Heirloom Green Onions

Uncle Jack’s Onions

What can be more “heirloom” than a vegetable that you can’t buy in a store and that has been passed around in the family for over 40 years? 

This is how they look in late spring or early
summer.  You wouldn't eat them at this stage.

The story is that one day in the early 70’s, Uncle Jack brought some onions to my momma and my Aunt Toots to plant in their gardens.  He called them “multiplying onions.”  That’s all I heard them called growing up.  They made wonderful green onions in the fall, winter, and early spring, and they multiplied two ways.  Even in the winter, you could go out and get some green onions to have with supper! 

As I started gardening on my own, of course I got a “start” of onions from Momma.  I was reading all the gardening magazines and books I could get my hands on, but there was never any mention of this kind of onion.  What exactly was it I wondered? Finally, I read an article that included this elusive onion variety!  I found that it goes by different names.  Names that I know about are: Walking Onion, Egyptian Onion, Multiplying Onion, and Winter Onion. 

These are a wonderful heirloom, perennial vegetable.  Once you plant them, with a little care, you will have them for the rest of your life!  And they are not invasive.  You can keep them where you want them.

They will never make a big bulb like “slicing” onions.  Instead, they make a green onion.  You can eat them in the fall, winter, and spring.  The only time you don’t eat them is in the summer.  But that’s okay because you can harvest the slicing onions in the summer.  

They start out growing from a little bulb.  These bulbs are a little smaller than onion sets you see for sale in garden centers.  They will put up little thin, round “eaves.  Over time, these original onions will multiply from the roots.  In the spring, you’ll notice that the green part starts to get thicker.  This is when you’ll have to lay off eating them for a few months.  Pretty soon little top-knots will start to grow at the top of each big leaf.  It will end up looking like little green onions on top of the parent onions.  After a while the big parent leaf will turn yellow and die down.  The little onions on top will be dry little onions.  The parent will fall to the ground, and wherever they touch the ground, pretty soon they will start growing a new set of plants in that spot.  (This is  how they “walk.”)  As fall approaches, both the new little plants will be growing, and the old original plants will put up new green shoots.  

Now you don’t have to let them fall any old way; you can put those little bulbs right where you need them to grow.   The only problem I have ever had is if Bermuda grass gets in the little area my onions grow in.  Most other weeds eventually get crowded out.  If a tough weed like Bermuda gets to be too much in an area, you can just move your onions out to a new spot. 

To harvest, I usually prefer to take from the bigger clumps.  Don’t try to pull them up; they’ll just break off usually.  I like to head out with a steak knife and cut straight down on the outside of a clump and cut out however many I need.  Then just trim off the roots and pull off the little bit of outer yellow part and wash ‘em. (I'll post pictures in the fall of how they look then.) 

Come winter, you’ll have a big pot of beans and some good crunchy cooked-in-the-skillet cornbread, and you’ll head out to the garden and come back with the perfect side—fresh green onions in the dead of winter!

You will receive at least 5-7 of the
small individual bulbs.

Do You Want to Try Them?

I went out last week and gathered all of this year’s little bulbs, and I decided I would sell them to folks who are interested.  

Each order will have at least 10-12  little "bulblets" to get you started.  I will only be able to offer them for a few weeks.

$5 plus $2 shipping    

It's Time For Fall Planting

arugula seedlings

     Run as fast as you can!!! Go plant you some vegetables for the fall and winter. Yes, I know it's August. Yes, I know it's still hot. But here in the Southeast there is no better time to plant cool weather crops. Every seed you plant now will sprout quickly in the warm soil and will mature as the weather gets cooler. In the spring, those cool-weather loving crops will be maturing into the early heat we get in this part of the country and will bolt, or go to seed, quickly.   Fall is the answer! Many of these will last through the winter.
   What should you plant now? This is not a complete list, but it's what I'm growing.

