What is that strange onion grass in your yard?

Have you ever found field garlic before? My foraging calendar 📅 is now here! You can find more info about it at feralforaging.com/calendar Video mentioned at the end - https://youtu.be/7XiM8a0trqc

When I was five ,I hated the family dentist with a passion. One day my mother told me I had an appointment in like an hour. I went outside and chewed onion grass for like 30 minutes straight. Chew , spit and repeat. The whole trip to the dentist , in the waiting room, in the chair waiting , I kept my mouth tightly shut. When the doctor finally leaned in I gave him a very loud “HI” . He left. His senior partner was laughing his ass off , and I got sent home to wash my mouth out. That’s what he got for hitting on my mom.

My dad had several brothers and sisters and they grew up fairly poor in the 1940s and 1950s. One day we were out walking around and he showed me what he called 'wild lettuce'. It is different from so-called 'wild spinach' or plantain. It looks more like the green in 'Spring green' mixes that has scalloped edges. He said that when it was in season it was abundant where he grew up. They would harvest wild lettuce and wild onions (what you refer to as American wild onions) then their mom (my grandmother) would pour hot bacon grease over them to make 'wilted lettuce'. They always had a garden and raised chickens and,usually, hogs but this was free, helped stretch food supplies and he said they all really liked it.

I used to call this "Yard Garlic". Growing up, my dog would graze on this stuff. I later learned that for some animals it makes an excellent de-wormer. As an adult I once rented a very old house that had thick, loamy soil under the lawn and the Yard Garlic would come up thick with large green shoots and bulbs sometimes the size of quarters. I would make a spring time onion soup using Yellow onion and Yard Garlic - not broth, but nice, chunky onions and wild garlic, both bulb and green shoot in beef broth with ground pepper. I live mostly now in the deep south where Yard Garlic just doesn't grow as well, and what does grow is weak in flavor. I think it needs a longer colder season to grow with any enthusiasm in the spring.

I gather the green tops, wash and cut them small, like you did, and put them in the freezer in a bag. I use them all year long, in cooking, and to sprinkle atop dishes where I would use green onion or chives

you talk about all the plants I was obsessed with in my yard as a kid in the midwest. actually learning about them is so nice 🥺

Smell is really the givaway here, this stuff smells so strong, whereas things that aren't onions don't normally smell like onions.

My wife hates that I mix it with cream cheese and consume it. She always gives me the old “dogs pee on it” fallacy. I know I’m not the only one.

Seen this stuff in my yard yesterday and wondered what it was, reminds me of the grass you see in Easter baskets.

I found some field garlic a few years back while camping with my family. They were flowering, which means the leaves were long and tough, so we picked the flower heads and used them to make a Balsamic vinaigrette. It turned out to be delicious on a spring mix salad. Don't discount eating the flowers! They have a much better texture and pack a lot of garlicky flavor!

Thank you for the reminder. we have both Allium Vineale and Allium Canadense coming up now .. easy way to tell the difference early on: Garlics have flat stems, onions have round ones

Awesome video! We have them everywhere here in North Carolina, and I agree the best way to use them is in stocks. I didnt know they were invasive, thats really good to know, Ill keep an eye out for the native one. Thanks for the info!

I pulled some up 15 years ago, planted them in a big raised bed. Never needed to look for them since. I chop up the leaves and dry them, then roast them in a clay pot on my wood burner all winter long. You get a lot. Then I powder them. Best garlic/ onion seasoning ever!

Oh... also add to cream cheese with a pack of zesty Italian dressing mix powder for a great spread on melba toast or crustini.

Allium canadense! or "meadow onion" as I like to call it. I discovered this one last year, and I love it. It tastes so much better than A. vineale IMO, although I do agree that A. vineale is great for making stock. We had only one or two meadow onions in our yard last year, but across the street, there's a field with hundreds, maybe thousands of them, so I transplanted some to my garden to see how they would do. They didn't like the transplant and died back shortly after, BUT they're coming back right now, and after they produce seeds/bulblets, I plan to move them to my front yard, which I'm currently turning into a native plant garden (already seeded it with tons of locally collected wildflowers and grasses). Meadow onion also has a close relative that's practically indistinguishable from it called Mobile onion ( Allium mobilense, named after the city). It likes to grow in prairies and isn't really found in my area (as far as is known). You can tell it apart by the inflorescences. Meadow onions will have bulblets alone or bulblets in addition to flowers, but Mobile onion doesn't produce bulblets and only has flowers. I don't know how they compare to meadow onions in flavor, but I'd guess they're probably really similar if not indistinguishable.

My house is 130 years old, so you know someone was growing stuff in the yard. There's still onions and oregano coming up every year, but I've never gotten around to using any of it. I'm thinking of adding garlic, since that's something I would definitely use.

Never ask if you can eat it, ask if you can eat it twice.

You're absolutely correct on a stock base, they also seem to freeze well too for later use.

If you've ever drank milk from a cow that got into some wild onions, you won't forget it.

i have a gallon ziploc bag full of the stuff which I put in my dehydrator. i gathered it from the big grass yard behind my apartment. i also found sow thistle, poke salat and a variety of wild lettuce back there too. plus patience dock elsewhere in my apt complex. I use one of those single serving mini blenders to turn the blades into powder. it makes a NICE garlic powder...for free! Great Depression 2.0 food. i'm also purposely growing dandelions, oxalis articulata (pink flowering sourgrass), coltsfoot, purslane, chicory, lamb's quarters, stinging nettle, italian dandelion/endive. my soon-to-be starving neighbors will think I'm just growing weeds lol. hopefully this will deter them from stealing from me when food gets scarce.