Mystery Vegetable

A loud weekend. Niece, nephew, puppy and parents in the house. After a week with just the two of us, Rosie and I are wondering where our tranquil oasis has gone!

Obviously, the invasion does not leave me much time to write. I do have something I want to ask though. Last weekend when I was visiting my parents I noticed an odd looking plant in Dad’s vegetable garden. I asked him about them and he wasn’t very sure! He thinks they may be called Welsh onions, maybe. Can anyone shed any light on:

a) What they are

and

b) What we do with them

and

c) Which parts we do it with

Cheers!

13 thoughts on “Mystery Vegetable”

Hi Wendy,
I have never seen this kind of onion before. According to wikipedia, it is widely used in asian cuisine. Other than that I really have no other informations, sorry!
But let us know if you learn anything else.

No idea.

Look cute though.

Hi Wendy!

I’ve seen those in my herb book – they’re etageløg in Danish (in case you ever need that name:)), Allium cepa var. viviparum in Latin, and it seems they’re called top onions or Egyptian Onions in English (check this out: ). From what I found, the bulbs can be used sorta like garlic – a Goggle search gave all of these recipes:

I want to try and grow them next year…

Is that what i think it is? Back in Nepal, we used to have green garlic.You can’t fine them here in the US. Are the green stems flat? Some of them look flat in the picture and some don’t.

Thank you everyone! Had a look at Welsh onions on Wikipedia and some other sources and they look like the things in my Dad’s garden. But the top onions/Egyptian onions do too. And so far as I can tell, they Welsh onions and Top/Egyptian onions aren’t the same thing. Confusing…

Rose – If I find out anything more I’ll write about it!

Lucy – Aren’t they?

Zarah Maria – Welcome! And thanks for all the info. Assume you included weblinks but they haven’t published for some reason. Thanks anyway!

Mainyacha – Will check the stems next time I’m at my parents. Need to do a taste test too! Onions and stems.

Thanks for the welcome Wendy – I’m so glad you stopped by my blog, ’cause I really like yours:)

I did notice the links not showing up, but thought it was because they were “awaiting moderation”. This was one of them:

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/57036/
– the other was just a google search for “egyptian onion recipes”, as I said earlier.

Looking forward to seeing what you end up with, and tagging along here!:)

It looks like a mutant spring(green) onions! How coool!

Hi Wendy-
They are of the alium (onion/garlic) family as everyone has been saying. When I was traveling out east, any Welsh onions I had were simply small leeks, but that might be a whole other kettle of mis-translation so perhaps I shouldn’t even throw that into the mix. 🙂
Annemarie

Zarahmarie – Thanks for the link!

Nora – Aren’t they? 🙂

Annemarie – Oh dear. Now Im REALLY confused.

Update for all – Got in touch with the guy who gave my Dad the bulbs to plant in the first place and asked what they were called. He said “three onions”. However, he then went on to say that that was what he called them anyway suggesting he made it up. Googled “three onions” and found nothing even remotely to do with this vegetable. Pretty sure they are either egyptian onions or welsh onions…
But I don’t know!

I grow these – and call them Tree Onions, but have seen them called Egyptian Onions. I think Welsh Onions are the same as Bunching Onions they make a clump of spring onion like stalks and have white flower-heads like a chive flower but much larger. See posting on my blog: http://purplepoddedpeas.blogspot.com/2007/06/rays-of-sunshine-after-storms.html

It’s very interesting that you too are trying to figure out what these are! I have them growing in my yard and have been trying desperately to find out what it is!!