Busy With The Ewoks

No, not this sort of Ewok, I mean the Egyptian Walking Onions from Kirsten. They have been quite splendid this year, rampant across the garden, escaping from the trough in the back garden into an adjacent corner, and marching across my second raised bed. Some of the Shedmen and another friend have requested bulbils so that they can try and grow them in their plots. I love their freaky triffid like appearance.

I haven't actually done  much with my ewoks except admire them, and occasionally trim some of the young green shoots to use in place of chives or spring onion tops in a salad.

There is a wonderful article here about their uses, so I decided to harvest all the ones which are taking over Raised Bed #2

I ended up with a bowlful of roots and stems, and a smaller bowl into which I trimmed all the bulbils. The bigger onions have been trimmed and gone into the fridge, and I decided to pickle the bulbils. I found a recipe online.

The whole process was very fiddly and time consuming. I picked through my bowl of bulbils, taking the largest, trimming and peeling them. It took nearly an hour to get to 6oz. The tub of 'debris' was large. As well as salt for the soaking brine, I needed sugar and white vinegar for the pickling solution, along with strips of lemon zest and lightly crushed juniper berries.

I ended up with one small jar of onions. These need to sit in the fridge for a week to allow the flavours to infuse. They should keep for some months.

Allegedly you can use these sweet/sour pickles in sandwiches and salads, as a topping for grilled meats, garnishing a cheeseboard or as cocktail onions [If you prefer your Martini with an onion, not an olive, it is called a Gibson. But I never drink Martinis...]
I will let you know how they taste

🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅

The leftover bulbils which were about the size of my thumbnail were replanted back into RB#2. And all the rest of the trimmings went into the compost bin.