Egyptian Onions, or "Walking onions" as they are sometimes called are amazing plants. Last fall a friend gave me some of the "sets" and I just planted them in a pot to wait until I had a place to plant them in the ground. In this photo, they look rather sad, but is because I just got done transplanting them. When they take hold, they will be big and beautiful. Each plant will make a cluster of small bulbs at it's tip and when it is heavy enough, it will fall over and plant each one of those and start it again. You can eat any part of the plant, and the green is very nice in cooking. The little bulblets are fun to use also. They are extremely hardy and require almost no care. For an easily sustainable comestible, I heartily recommend them! Here is a Wiki article if you would like to see other pictures and read a little more about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_onion
Hmmm... "comestible" is an adjective. Oh, well. What I should have said is you can't kill these with a stick! ;-)
Sometimes I marvel at the things I want to learn about, I see the next day on a blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading the Foxfire books. I'm not really sure what's the background with these things, but apparently, in the early 70's a school was formed to train folklorist in the Appalachia area. These interviews were published as a newspaper then later on they were compiled into books.
Last night after working in my garden, I sat outside to enjoy the evening with Foxfire 4 (1 & 2 are only for reference @ our library, so I couldn't check it out!). There was a long interview with several older people (late 80's/early 90's) as to how they gardened when they were children. Each of the interviewees mentioned "walking onions" and described them, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me how they grew. Now I know, thanks to your blog!
Do they grow full sized onions or are they more like a green onion?
What's really great about these interviews is the people are all elderly. So they would have grown up before and during the Depression in a very rural part of America. They would have memories of their grand parents doing things a certain way. Many topics are covered and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of them. I think they are 12 in all.
Ps, this is motherhen68. Stupid blogger won't "verify my open credentials". Whatever, like I"m FBI or something LOL.
:-) I am SO happy to know that I helped you find out something you wanted to know. No, the onion bulb on the bottom never gets very big. My husband and I read several of the Foxfire books years ago. It's great that you have found them. It sounds to me like you and I could be good friends. Thank you for commenting. I hope to hear from you again!
ReplyDeleteI was just tipped off about your blog! I love it. Thanks for taking the time to share such important info with the world. I can't wait to make the kefir pop. My kids will be thrilled.
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased that you like my blog. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure those grow as "weeds" in every yard in N.C.....
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