Perennial Potato and Egyptian Walking Onions
Over the past couple years I’ve been reading about permaculture and have been looking for ways to incorporate more of these techniques into my gardening. One of the things that many permaculture advocates suggest is using as many perennial vegetables as possible to limit the need to disturb the soil by working it too much. Adding more perennial fruits and vegetables would also help with the gardening work load! Since I love trying to things, especially in the garden I decided I’d try my hand at growing perennial onions and Egyptian Walking onions. I searched on-line and found them at Southern Exposure.
According to Southern Exposure:
Heirloom potato onions enjoyed widespread popularity before the turn of the century. Nearly every gardener grew potato onions and they were available in yellow, white, and reddish-brown varieties, the yellow being most common. Potato onions are still a local favorite in some areas of Virginia. Each bulb cluster of potato onions may contain many bulbs, averaging 2 to 2-1/2″ in diameter. When a small bulb (3/4″) is planted, it will usually produce one or two larger bulbs. When a large bulb (3 to 4″) is planted, it will produce approximately 10 to 12 bulbs per cluster. These bulbs of various sizes may be used for eating, storing, or replanting. By replanting a mixture of sizes you will have plenty of sets for next year’s crop and plenty of onions for eating during the year. Potato onions can increase 3- to 8- fold by weight each year depending on growing conditions. Potato onions store better than most seed onions, and individual bulbs can be grown in flower pots to produce a steady supply of green onions during the winter.
The potato onions looked like shallots and the Egyptian onions were tiny little bulbs, not quite what I was expecting.
Egyptian Onions are described by Southern Exposure this way:
The onion to plant if you always want onions. Egyptian Walking Onions grow perennially in a bed. Hardy bulbs set bulblets on stalks. Air bound bulblets will sprout new smaller stalks, which fall over and replant themselves, hence the name “Walking”. Bulbs can be harvested over Fall and Winter. Green Onions can be harvested selectively as they grow. Plant them where you intend to have them for a long time, as they are quite hardy.
I planted both of these last fall and I was pretty excited when I saw the potato onions and the walking onions coming up this spring. I’m interested to see how they do here in the gardens and what the flavor is like. Not having to plant as many onions each year will be nice if these work out. I’ll be sure you keep you posted.
Do you have any perennial vegetables or fruits in the garden?
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It Snowed, It Snowed, It Snowed Last Night
One of the reasons I blog is to keep track of things like the weather, last snowfall, last frost, first frost, etc. This past week was beautiful for gardening here in NE Ohio, we had days in the 50’s & 60’s and nights in the 40’s. Since it’s Ohio, I knew the weather was too good to last. We frequently get snow in March and in April (last year we had snow on April 7). I don’t think I have any photos of Easter egg hunts as a kid without winter coats covering up our lovely Easter outfits.
Winter is far from over here in Ohio and mother nature makes sure to remind us this time of year. We woke up to a few inches of snow yesterday morning and temperatures in the teens. The nice thing about snow this time of year is that it melts of quickly and the days usually are still warm, not as cold as in the heart of winter.
I’m actually happy for this cold snap. I’m stratifying some joe pye weed seeds and I need a week of cold nights so the seeds will germinate. It’s supposed to be down below freezing for the next couple nights, so I think I’ll have just enough cold weather. We’ll most likely still get some snow in April, but by the end of April we can pretty much be certain that spring is officially here.
When is your last snow or cold weather?
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Sunny Yellow Daffodils
Daffodils are workhorses when it comes to flowering spring bulbs. They’re tough as nails and seem to take whatever you throw at them. I have a few planted in dry sandy areas and some in wet clay areas and they all do well.
On Wednesday morning I noticed the first daffodil blooming in the front garden. This is a bulb that I planted last fall. It looks like the wild daffodils you see blooming along the roads here in rural Ohio.
Daffodils are lovely spring flowers, their sunny colors seem to come when the days get longer and brighter. It’s like they bring the sun with them when they bloom. I have several different kinds of daffodils, so I will have these lovely yellow blooms for many weeks in the garden. Since they contain a poisonous crystal, I don’t have trouble with the local wildlife feasting on them like I do with tulips and crocuses. I’ll keep adding more to the garden since I know they’ll actually make it to the blooming stage.
Personally tulips are my favorite spring blooming flower, but with the deer around here I don’t get to see many of mine bloom. I have to resign myself to going to the Longwood Gardens tulip show to see them and settle for growing daffodils in the gardens here. But according to the National Daffodil Society: Depending on which botanist you talk to, there are between 40 and 200 different daffodil species, subspecies or varieties of species and over 25,000 registered cultivars (named hybrids) divided among the thirteen divisions of the official classification system.
Looks like I have a few more varieties I can incorporate into the gardens. Old House Gardens has so many wonderful heirloom varieties. Perhaps this fall I’ll buy a few new kinds.
What’s your favorite spring blooming flower?
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Signs of Life in the Garden
This past week I’ve been spending the lovely warm days cleaning the thick mulch of leaves out of the perennials beds so the plants can emerge (I don’t clean out my flowerbeds in the fall, I wait until spring). I cut back all the dead foliage from the perennials and often discover the plants springing forth from the roots. I spread some rock and mineral dusts on the flowerbeds and work compost and some organic fertilizers (like kelp meal, fish meal, etc) around a few heavily blooming plants. This time of year it’s exciting to get out and work in the garden. Things are starting to emerge and promise a summer of lush green plants and colorful flowers.
The catmint is making promises of mounds of soft billowy purple flowers buzzing with bees and other pollinators lasting from early summer to late fall.
The daffodils promise sunny spring color that will be seen in the garden very soon!
The lenten rose is currently blooming in it’s demure way. Not showy and colorful, but so brightening up the shady spot in the garden.
The peonies are showing the promise flowers in all shapes, sizes and colors filling the garden in June.
I can’t name a favorite plant in the height of their summer glory, but I think my favorite plant to see emerging in the spring is the sedum. I don’t know what it is about how they come up, but they’re so interesting to me. The texture is fantastic, the waxiness of the little cabbage type buds are so lovely!
What’s your favorite thing to see coming up in the spring?
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Heirloom Recipes
Last week my mom and I went down to my grandma’s house to go through some of her things. We went through many boxes and looked through so many things. Often the things that are valuable when someone’s gone aren’t tangible and often are not worth anything to anyone else, but they’re priceless to the family.
I’ve been wanting to collect some of the family heirloom recipes for quite a while to make a special cookbook. While we were visiting my uncle & cousin, I spent some time looking through my grandma’s recipe boxes. They were small metal boxes stuffed full of index cards and clippings from the newspaper and magazines. I was able to get some photos of some of my grandma’s favorite recipes, some of them in her writing. My cousin also had my great grandmother’s recipes book, which was a collection of recipes in an old railroad ledger book.
Throughout the rest of the year I’m going to collecting more of these family recipes. I’ll make the recipes and take photos of the finished products. I’ll try to find some photos of my grandma cooking or of her kitchen the way it used to be. For Christmas I’ll make a nice printed cookbook at Lulu and give it to family members. What a lovely reminder of what is really important; things that can’t be bought or sold. Most often the simplest things in life mean the most to us.
I can’t wait to try my great grandma’s tomato butter (which was most likely their version of ketchup) and my grandma’s pickle recipe.
Do you have any family heirloom recipes? What are you doing to preserve them?
