As I have taken pictures of the garden all spring you have seen this stand of green onions going to seed in my garden. These are Lisbon bunching spring onions or some call them scallions.
This particular bunch was planted last year and I left some to grow another season and mature so that I can collect the seeds and not have to buy them. The flowers mature and each small petal of the flower has a little seed at the end that will eventually turn black. You want to make sure and watch them close if not they will mature and the seeds will fall to the ground and you will lose them or have a huge crop before you want it. I am going to do both. Gather some for next year and allow some to fall and self sow for a fall crop to go in the freezer or dehydrator.
Picked young these are a huge part of many of my cooked dishes.
Once washed and chopped they are easily preserved.
Simply frozen and put in bags in the freezer
But probably my favorite way to preserve these is to dehydrate them. It seems to almost caramelize the sugars and make them sweeter.
And they store and keep beautifully in just mason jars with an oxygen absorber.
Some of the seed heads have ripened and I have picked them and brought them into the house. Notice the little black seeds that have already fell out in the dishpan.
Now I will simply take the dried flower heads and tap them against the side of the dishpan. The seeds will fall out if they are good and ready. If not let them set for a few days and dry out some more. Then try again.
Now that you have your seeds out I simply run them through a colander to clean as much of the large trash and debris out of them.
Usually what's left can be blown or picked out.
Once the seeds are pretty well clean then I put them in a bag and label.
From there they go into a jar and I stuck them into the freezer to kill any little critters that might be hiding in there and keep them fresh until all the seed heads have ripened. Once all are collected they can be saved in the freezer until next spring for planting or a fall planting would work as well.
A packet of White Lisbon Bunching Onion seeds run about $3.95 a small pack. Once planted they are ready for harvest about 60 days after germination for young green onions. Once all my seeds are harvested I should have plenty for both a fall and spring planting and still be able to leave a patch for seeds for next year.
Every pack of seeds that I can provide for myself is one less that I have to purchase next planting time.
Blessings from The Holler
The Canned Quilter
Hey CQ,
ReplyDeleteI hope to try this with onions one day. So far, I have only bought (non GMO but not heirloom) onion sets which I harvest & replant the ends which keep me in fresh but not enough to store. I did dry some that were left over from a company function & I agree, dehydrating seems to make the sweetness more concentrated.
One of these days, Im gonna get me a stand of onions grown from seed.. This year I planted a bunch of leeks and an unnamed variety of bunching onions but I still need to get them in the ground. My garden is basically a swamp this year but Im praying it'll dry out eventually.
ReplyDeleteI had a chard plant in the bed in front of my house that I let go to seed last year.. This year, that bed is FULL of chard.. It also is full of cherry tomato plants that I need to pull out of there that have seeded every year for about the last 4 or 5 years. Gardeners Delight is the variety and they sure can be.. most of the time. ;)
Do you replant the root ends? I cut them off and then shove them in the dirt to grow again. I do this with a lot of things actually- like celery. Works like a charm.
ReplyDeleteKK