• Arugula 
• Lettuce- loose leaf types. Don't even try to grow head lettuce here. 
• Mustard greens 
• Spinach 
•  Kale – I like Siberian kale the best because it will overwinter. I can only find it at the local co-op. 
• Cilantro 
• Carrots 
•  Radishes 
• Broccoli – Research has shown that it's best to grow it from seed and that you may be wasting your time planting in the spring in the southeast. 
• Garlic – Plant cloves from your kitchen now.  

Here are some that I'm not planting but that also like cool weather.

• Cabbage 
• Cauliflower 
• Bok Choy 
• Brussel sprouts 

This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Go to the store and buy seeds. Yes, they will have them! But hurry. Don't make the mistake of waiting until the weather cools off.  It will then be too late.

Quick! Pan-Roasted Tomatoes on Toast

Toast -- It's Not Just For Breakfast!

So often folks think they don’t have time to cook, or they think they don’t have the skills or the ingredients.  This meal is as simple as you can get, and it requires very few ingredients.  You can add more to it, but only if you want to and if you have the stuff.  Even though you may think of toast as breakfast food, this is a savory meal that will work great for a fast-food supper!

This is a meal that you can put in your mouth in 5 minutes!  

You Will Need

black skillet

fresh tomatoes

whole wheat bread

salt, pepper, garlic powder

optional - hot pepper flakes

Put a black skillet on the stove at medium high heat.  While it heats, cut the tomatoes into slices about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick.  

(About the tomatoes — Use whatever you have coming out of your garden or whatever you can get your hands on.  Right now for this dish, I like to use Roma tomatoes (a paste type of tomato) because they don’t have as much water content.  But you can use cherry tomatoes and just slice them quickly in half or just regular eatin’ tomatoes.  If it’s a big slicing tomato, then you may want to cut it in half lengthwise first and then cut into slices.)

Put the toast in the toaster.

Add a little olive oil to the pan and then put in the tomatoes in one layer.  Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  If your skillet is hot enough, they tomatoes will brown on one side in just a couple of minutes.  Flip them over and season the other side.  In about a  minute or two, they will be ready to come out.  Put them straight onto the toast that is already waiting on your plate.  That’s it!  

Additions:

I like to add some sharp cheddar cheese to the top.  Slice it while the tomatoes are cooking so you can put it straight on top.  The heat will melt the cheese a little.  

You can also fry an egg and put on top if you would like.  If you choose to go this route, then turn the skillet all the way down and cook your eggs in the same pan.  

You can add a little of Missy's Special Herb Mixtrue to the tomatoes when they’re almost ready. 

Quick Pickled Green Tomatoes

I used to love, love pickled green tomatoes, but I had never made any.  I think I was always a little afraid to, and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice future red tomatoes.  A few days ago, one of my caged tomato plants fell over and it knocked off two green tomatoes.  Ah, so I could now experiment without guilt!  Here’s what I did to make refrigerator pickled green tomatoes.  

I used one quart jar.  I put in:

1 cup of white vinegar

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon of pickling salt  (don’t use iodized table salt)

1 clove of garlic that I smashed a bit

hot pepper flakes or fresh hot pepper - a dab or a lot - your choice

some dill weed from the garden that I chopped just a little bit

(If you have dill seed, use that.   I used just the leaves because it’s what I have in the garden right now. )

*I also used some crushed coriander seed because I had it, but I don’t know if it really made any difference in flavor. 

Stir the salt in the mixture until it is dissolved.  Stick your finger in and taste to see if you think you need more salt.  You won’t be able to tell about the garlic of the hotness yet.  Just do it by feel.  

Core the green tomatoes and cut them into big chunks and put in the jar.  Stick the whole thing in the fridge for at least a day.  Two days would be better.  There’s nothing left to do now but eat ‘em!   

Don’t throw this mixture out!  You can keep adding vegetables to it as you go.  If you think you would like more garlic or more salt or more heat, just add to the jar.  You don’t have to start over.  Just always keep the jar in the refrigerator.  I would use each batch within a few weeks for the best quality.  

If you think it’s too sour, you can add a bit more water. Since they are refrigerator pickles, you don’t have to have as much acid for safety.  

