If not, dream and plan how you'll change it up for next winter!

This was my harvest on Jan. 19:

They cleaned up beautifully!

Spring: 

In late February or early March, check for signs of new growth; trim and remove dead stalks.  To jump-start a dormant onion bed, put greenhouse plastic over PVC  hoops to warm the soil quicker. You'll have onions a month earlier this way. 

The winter of 2013-14 we left the bed uncovered, then added plastic in March. Our walking onions are just coming out of winter dormancy in this photo. A week later, we were harvesting fresh green onions!

SUMMER

Top sets start forming in late May, and continue to grow until late July. The stalks bend over, and the whole bed looks wild and a bit unruly! Keep them watered for larger sets.

I'm amazed I don't have a photo of this stage, but here's one from Dave Whitinger posted to Wikimedia Commons.

Summer is also the time to use top sets for companion plantings (see #1 and 2 in USES). Poke the little bulbs into the soil just to cover, and keep watered. 

In late July, when stalks in the parent bed have bent over and are drying out, harvest all top sets (or leave where they dropped in the bed if you're trying to 

increase the density of your bed). Trim back all mature stalks to 4". Water the bed if weather is dry. New sprouts will start in a week or two. Top sets can be stored in a single layer on trays in a cool dry location indoors for several weeks until ready to plant. If using for cooking, store in a closed container in refrigerator. 

FALL

Harvest newly sprouted green tops for salads and stir frys. Interplant top sets with fall greens. As winter approaches, cover parent bed with plastic over PVC hoops or simply leave the bed as is until spring. Harvest a few bulbs from mature parent bed for Creamed Onions at Thanksgiving. 

Enjoy your Walking Onions with gratitude for all of Nature's bounty. 

Pickled Walking Onions

Yesterday I harvested our walking onion tops, and there were lots! I took out the largest 100 or so for fall planting, and here's what was left: 

There are plenty to share with friends, and to make pickles. My favorite recipe is a refrigerator pickle that we slice and use as salad topping. 

I admit, the hardest thing about this recipe is peeling those tiny onions, but it's worth the effort!

Sweet-Hot Walking Onions

Onion topsets to fill 8 oz jar, blanched and peeled

2/3 cup rice vinegar

1tbsp honey

1/2 tsp mustard seed

1/4 tsp turmeric powder 

1bay leaf

1 dried whole cayenne pepper, cut in half

Mix vinegar, honey, salt, herbs and spices; heat to simmer. Pour over onions in 8 oz canning jar. Cap with plastic lid; let stand on counter until cooled. Store in refrigerator, shaking occasionally. Ready to enjoy in 1week.

Let's Make Lotion

With all the chemicals in commercial lotions these days, I'm truly grateful for this method I adapted from Rosemary Gladstar's lovely book, Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health. My skin loves this herbal lotion, and I love knowing exactly what's in it.

My Comfrey-Calendula Lotion starts with herb-infused olive oil.  Pick fresh comfrey leaves and flowers and calendula blossoms on a sunny day, chop and pack lightly into a canning jar. 

Add olive oil to cover. Place jar in crock pot, add hot water around jar and let slowly heat for 12-24 hours. Here's a pic of that set-up in my blog entry, "Plantain, the First-Aid Weed:"

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTs4RVwmbr-VRkU4T9ugK8mqRaRK2McFOD9pONDHzo1uJTxp15j3Fz7xk24gS-1D-rSQjUOeEPqZif_TQz7CKx-seqogAMo5lPyZBeXzl2YA62uiwZ89AFioDWfHM5XcX3mWhwRrgCfc/s1600/P1010312.JPG. Strain the oil. Discard the herbs. 

Place 4 oz. infused oil, 1/2 oz. beeswax and the contents of a few vitamin E capsules in a Mason jar in a small saucepan; add water around jar. Stir over low heat until beeswax melts. Pour into blender; let cool slightly. Add a few drops essential oils and flower essences if you like. Stir together rose water and aloe vera gel to make 1/4 cup and pour slowly into blender with motor running.  Blend until just thickened. Pour into clean jar and store in refrigerator. 

Still not sure how to make lotion, or just want to watch the process your first time? Message me or post a comment here to sign up for my Herbal Intensive. It's a fun and jam-packed afternoon of life skills and learning in my garden with the plants. 

These Herbs are Waking Up

On my daily walk about the yard today, I found these herb friends just coming out of their winter sleep. To my neighbors, most of these guys are weeds but to my family they're superstars of the spring garden, providing cheap and nutritious food and remedies.  

Stinging Nettle, a vitamin and mineral powerhouse, is used in 

infusion (a strong tea infused overnight) for adrenal exhaustion and in tinctures as a 

remedy for allergies. The young tops are tasty steamed or sauteed like spinach.

Young Dandelion leaves will be ready to saute next week.  This one is growing
under greenhouse plastic, so has a head start on those outside the beds.
Rich in minerals, Dandelions give a healthy springtime boost to the liver and
kidneys after a season of rich, warming holiday foods.

Bloody Dock (Rumex sanquineus) is astringent, tonic and a rich source of iron.
Add tender young leaves to salads for a tangy flavor. Due to the
oxalic acid content, avoid Bloody Dock if you have a history of kidney stones.

The first leaf of Victoria Rhubarb unfolds under greenhouse plastic. Challenging to grow in Kansas,
Rhubarb requires adequate sun but needs protection from extreme summer heat. Rhubarb contains
antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and can help maintain regularity and lower cholesterol.
AND - it adds an amazing springtime flavor when mixed into apple or berry crisp!

 Here's one more friend who has grown faithfully in the gardens all winter, even under snow.

