Thursday, March 15, 2012

Windowsill Garden: Green Onions

I wanted to give you a quick update on one of the most surprising and successful aspects of our windowsill gardening experiment. I'll be writing a more detailed update with an analysis of the whole experiment soon.

I found an idea on Pinterest that seemed almost too simple and easy to be true. By placing the white ends of green onions in a glass of water, we could grow new green onions. This meant that we would have a steady supply of fresh green onions for practically free, considering we usually just tossed those root ends. After only few days in the water, the onions showed some promising growth:

Green onion

And now, a month or so later, we've got more green onions than we know what to do with!

I'm working on figuring out what the best technique for harvesting is. It seems that we need to cut as close to the white part of the plant as possible; each root piece sends up several stalks of onion. The root systems have grown to provide a stable base at the bottom of the glass - one of the initial challenges was keeping the pieces propped up (not just floating around in the water!).

These taste just as good as the ones we grew them from, and so far we've expended no more effort than changing the water every few days. I was worried they might taste somehow watered down thanks to being re-grown, but that hasn't been the case. We've been able to use the entire green stalk that we harvest (I usually discard part of the greens from the store because they are too wilted).

We used the onions in this orange wheatberry salad, and in a few other dishes so far. This is definitely something I would suggest trying - although green onions aren't expensive, you can grow your own for practically free!

Do you have any tricks like this? Are there other kitchen scraps that can actually be re-grown?

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6 comments:

  1. This. Is. Awesome.

    Seriously doing this once I use the green bits of the onions I have in the fridge!

    Also, I love mason jars, so this totally up my alley.

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you like it! It works really well. I thought the mason jar would be cute :)

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  2. Uhm, this is incredible! I love love love green onions. I will be giving this a try as I have both green onions and an empty glass jar to use. If this works it'll save me like $4 a month off my grocery bill but every dollar counts so I'll take it ;)

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    1. Let me know how it works for you - it was much easier than I ever imagined!
      Haha - I know, it saves us maybe a few dollars a month, but getting something for free versus paying for it? Easy decision :) I also think we use them more often since we always have some on hand.

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  3. Omg who knew ? NOT me ... but I am totally doing this I can't wait ;)
    Thanks for the info

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  4. Omg who knew ? NOT me ... but I am totally doing this I can't wait ;)
    Thanks for the info

    ReplyDelete

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