I have heard of some people using pickled tomatoes for their fried green tomatoes.  That sounds interesting.  Let me know how yours turn out!  

Eat well, Y’all!!! 

Zucchini and Yellow Squash Chips - No Oil

I love vegetable chips but, boy are they expensive, and they always seem to have a lot of oil.  You can make zucchini and yellow squash chips very easily in a dehydrator.  This uses no oil and the flavor of the vegetable shines through!  I also think that these are sturdy enough to use for dipping!

Try to pick your squash before they get too big and seedy.  Slice them about 1/8 inch thick.  The first time I tried to make these I sliced them as thin as I could get them.  In my mind, I thought the thinner, the crisper.  Mistake.  Oh they were crisp, but the middles all stuck to the dehydrator trays.  Besides that, the flavor didn’t come through as well.  So go just a little thick—-but not TOO thick.   There seems to be a fine line in the thickness department!  Some people use a mandolin, but mine is not the best and so I prefer to just use a sharp knife.  It doesn’t take long at all.  

As you cut, lay the slices on the dehydrator trays as close together as you can get them.  You’ll be surprised how quickly the trays fill up.  Next, you can sprinkle on salt or whatever spices you would like on yours.  The beauty of using squash is that since the cut surface is moist, your salt or spices will stick!  I personally like to use sea salt and a little bit of citric acid.  Citric acid gives a little bit of sourness and makes your mind think “salty.”  You can find citric acid in the canning section of the store.  What I’m using right now is Fruit Fresh, which is ascorbic acid and citric acid.  

My dehydrator has temperature control and I set mine at 135 degrees and let it run for several hours.  At first the slices will be fairly dry and pliable.  I want them to be a bit crispy so I let it run longer.  What I’m going for it that they will break when you bend them.  When they reach that state, you need to put them in an airtight container or bag right away.  Even leaving them sitting on the trays on the counter for 30 minutes caused mine to lose crispness, and they had to go right back in the dehydrator.  Lesson learned.  Put them up right away.  I found that after they cool, they are just a tiny bit crisper than they were when I checked them in the dehydrator.

You will be surprised at how much your chips shrink down from the original size!  I have 4 trays and that whole thing will make about a quart of chips.  

Experiment and get a feel for thickness and the amount of salt to use.  Try other spices if that sounds good to you.  Let us know how yours turn out!

Eat well, Y'all!!

Rotten on the Bottom!

This time of year I often hear people say that all their peppers or tomatoes or eggplants are turning black or mushy or rotten at the bottom.  (They are all in the nightshade group of plants, so they have similar growing needs.)  Sometimes my friends despair of ever being able to grow vegetables and think they have a brown thumb because of it.  This problem is called Blossom-End Rot. It is caused by not enough calcium and magnesium or from your plants not being able to absorb them.

You may have enough of both in your soil but if your soil is TOO acidic, then it can't take up the minerals right. Like us and calcium--we need vitamin D to absorb the calcium right. 

    

Y’all, it is easy to fix!

Lime and Epsom Salts

Buy a bag of lime.  It doesn’t cost much, and it will last your for a few years if you store it out of the weather.  You want it to be calcium carbonate lime--which it probably will be around here. Sprinkle about 2 little handfuls around each tomato and pepper plant. I'd go about an 8 inch radius around each plant so all the roots have access.  This is going to fix two problems; it will correct the pH, and it will supply the needed calcium.

Next, buy a bag of Epsom Salts. Epsom Salts is NOT salt. It is magnesium. Put a handful of that around each plant too. Water it all in good so they will both go down to the roots.  THEN to make it fix the problem quicker, put about a tablespoon in some water in a spray bottle and spray it on the leaves of each plant. They can absorb that magnesium through the leaves!  (It's good for roses too, by the way.)  Don’t do this part during the bright, sunshiny part of the day, or you’ll get little burned places on the leaves from the drops of water acting as little magnifying lenses.  

It won't fix it immediately, but it won't take long at all. I can’t remember if it takes a week, or if it takes two.  You WILL see a change.

