Walk like an Egyptian...

In spite of having surgery right smack in the middle of planting the garden this spring, and then subsequent challenges for me of bending over for several weeks (something one does fairly often when tending a garden), somehow my garden has managed to thrive - more or less.   

Hub helped out with some weeding in the early weeks of June, and he hammered tomato support stakes in the ground when the tomato plants started flopping over.  And while I don't really know how I managed it, I was able to finish the planting of some pole beans, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers in early June.   Then by mid June, when we were clearly in a drought, Hub set up hoses across the yard so I could just step outside when I needed to turn the sprinkler on.  That has been wonderful during recent scorching hot weeks.  

All that said, I have to admit... until this week (when I turned a significant corner in the ability to bend forward and toward the ground, and even get down on the ground), the garden has mostly done its thing while I've tried not to overdo it for most of the last six weeks.  I learned the hard way (as I suspect most people do), that a person often can't tell they've overdone it until after the deed is done.  

Anyway... as of today, this:

Looks like this:

It's amazing the difference a month and a half makes.  I know it's not the prettiest garden, but considering the spring I've had, I'm kind of impressed we have a garden at all.

The thing I want to write about today, though, is something I've shown here before, and I've had a complete change of heart over.

Some may remember that back in April I wrote about this mystery plant:

At the time, I couldn't figure out what it was.  I was even a bit cautious about tasting them.   Well, I finally did taste one, and was surprised to find it tasted like a peppery onion.  While I concluded they were edible, I still wasn't overly impressed, and I figured I would at some point just dig them up and plant something else in their place.

Before I did that, though, I decided we needed to ask the previous owners just what this mystery plant was.  I'd never heard of it before, and since none of my regular readers suggested it back in April, I'm guessing none of them (or you?) have heard of these either. 

Or maybe this will jog your memory...

These are Egyptian Walking Onions.  Or simply Walking Onions.  Or Tree Onions.  Or top-set onions...  I have no idea how many different names this plant has, but it seems they go by a variety of different names.

Once I learned more about them, I became intrigued and decided that I'd give them a year (at least) and even harvest some and use them in cooking before I turned my back on them.

I'm not going to explain them in great depth here (there are lots of articles and YouTube videos that will do that), but I enjoyed taking pictures of this plant as it progressed through spring, and I've decided it is time to let you in on my fun little adventure with Egyptian Walking Onions.

In late spring, these little white sacs started appearing at the top of the green stalks:

You can see them atop just about all of the stems late in May:

It wasn't long before the little sacs started opening up, revealing what was inside:

What appeared were more stalk-like things, breaking the sac open as they unfurled.

And then little pink bulbs started appearing.  With more stalks growing out from them:

And at the ends of these new stalks were new little white sacs:

It was all kind of magical.  And I knew before May was over, we were keeping these babies.

The short explanation as to why these are called Walking Onions is because at some point, the top-set bulblets weigh the stalk down, bending it over until the those bulblets are touching the ground.  If left there, they will take root and form a new plant - shooting up a new green stalk, and the process starts all over again. Over time, the plants "walk" across the garden, replanting themselves over and over again.

And as if watching that happen every spring and summer isn't enough reason to grow these, I came to learn that every part of the plant is edible at some point.  These plants earn their keep!  When young and tender, the green stalks can be used like chives, and the plant can be dug up and the small onion can be used just as you would use any onion (they are a little spicey all by themselves, but in a dish they seem fine).  Even the little purple bulblets can be harvested when they are tender and used as small onions.  Some say they taste a bit like scallions, but perhaps a little more pungent.  I've never tasted a scallion, so I have no idea.  Now that I've developed something of a relationship with these amazing plants, they don't need to taste like anything but themselves as far as I'm concerned. 

The plants that have sprung up outside the raised bed boundary for the onions,  like these (in the foreground):

I'm digging up and cooking with them.

Cleaned up, you can see they make fine, if small, onions:

At this point, most of the green part of the plants are dying back. I'm planning on cutting back the dead stems and what I don't separate and transplant, I'll be letting overwinter in place and see what's there when I dig next spring.  I suspect they will be larger onions, and possibly more than one onion per plant.  

 

And I'm harvesting the top-set bulblets to plant where I'd like them to be, rather than just let them take root wherever they fall.  

At this point, these bulblets are starting to dry out on the plant, and most of what I read indicates that late summer through autumn is when they are best to plant.  I'm so looking forward to seeing the annual cycle of these plants.  And I'm so glad I didn't dig them up when they were still a mystery to me!  😊

How does your garden grow?