THE CHINESE HERB GARDEN - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 123

How to Harvest
This species matures in about 65 days. To gather, use one hand to pull an onion gently
away from the others, using the other hand to hold the clump so it's not uprooted. The
remaining onions will go on growing. If you don't need the whole onion, harvest just a
few of the leaves as if they were chives. (I find it easier to grow chives for that purpose.)
DID YOU KNOW?
For many American gardeners, scallions are as much a sign of spring as the first robin, but as often as not,
these are merely immature onions. True scallions never form a bulb; they are perennial plants that will
continue to grow in clumps but never turn into an onion no matter how long they grow.
Varieties
Several types of “bulbless” or bunching-type onions (scallions) are available. It is some-
times sold as the variety 'Evergreen Hardy White' because it's the most winter hardy of
all the bunching-type onions.
Multiplier onions ( Allium cepa Proliferum Group) are another type of perennial
onion. These are sometimes confused with bunching onions, but they differ in that they
form tiny clusters of bulblets at the tops of their stems. If you remove and plant these
bulblets, you'll get nice green onions early the following spring. If you don't remove
them, they'll plant themselves, which is how they got their other name, walking onion.
These are also known by the names topsetting onion and Egyptian onion.
Varieties to look for: Evergreen, Red Beard, Four Season.
CULINARY USES
Since bunching onions are scallions, use them any way you use scallions. In Asian
cuisine they're cut into little brushes as a garnish, sliced thinly for clear soups, or
sautéed briefly at the start of a stir-fry dish. Early in the year they're mild enough to
enjoy raw. As the season progresses and the stems thicken, the flavor becomes a little
too pungent for most people to eat out of hand. This is when they come into their own
in cooked dishes.