Foraging Wild Onions
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For the first few years we lived in our home my husband would smell onions by our creek every time he mowed the yard but it wasn’t until later that he shared this little discovery with me. I have to say, it was exciting to uncover a patch of wild onions and I knew immediately I would be foraging the next spring to use in our meals.
Immediately, I inquired with my naturalist neighbor if she had ever identified wild onions over the years in her yard or our area and she verified she had. Feeling more confident in our find, I began to research the wild allium family because I wanted to make ‘extra’ sure I was able to eat the onions; the last thing I wanted to do was poison my family! The key in an onion harvest is smell first, taste second.
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How To Identify Wild Onions
Identifying the wild onions in our case was easy since we happened upon them! For one, I knew the onions existed on our property because my husband had smelled them. Two, my neighbor confirmed they existed in our backyard. After all my research, I knew to look for a chive-like stem and a multiple bulbed flower emerging from the top. Once I had identified the plant I gently dug around the earth at the base and pulled up the onion. Voila! I could see a baby onion-like bulb of the plant (see picture below).
The most important thing in identifying wild onion, wild garlic, or ramps (please read the section on sustainability in regards to ramps below) is that you smell the plant! If it smells like onion or garlic you are ok to harvest and eat, but if it looks like the suspected wild onion and does not smell, this is a natural look-alike plant.
PRO-TIP
Never harvest wild food from the side of a highway due to higher toxic chemical run-off. And legally you can’t forage on someone else’s property without permission. If you are interested in learning more about foraging, educate yourself thoroughly. Colleen of Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment has wonderful resources on sourcing wild food.
How To Harvest Wild Spring Onions
We’ve discussed above how to identify wild green onions but where can you locate them to sustainably harvest the whole plant?
Allium drummondii and Allium canadense are found all over North America. Because most wild onions grow in clusters it makes them easier to identify if you happen upon them. Remember! Use your nose as a tool to identify. Ethically, I would not harvest the alliums if I only discovered one or two bunches. I also tend to scatter my picking across a large space and only search for the largest onions. This way, the next generation will not be impacted when seeding itself.
How to know which onions are ready
I tend to harvest the onions that have fully produced the flowers or after they have set their seeds for next season. If I do take an onion ahead of time I like to pull the root cluster off the bulb and place those back in the yard to produce more onions next year. Overall, it is hard to actively eradicate such a wild plant but I encourage you to be sustainable and ethical in your discretion. This article is a wonderful reminder of how to ethically forage for food.
Harvesting the wild onion
Once I have found the onion(s) I want to pull, I gently insert my Hori Hori or a Strait Weeder Tool about an inch or two away from the base and insert the tool up to 2 inches below the soil surface and gently tilt the tool towards the onion bulb while gently pulling up on the onion.
Wild Onion Edible Parts
Well, all the parts of the wild onion are edible. Yay!! You can eat the underground bulb, green stem, wild green onion flower and bulbils (pinkish balls before the bloom). Because of the strength of flavor I generally use the green part as if I were cooking with chives or regular green bunching onions. This is a chance to explore new recipes in the kitchen. I will post a herb compound butter recipe soon that is out of this world! You can sub chives or green onions if you don’t have wild onions.
How To Store Wild Onions
Once you’ve harvested these wonderful onions, clean the onions gently under cool running water to remove the dirt and any old skin. After cleaning, my favorite way to store the onions is to place them in mason jars filled with water and place them in the fridge. I can generally keep them up to 10 days using this method.
Ethical Sustainability of foraging
I don’t claim to be an expert on foraging, however, I have taken some courses on the subject and it is fascinating. Can we say ‘be prepared for the zombie apocalypse’!
I’ve mentioned a few tips above on how to be ethical as well as sustainable in harvesting things like wild onions and ramps. Sam Sycamore has a great book that focuses on the rules of foraging and how to do so with confidence and knowledge.
The basic rules are:
Leave enough so that the plant can reseed
Never take more than you need
Do as little destruction as possible to the site in which you are foraging
Always identify what you are foraging with 100% confidence
Educate yourself on all the edible parts of the plant
Always forage legally and in areas that are deemed ‘safe’
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