Onion Bolt

Onion bolt, or flowering, is caused when you plant onions and it is either the wrong time of year for your area (i.e., it is too warm) or if there is temperature variation in the otherwise correct season.  I researched the best time to plant onion in my zone, and it seemed as though november/december was a good time.  At first, all the right things happened.  But, there is always a but, we had some unusually warm weather in January and again in March.   The bolting started in January.  We have had a lot of variation all spring, so the bolting continues.  I just pulled another young onion with a 3 inch diameter bulb that was bolting.  Back in May, I had a lot of them, so I pulled out the bolted ones and made French Onion Soup with them.  It was EXCELLENT.  I am bummed that my onions don’t seem to be progressing beyond the 2-3″ diameter stage, but we can always find a use for the young onions.

BTW – I have a link for the french onion soup recipe – its from Cook’s Illustrated.  I have a subscription, and if you have a kitchen garden, and like to cook – you would enjoy this magazine if you don’t already.

Any good recipes for young onions? 

I found these:

Wild Mushroom Tart

Various Spring onion recipes – Sichuan

Cream of Onion soup

Of course, there is Cook’s Illustrated “Best French Onion Soup” recipe, but it’s not for young onions.

Man, now I have about 12 of these things – past the “green onion” stage but not quite the “cooking onion” phase.  Whatever!