Onion fun: grow your own at home

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Hello my loves,

Did you know you can grow your own onions, in a pot or the garden, from the ones that sprout in your cupboard?! Yes you can! You totally can! And it’s super easy, and really fun, and an excellent way to connect with the abundance that really does exist all around us, even in the dark and dreaded depths of your cupboard. From this day forth, I promise you that pulling a sprouted onion from your stash will elicit squeals of delight rather than sighs of disappointment. Instead of seeing a dilemma (should I cook with this?), you’ll see potential. The potential for pots or beds full of happy onion babies, sprouting green and strong in a new generation of immunity and deliciousness and nourishment, all for you. Although for the record, the answer is yes, if you don’t want to plant your sprouted onion, you should TOTALLY cook with it. If the onion flesh is still crisp and firm, simply remove the sprout from the middle and proceed as usual. If the onion flesh is soggy and soft, she’s for the planting. 

Over the last couple of months I’ve planted three sprouted onions in a very pleasing fairy ring in my garden. Those three onions have given me a total of ten new plants, which are all now adorned with heavy crowns of new green shoots. Basically, I never have to buy spring onions again, as my sprouted onions have turned into deliciously fulsome bushels of them. Whenever I need any, I simply stroll out to the garden and snip my requirements smugly from my onion bed. They regenerate incredibly quickly too, ensuring there’s always a supply on hand. Also, have you ever seen an onion flower?! Alliums (the plant family, or genus if you want to get technical, that onions belong to) have the most incredible flowers. They’re like giant pom-poms made up of hundreds of teeny-tiny mini flowers, which are also edible and make a beautiful garnish. Presumably at some point in the next few months there’ll be new onions forming under the earth as well, although at this point I’d be loathe to dig them up – the above-ground action is simply too much fun. I’m growing my onions in my garden, because I have the luxury of having one, but you could grow them just as easily in a pot on a sunny windowsill or balcony. Here’s how…

Grow your own onions

  1. Inside a sprouted onion, there will be at least one, and probably several mini-onion bulbs, each topped with their own section of sprouts. These bulbs are what you will be planting. To find them, take a sprouted onion, and peel off the skin. Then start peeling off the layers of onion flesh, until you reach the area of the onion where it has divided itself into self-contained bulbs. You should be able to see pretty clearly how they can be pulled away from each other, while keeping their individual integrity. 

  2. Prise the bulbs apart, taking care with the sprouted end, but not worrying too much about the root end. You can really just snap them off where they’re joined at the root of the mother onion, it doesn’t seem to matter whether there’s any roots attached or not. You don’t have to treat them with kid gloves either, they seem to be pretty hardy and able to resist a bit of bulb damage. 

  3. Plant your onion bulbs sprout-end up, so that the sprouts sit just above the earth. As you do this, you might like to send them a thought of love and thanks for the nourishment that they’ll be gifting you with. Leave some space (around 10cm) between the bulbs when you plant them too, so they have room to grow and spread. If you’re planting in a pot, make sure you use a decent sized one to give them room to grow. I’d say anything from 20cm in diameter and upwards is ideally what you want. If your pots are on the smaller side, you may want to plant your onions across several pots, so they can settle in and grow in comfort. 

  4. Give them some water, and you’re done! Make sure they’re in a sunny spot, and keep the soil damp but not soggy i.e. PEOPLE, PLEASE WATER YOUR PLANTS! I see so many dry, sad house plants and gardens – plants need their soil watered, otherwise they will die, so make sure you give them what they need. 

So there you are! An easy, fun and delicious weekend project for you, and as I’ve already touched on, a lovely lesson in the abundance that exists all around us. Far from being a failure destined for the bin, a sprouted onion actually holds infinite potential to nourish you with many, many more onions, increasing exponentially on itself as it grows to TAKE OVER YOUR HOUSE AND YOUR GARDEN AND YOUR LIFE WITH SO MANY ONIONS THAT…. woah, ok. I’ll calm down. But it does get me excited, this magic of nature, where one humble onion holds the potential for ongoing and infinite nourishment. It’s also a really nice lesson in the fact that your life experience is really all in the way you frame it. If you see waste and ruin, that’s what you’ll get. If you see abundance and potential and growth, that’s what you’ll reap. As always, it’s really down to you. 

And with that, I will leave you to your weekend, which I hope is a lovely one for you. I’ll be spending mine re-painting my kitchen, and nurturing all the little seedlings that are sprouting in my vege garden - both very appropriate activities for the fresh, spring energies that are running about everywhere in my part of the world. Until next week my loves 💛.

Love, Rachel xxx