Egyptian Onions aka the "walking onion"

There's a perennial plant in my garden that is way cool but for some reason I have the lousiest photos of it. It's nickname around here is the Egyptian onion, I've also heard it called the walking onion.

When I searched google for the botanical name I came up with Allium cepa yet as I continued to search that name, it seems to cover all common onions and this onion is not common at all.

One thing I found out while looking up Egyptian onions is that they are rarely offered for sale. If you want one you need to find a local gardener willing to part with some. One site recommended visiting local garden club sales in hopes of finding them.

Egyptian onions are a wonderful addition to the garden. They are extremely well behaved, they don't wander here and there like the onion grass that plagues so many people. The nickname walking onion comes from their trait of growing little bulblets at the top of the stalk. These bulbs grow larger until they become too heavy for the stalk to hold upright. At that time the stalk bends down until the bulbs are on the ground where they root and begin a new plant.

I wish I had taken some real photos of my Egyptian onions. Instead, I searched through my files and these photos are all crops taken from larger shots.

This weekend I spent a few minutes gathering up all the tops that had bent down. They are just about to start rooting and I decided that I would pot some up for fall sales plus put a few in the garden where I want to add the wonderful spikey structure of the stalks.

All parts of the Egyptian onion are edible, there is an onion bulb at the base, onion foliage that can be cut as you would cut chives and even these little bulbs from the top can be pickled or used in your various recipes.

I found a recipe online for Butternut Squash soup with Egyptian Onions. Since I love butternut squash soup, I have to admit that my mouth waters every time I look at the photo. If you want to take a peek, click here on Waldeneffect to see the recipe.

Want some onions for your own garden? I'll have them for sale in a week or two. Right now I'm planning on opening for the month of September beginning on Saturday Sept. 5th. Stay tuned for more news.

Melanie