After we used the green part of the onions for a recipe, we stuck the ends in a glass jar (that we would have otherwise recycled) and filled the jar with water. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then we noticed that the roots were growing like crazy! Once they had grown out into a swirly, twisty mass, then the green tops began to grow.
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| The twisty mass of roots |
Some of the shoots we'd cut just grew up taller, and new shoots joined them. After about 10 days, they were as tall as they'd originally been when we bought them, and they stopped growing. We started another jar in the meantime, which also grew like mad. We harvested the first batch this weekend, and what do you know? Just as tasty as could be! In fact, they were a bit stronger than when we get them from the store, probably because we could use them fresh instead of after they sat in a truck and the store for several days.
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| The jar on the right was the first one we started. |
Because my husband is both thrifty and a bit nerdy (such a sexy combo, do you agree?), he did a bunch of math and figured out that with the cost of green onions around here, assuming we harvest them once a month, at current interest rates, an investment of $0.12 (for the water) for one jar of green onions would yield the same rate of return as putting $3,600 in our savings account. And hey, who doesn't like saving money, right? The jarful we harvested this weekend is regrowing again. Who knows how often we can get new growth from the same batch of roots, but we shall see!
(Edit: You need to leave a couple inches above the roots intact so they will stand up in your jar. We stop cutting ours when the stalk goes from green to white.)
(Edit: You need to leave a couple inches above the roots intact so they will stand up in your jar. We stop cutting ours when the stalk goes from green to white.)
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Interesting! So, obviously, you can't use all the green onion then when you cut it, or there'd be nothing left to grow back! I usually use the entire green onion when I cook with them, except for the very tip with the roots. Where would you stop cutting to try this? A couple inches up?
ReplyDeleteOh, hah, should have mentioned that. Yeah, you stop cutting where it stops being green. That's where we always stop when we use them, we just always used the white parts as regular onion in whatever next recipe called for onions. I'll edit the post to say you should stop cutting 3-5 inches from the roots.
ReplyDeleteOkay, cool. I'll have to change how I use green onions, but this sounds too fun not to try! I mostly use the onion part, go halfway up the greens and toss the rest of the top green part out. I need to reverse that! LOL!
ReplyDeleteWeird, no option to get emailed responses any longer on these posts. I didn't know you'd replied!