Winter Chives - despised by some as a lawn weed - go dormant in the heat of summer,
then begin to grow in late fall as temperatures drop.  They produce tender,
phytonutrient-rich tops for dressings and garnish all winter long
while traditional chives lie dormant underground.

Ready for Spring

My seedlings are growing, we've had some warm days, and I'm itching to play in the dirt!  I love spring planting time; we've kept ourselves busy indoors and out as we dreamed of warmer - and longer - days.

INDOORS:

Our kitchen growing center consists of bargain rack and
shelves from Home Depot, with inexpensive grow mats
and humidity tent from Indoor Gardening Supplies.com.

On the rack, above:  collards, broccoli raab, red mustard, arugula, blue kale, Tuscan black kale, calendula, borage, and lettuces. All of these seedlings are cold-season plants that will be happy outdoors soon after Spring Equinox.

OUTDOORS:

Our perennial onions get a head start at the end of winter with greenhouse plastic
over PVC hoops.  Next week, we'll start harvesting green onions from this bed.

Onions are high in vitamins and phytonutrients for immune-boosting and detoxifying benefits.  Perennial Walking Onions are super easy to grow and multiply quickly; we started this bed 2 years ago with a single clump purchased at the farmers' market. 

Chives grow quickly in late winter weather under an overturned 

aquarium, my substitute for an expensive glass cloche.

Chives are high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that promote heart and bone health and fight cancer.  Once established, perennial herbs such as chives are very easy to grow and can be long-lived.  Ours came from my mother's garden, and were started by my grandmother nearly 40 years ago.

Everlasting Kale?

The garden holds many surprises.   I'm sharing my seed-saving tips for cabbage-type plants again, with an update on one incredible "dwarf" Blue Curled Kale plant.  

Our beautiful 3-year-old kale plant - July 25, 2013.

Never did I expect that this plant would still be with us, but it's here and going strong after 3 summers and 2 cold and snowy winters.  We’ve had 2 years of seed production from this everlasting friend, and its blossoms nourished many bees and pollinating flies again this spring.  Who would have known that a member of the humble cabbage family would have such longevity programmed within.  I'm wondering if the seeds will have this characteristic, too. 

Kale Blossoms

My kale friend thrives in a well-developed food web in our garden, where Mother Nature has some built-in pest controls.  This single plant fed generations of white cabbage butterflies; I use it as both a lure and a relocation plant, saving the new crop of kales in the vegetable garden from being ravaged by waves of voracious caterpillars.  Those "pesky" butterfly larvae feed the birds - this kale is regularly visited by cardinals and house finches, who gobble up the fat worms. Predatory wasps also hang out in the kale, where they lunch on plant-eating insects.  Today, I pay tribute to one surprising plant friend and agent of biodiversity in our organic gardens. 

SAVING SEEDS MAKES GARDENING AFFORDABLE

Kale seeds are ready for  harvest - July 18, 2012.

July 18, 2012:  My organic Blue Curled Kales shared a bountiful seed crop this week. I grow out just one member of the cabbage family each spring, since they happily cross-pollinate with their cousins. Kale is a biennial which grows a stout rosette the first year, then sends up a flowering stalk the second. I started these plants from Botanical Interests Seeds back in January of 2011. When 3 of these guys lived through last winter, I knew we’d get seeds this season.  

The tall flower stalks fed countless bees and butterflies this spring while adding structural interest in the flower garden. When kale is ripe, the pods turn brittle and shatter easily, releasing the dark colored seeds. Immature pods are soft and pliable. Resist the urge to harvest before the pods are brittle; they may mold due to their higher moisture content and when planted later on, fewer seeds will germinate.  To harvest, hold a bowl under the seed pod and rub it open to release the seeds into the bowl.  Remove the bits of pod, let the seeds sit in the bowl on your counter for a day or two to make sure they’re dry, then package in paper envelopes and label with seed type and date. When properly harvested and stored in dry, dark conditions like a closet shelf, kale seeds can be kept for up to 5 years.

Kale Seeds

I harvested nearly 1 oz. of seed in about 10 minutes last night.  That’s the equivalent of 9 seed packets in the store!  At $1.60 a pkt, I have $15 worth of seed in this batch.  As we learn to close the loop to our own sustainability through activities such as seed saving, gardening becomes both affordable and empowering.  Happy Harvesting!

If seed saving isn't your thing yet, seed from this very plant is currently for sale on my Healing Garden Herbs Etsy shop.  Happy Shopping!

Lettuce in Hot Weather

Lettuce is a cool season annual. When the weather turns hot, it becomes bitter and inedible so here in Kansas lettuce season is nearly over.  Since we still have lots of lettuce in the garden, I’m keeping it tender and sweet with a couple of tricks.  

PVC hoops, attached to the beds with pipe bands, are perfect supports.

Mid-morning just before the sun hits the bed, I cover it with old white sheets, then soak the sheets with the garden hose. Evaporation and shade cover keep the lettuces cool.  In the late afternoon when our trees shade the bed, the sheets are removed. 

Our lettuce bed in cool May weather.

We're growing Forellenschluss, Slobolt, Red Sails, and Buttercrunch.  Forellenschluss is least heat tolerant so I'm using it up first.  Slobolt will be used last, to see if it lives up to its name. 

       

Slobolt lettuce under shade cover.

Buttercrunch head grown from seed saved last year.

I harvest in the early morning, when the leaves are crisp and least bitter.  All leaves are cut from the stem and plunged immediately into a bowl of cold water. They stand for 10-20 minutes to bleed out the latex, the bitter white juice. I drain the water out of the bowl, cover loosely with a plastic bag, and put immediately in the refrigerator.  Lettuce prepared this way is delicious and keeps well for about a week.