Next year when you plant, put one little handful of lime and a half-handful of epsom salts IN the planting hole and about the same amount up top to prevent the problem.  Make this part of your yearly planting routine.  

Don’t let this easily corrected problem discourage you from gardening!  Remember, if you grow it yourself, you know what you’re eating!  

Check out another of my articles on growing peppers and tomatoes.  

How to Plant and Grow Tomatoes (and peppers)  It has everything I know about it in a nutshell.

~Missy

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

You've seen sun-dried tomatoes for sale in the store at a hefty price, or you've seen them being used on a cooking show.  It's so easy to make your own.  If you're starting to get overrun by cherry tomatoes or any kind of tomato, this is an easy way to preserve them for later, and you will get an entirely new ingredient to use in your cooking!

Dried tomatoes have all that wonderful tomato flavor all concentrated into a wonderful little bite that will add zing to your dish.

What do you do with them?  Whenever I tell someone how easy it is to dry their tomatoes, the next thing they want to know is...."What do you do with 'em?"  So I'm skipping to the end and filling in that part first.

I use them on pizza, on burritos, on pasta, in dips,  and in bread.  Often you will read where someone says to rehydrate them by soaking in water, but I don't like it that way.  I like there to be a tiny bit of "chew" there.  So if they are big pieces, I take scissors and just cut them into pieces.  If they are from halved cherry tomatoes, you won't even need to do that.  

Paste tomatoes are just made for drying.  Roma is the one most people have heard of.  A paste tomato is usually oblong in shape, and it has very little water content.  I like to cut these in half lengthwise, and then I sprinkle on a little citric acid (what you buy in the canning section to keep fruit from turning brown.)  I do this because paste tomatoes have very little acid, and I want a little “bite.”  This is not necessary, but I like to mention it in case you want to try it.  

Cherry tomatoes are excellent for drying.  You would still cut these in half lengthwise.  They usually have excellent flavor and shrink up to be just right in size.  Often, people start getting overrun with cherry tomatoes and are trying to find ways to use them. 

So, next just put them in your dehydrator face up at around 135 degrees for about 8 hours, depending on the size.  You’ll want to keep a check and take them out when they are dry but still flexible.

Some people put them in the oven at a very low heat and prop the door open with a wooden spoon.  I don’t want to be letting that heat in my house, so I don’t do that. 

Some people put then on a window screen in their car and crack the windows.  Instant solar dryer!  I haven’t tried this myself, but if you have, you might leave a comment with any advice you have. 

After they have dried, you have a couple of choices.  You can just put them in a jar and put them in the fridge, which is what I do.  Or you can put them in a jar and cover them with olive oil and refrigerate.  Try a little bit both ways and see what you like for yourself.  

Drying your tomatoes is an excellent way to make use of your surplus, and when winter  returns, you will be so thankful to have them in your fridge!  They will bring back a little bit of summer sun in a tiny bite of goodness!

What Can I Plant Right Now Even Though It's Early?

It's the last part of March. The calendar says it's spring, but spring here in the southeast means there are still cold nights, and the danger of frost has not passed. You may see tomato and pepper plants for sale, but no matter how tempted you might be, you should walk by with your hands beside your eyes like blinders. It is not time yet! So what can you plant right now? You'll need to plant cool weather plants. Most of these will go to seed or not be good to eat when the days start getting in the 80's. Here are some to try.

Lettuce – You'll need one that says slow-bolting. (Bolting means it sends up a flower stalk and is going to seed. As soon as that flower stalk starts going up, the lettuce will taste bitter.) Pretty much what you see for sale on a seed rack in your area, will be suited to your area. If you live in the southeast, then don't even try to grow a head lettuce. Loose-leaf is what you'll be growing.


Arugula – Arugula is my favorite green. It can be eaten raw, or wilted. It can be used in a salad or be the whole salad. You can use it on pizza! You can use it anywhere you might use spinach. It has a peppery taste. Arugula can be used after it bolts too. I love to use the flower buds or even the opened flowers.


