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Nodding onion, A. cernuum
An often-overlooked group of wild edibles are the various “wild onion” species. They are mundane and aren’t as flashy as their cousin the wild ramps, but they pack a punch with flavor. I will be mostly referring to three or so similar species that can be found in my region, although there are many species of wild onion found all over the world!
Plant Profile:
Scientific Name: Allium vineale, A. canadense, A. cernuum *
*(I have saved A. triccocum for a separate article!)
Preferred Habitat: I find a lot of these in floodplains, on forest edges, or in the moist soil of meadows and fields.
Edible Parts: Flowers, bulbs, leaves, stems (although some species may have tougher stems and flowers than others)
Distribution: There are wild onions in nearly every state of the US, and most of the lower provinces of Canada. Since I’m referring to multiple species here, I didn’t want to limit it as much with a map!
Harvest Season: Fall to early summer
Key Identifiers: All wild onions smell like onion or garlic when broken or cut, wild onions typically have a small “bulb” at the bottom when you dig them up (they generally look more like scallion bulbs and less like traditional onions), and most have a distinct cluster of tiny flowers at the top when they go to seed.
Toxic Look-Alikes: There are a few look-alikes to be aware of: Daffodils, death camas, and false garlic. When it comes to identification your nose is your best friend. All of these look-alikes do NOT smell like onions or garlic! That’s the easiest way to ensure you don’t pick the wrong thing which makes these a great beginner forage!
Nutrition: (per tablespoon chopped)*
*These are nutrition facts for regular chives, but they should be at least very similar to wild garlic/chives
Calories: 0.9
Total Carbs: 0.1g
Fiber: 0.1g
Protein: 0.1g
Potassium: 8.9mg
Vitamin A: 2.6% DV
Vitamin C: 2.9% DV
Calcium: 0.3% DV
Iron: 0.3% DV
Cultivated chives
Culinary Use
In addition to being surprisingly nutrient dense, wild onions also add a crazy amount of flavor to any dish.
They are very easy to cook with and generally easy to harvest as well making them worth the effort to forage for in my opinion!
Some of the easiest ways to use them are to throw them in a food processor with butter, or chop them up and put them with meat, rice, stir-fried vegetables, or to cook them with eggs.
Onions in general have some incredible health benefits that qualify them as medicinal as well as culinary.
Onions tend to improve hearth health, be anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and help with digestion. Many onion species also have cancer-fighting properties and are great cleansers.
They also have a lot of immune-system benefits and help with respiratory issues such as colds and coughs. If you don’t use onions medicinally, you’re missing out!
Nodding onions (Allium cernuum)
A quick note that you should not harvest nodding onion bulbs for the most part since this kills the plant. If you do take any, make sure you only take a few from a larger patch and not all of them so there are still onions in the future!
(In case you can’t tell already, I’m a HUGE onion fan)
Allium vineale going to seed
Production & Cultivation
Many of these species form tiny “bulblets” (similar to tiny cloves) at the tops which drop and sprout new plants. For some species (A. vineale for example) this makes it very easy to reproduce and spread.
Certain species are especially worth eating (like A. vineale) since they are considered a noxious weed in most areas! They are tasty, easy to harvest, and grow in abundance which is all you really need for a food crop.
NOTE: You may not need to go far to find wild onions, I’ve seen some species grow in people’s yards! They look like taller wiry grass but smell like green onion when mown or cut.
There are a wide range of cultivated onions. These include leeks, shallots, bulb onions, scallions, chives, garlic, bunching onions, and walking onions (or “tree onions”) and even some cultivated purely for their flowers.
Cultivation methods vary a bit, but generally people grow the plants from “sets” (small bulbs) and let them grow through the summer.
One important thing to note is that to harvest onion bulbs you generally need to take the entire plant. This means unless you plant more, you’re out of onions!
I say this for two reasons: firstly, to emphasize eating the green tops of onions. The flavor is great and you’re really missing out if you don’t eat onion tops!
Secondly, to give myself a minute to talk about walking onions!
My walking onions (excuse the bad photo)
Walking Onions
Walking onions may be one of my favorite onions in terms of cultivation and growth habit. They are one of the onions that gets crossed with other species in order to create onion hybrids for the garden as well.
They are a perennial onion that you can plant once and harvest from continually!
The reason for this is because they grow one main bulb with smaller bulbs that form around it. This means you can constantly harvest the side bulbs and leave the middle one to continue to produce! They are also very cold hardy so you can even harvest green tops into January here in Michigan.
Why are they called “walking” onions? This comes from their tendency to grow fewer but larger bulblets on top when they go to seed. What happens is these flower stalks bend to the ground, propagate themselves, and grow new plants as if they were “walking”.
You can eat the green tops, the small bulblets, or the larger bulbs underground. The bulbs tend to taste like shallots (which I personally love) and the tops taste more like scallions or green onion.
I was given some walking onions by my mother that I have been propagating and splitting for the last two years. From the four bulblets she gave me, I now have 14 plants!
While they can be slower to take off (the bulbs aren’t really big enough for a few years) once they get established, they’re well worth the effort they’ll save you over time.
I had to include that, walking onions are something I’m very excited about.
If you would like to purchase any walking onion bulblets to grow, reply to this email to let me know or message me on any social platforms I’m active on!
Cultivated garlic
Ok so what kinds of onions do I recommend looking into to grow?
There are an insane number of conventional onion varieties, so I’ll only mention a few today:
Walking onion (also called “Tree onion” or “Egyptian walking onion”)
Red of Florence - A unique oblong red onion.
Ishikura - A Japanese bunching onion.
Canadian Onion (A. canadense) - One of the species I mentioned above, great flavor.
Red Beard - Another Japanese bunching type that is easy to grow.
And of course, MANY more amazing onion varieties can be found at the shops below!
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