Cooking Corner

Tips and Tricks- grow it back!
 

Have you ever seen a potato in your house that started growing little buds out of it? How about that garlic bulb where small, green protrusions begin to poke out from one of the cloves? Have you noticed that whenever you purchase green onions they are usually sold with their roots?  Did you know that all of these items (plus leeks and others) can be planted to make new plants!? 

I did some experiments this summer that have been fun, successful, and useful. These experiments would be a great way to involve kids too (please read more posts about kids and food in our July and October posts of 2010 especially).

Today I will write about the Green Onion Experiment. As I continued to place roots of green onions in our compost bin, I wondered what would happen if I placed these in soil instead of tossing them. Low and behold, they grow! I discovered this years ago but I learned something new this summer (more below). I probably could have just looked on the internet to see if this would work and how to do it, but I just wanted to try it first. Here is some guidance:

-          Use green onions as usual for cooking but save the roots and about an inch of the white part of the onion.

-          In a pot or in soil in your yard, plant the root and small stem in the ground, roots down, a few inches deeps, cover with soil; water gently.

-          Let the green onion grow and cut the green portion as you need it, it will just keep growing.

-          Another option that I just discovered in the past two weeks! After the first bullet point above, place the roots with small stems into a jar with a small amount of water. I usually do this to keep the roots fresh until I can plant them. Well, this time around, it took me a lot longer than I thought to plant them. I set them in our window sill (that is on the way down stairs for me to remember to take them out to the garden).  I liked the jar sitting in the sill with the onion roots in it. It looked shabby chic plus I just wasn’t making the time to plant them. Well, I decided to just leave them there because they started growing great that way too! Take a look at these pictures: 

Exhibit A: Green Onions after Days in Jar

Exhibit B: Green Onions 2 Weeks Later!

I can’t wait to use them this weekend. In future cooking tips and tricks posts, I will share with you experience with leeks, garlic, onions, and salads even. We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Please share your posts below. Cheers!