Onion Greens and How to Save Money

I don't know about you, but I eat a lot of green onions in and on everything from salads to homemade chili. Onion greens seem to be one of those staples, that you need a continuous supply for most of the year. A simple idea that I've been doing is to plant some left over green onions or bulb onions from the grocery store out in the garden instead of waiting for the few extras to go bad and end up throwing them away. Soon enough you'll have enough green onions growing that you won't need to buy any at the store, that is if you don't pull them up and only harvest the greens.

Here are some pictures of the onions in my meager kitchen garden. You can see where I've been breaking off the leaves on some of them. Pruning or picking leaves off of a plant usually stimulate it to grow more leaves. It still has the same amount of roots, but less leaves to feed nutrients too. The onions quickly regrow leaves. It works really well.

Green Onions (store bought)

Dutch Yellow Shallots

Yellow Rock (storage onions)

When I need some green onion for your next recipe, then I just walk outside and break off a few green onion leaves, leaving the bulb and growing tip intact. I have several kinds of onions planted for greens. I have some yellow rock onions that I had in storage for over a year. I planted the ones that hadn't gotten soft or started to rot. Hey maybe I'll get some good yellow rock onion seed next year for onions that will store exceptionally well. I'll have to wait and see. I also have some Egyptian Walking Onions, Dutch Yellow Shallots, one Yellow Potato Onion, and Green Onions (store bought). I grew up once in a while eating onion greens dipped in salt and bread with milk on it as my parents like to remind us what my grandparents had to eat every day for dinner during the great depression. Well at least it would probably be healthier than what most people eat today. You'd be getting your major food categories, energy, protective, and building foods. fresh onion greens as a vegetable (protective food, vitamin rich), homemade bread (energy food), and milk (building food, complete with essential amino acids for repair and building tissue/muscle). The basis of these simplified nutrition is from the Benson Institute, which helps teach people and families in developing countries how to improve their nutrition and decrease death and disease from malnutrition.