Eating onion flowers

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Last fall, I decided to overwinter onions in my garden to see if I could produce onion seeds. I have been successful and the onios are in full bloom now and I just happened to have the thought that if all of these seeds fall into the ground, I will be pulling up onions all over the place. So, although I will capture enclose some of the blooms so I can capture some seed, the idea has occurred to me, why not eat the flowers. They have a soft pod like thingy at the base of the flower and a little tail that sticks out so they kind of remind me of sprouts and I would imagine they will have an oniony flavor. I thought they would make a nice addition to salads. The question is, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THAT PART OF THE ONION IS POISONOUS? Obviously, I don't want to find out the hard way and I know some parts of plants can be edible while others aren't. Please let me know if any of you have eatern the onion flowers before. Thanks.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 05, 2000

Answers

Colleen, they are fine to eat. We use chive flowers in salads sometimes, and they are in the onion family. I don't think there are any poisonous parts to an onion plant, or garlic, chives, or leeks, either.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), July 05, 2000.

You will be okay eating the flowers, I use them in scrambled eggs, salads and such, they aree quite mild.

-- Hendo (OR)r (redgate@echoweb.net), July 06, 2000.

ALL parts of an onion are edible, from roots to the flowers, to the skin

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), July 06, 2000.

Collen, I don't have the opportunity to see onions flower, but I have a huge area of chives and I love to use the little purple flowers in macaroni or potato salad in place of onions. They taste the same and look nice! All parts of any alum are edible by my book. You need to use them before they start to set seed or they'll have a crunch to them. Enjoy, Jill

-- Jill Schreiber (schreiber@santanet.com), July 08, 2000.

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