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