Cilantro – Cilantro likes cool weather. But you really want it with your tomatoes in the summer, but you just can't. Too bad. You can use cilantro until it turns brown, and then you can collect the brown seeds. Those seeds are then called coriander. Use them in the kitchen, but save some for planting in the fall.


Spinach and Mustard 




Onion sets – You can grow these for green onions or for bigger slicing onions. You plant closer for green onions and farther apart for slicers. You can buy a whole bag of sets for less than $2- half what you'll pay for a bag of eating size onions in the store. You can even put them in pots and have green onions in no time!


Sugar snap peas – I like to presprout them by soaking the seeds overnight and then wrapping in a damp paper towel. Keep it in something covered so it doesn't dry out until the seeds start to sprout. This will give them a head start they will need once they get planted in the still-cool ground.
Look at the back of the seed pack to see how tall they will

get. Some get 6 feet long, some 3 feet, and some only a foot tall. Some have strings and some don't. If you get a tall kind, you'll need to give the vines some fence to run on. I love these cut up into a salad.


Radishes – Radishes will give you satisfaction and something to eat quicker than anything! They are also one of the best vegetables to plant with children because the seeds are big enough for their small fingers to handle, and they will be ready to pick in 3 – 4 weeks. Bonus: You can also eat the greens! Who knew?! I just started eating them last year. I can't believe I've been just composting all that food!


There are others to plant in the spring, but this is what I have going. The main thing is to get out there and get some dirt under your nails. Y'all go grow something!

Restaurant Salsa--But Better!

I love the salsa in Mexican restaurants! The stuff in a jar doesn't touch it. Here's how to make it...just a little bit better!

You'll need:

a big can of tomatoes (28 oz)- I use organic fire-roasted. Support organic growers!

at least 1 jalapeno pepper—use more if you want

half an onion

lemon juice-fresh squeezed is best!

fresh cilantro-if you have a lot growing, then use a good bit! (If you aren't growing your own, just stop right now and go plant some!)

fresh garlic clove

powdered garlic-be liberal

salt

cumin

Mince the garlic clove and lightly saute it until softened. Dice the pepper and the onion. Put in the blender: diced pepper, sauteed garlic, diced onion, garlic powder, lemon juice, salt, a little bit of cumin, and just the juice from the can of tomatoes. Pulse it until everything is minced well. Add in the rest of the can of tomatoes. Pulse just a few times. Check it out and add more salt and lemon juice as needed. This will keep very well in the fridge.

I make a batch of this every week. I love to eat it at breakfast on my grits. It's also great with fresh-baked corn tortillas and on veggie fajitas! And you won't feel guilty when you lick the spoon!!!

Snow Ice Cream - 2 Ways!

Here in the South, we don't get snow all that often. When we do, one of the requirements is to make Snow Cream. We call it "Snow Cream" because saying "snow" and "ice" would be redundant!


The quick and easy way:


1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla


Mix this in about 8 cups of snow.
Eat it up!




The recipe I grew up with:


I don't ever measure so I am totally guessing on amounts. You will have to taste as you go. I made it quickly this morning before the opportunity passed, and I still didn't get the measurements! (Don't taste it after adding the eggs.)


All amounts are approximate.


3 cups of milk-maybe it was 4 cups?
Start with 1 cup of sugar—then check
1 tablespoon of vanilla flavoring


2 eggs
a big bowl of snow—plus some more




Mix together the milk, sugar, and vanilla in a saucepan. Heat slowly until sugar is dissolved. This is the time to be tasting. (You want it to be way sweeter than you think because the snow will dilute it.)
Mix the eggs separately. Add a bit of the warm milk mixture at a time to the eggs to “temper” the eggs so they don't become scrambled eggs. When you have it warmed up some, you can now pour it into the warm milk and slowly heat it some more. Don't boil it, but let it thicken some. Now put the lid on and take the whole pan out and set it in the snow to cool off.


Now you can be gathering up some good clean snow. Pretty soon the custard will be cooled enough. Pour it over the snow and mix it all together. Eat it up. Put any leftovers in the freezer to eat when the temperature gets in the 60's next week!