Spring Onion

Spring onions produce slender white stems and long dark-green leaves with a flavour somewhere between leek and yellow onion — mild enough to eat raw straight from the garden. They grow quickly and can be harvested from late spring all the way into autumn, or sown in late summer to overwinter and give the season's first harvest.

Growing

Sow 1 cm deep in rows 20–30 cm apart from early spring through mid-July. Make a new sowing every 3 weeks for a continuous supply. For an earlier start, sow indoors in March–April and clip the seedlings back to 6 cm before transplanting to encourage stronger plants. A late-September sowing will stand through winter under a cloche and give the first harvest of the following year.

Care

Keep the soil evenly moist — irregular watering is one of the main causes of poor germination and checked growth. Weed carefully around young plants, which can't compete with weeds in the early weeks. A light feed of nitrogen fertiliser once or twice during the season is all they need.

Harvest

Ready in about 60 days — pull when the stems are finger-thick and still tender. Take the largest plants first and leave the smaller ones to keep growing. They're frost-tolerant enough to stand in the ground until you need them, which is the best way to keep them fresh. The flavour intensifies and becomes more pungent as the season progresses.

In the kitchen

Both the white base and the green tops have their own character — the base mild and slightly sweet, the tops more grassy and assertive. Slice raw into salads, scatter over noodle dishes and soups, add to omelettes and stir-fries. Grill or char whole as a side dish. The mild early-season flavour makes them ideal eaten raw; later in the year they can handle being cooked.

Storing

Spring onions store briefly. Keep unwashed with roots in the fridge in a perforated plastic bag for 1–2 weeks. Do not rinse before storing. For longer life, cut off the tops and keep the bulbs in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 1 month. Freeze chopped spring onions for 6–8 months.