Regrow: Onions and Garlic and Scallions, Oh My!

Did you know: it's super easy to regrow a lot of vegetables and herbs from your scraps?

For years, I would buy green onions as garnish for tacos or nachos, use about 1/2 of one green onion, and then forget about them in the produce drawer until they were a rotten mess. I started reading about how you can regrow the allium (onion) family pretty easily, as long as you have the base or roots left.

What you need:

• some partially used onions
• a glass
• 1/4 cup of water

Yep, that's it. Set the green onions upright in the glass and add enough water to cover the roots. Add water every few days as the level goes down. The onions will last a few weeks with no additional care.

In fact, they just keep growing! You'll get several inches of growth. Just snip off what you want to use when you're ready for it, and it will just keep growing. 

I found that with just water, the onion does start to wither after a few weeks; however, you can also choose to plant the onions in soil for a longer growth cycle.

This technique of simply setting the roots in water should work for the entire onion family. Give it a try with yellow onions, garlic, and shallots too.

Now you'll always have onions available for some extra flavor. T likes to tease me when I snip some off into our scrambled eggs: "Gee, I wish we had some fresher onions!"

Savings: About $10/year