Is it? Or is it not?

  Someone asked me the other day if wild onions are edible.  You know, those things that pop up in the lawn and make the place smell wonderful (if you are like me and love onions) when you hit them with the lawnmower or those things that seem to be the bane of every homeowner (except me!) who wishes to have the perfect lawn or those things that, as kids, we all dared our siblings to taste.  Those are all one and the same...wild onions.  Now to answer the question.  Yes.  Wild onions are edible although you may not want to overdo with them.  In a pinch, the lovely little green plants can be added as a flavoring but there is some question as to using them in mass quantities.  I guess that goes back to the "extensive tests have not been done" disclaimer that is tagged on most things. It seems that the wild onions are toxic to dogs so, therefore, contain a mild form of toxicity.  Humans seem to not have problems with it, though.  Now comes the kicker....

  Not all things that look like wild onions are wild onions.  There are things that we always called "crow's poison" that looks remarkably similar to wild onions.  They are green, have small white bulbs and blooms that might be mistaken for the onion bloom.  These are said to be extremely toxic by some folks..  While I cannot attest to this as fact (since I have not eaten one), my advice is "Do not eat them."  Grandmother had a saying "When in doubt, throw it out."  Maybe that does not apply here but the thought is the same...sort of...just don't eat something that causes you doubt. It is, however, easy to distinguish the two.  Wild onions smell like...well, onions.  Crow's poison does not.  It smells like...nothing.  If there is an odor, it is mild and grass like.

Wild onions definitely smell like onions.

Crow's Poison does not have the onion/garlic smell of wild onions.

   My question?  Since it is so easy to grow onions of any sort, why would you need to forage for wild ones.  Onions and chives are some of those things that can be grown from the small root end of the stuff you buy in the store and once you get a start, you never need to replant.  They just grow...continuously.

  Now a tidbit about the curious name of crow's poison.  Plants sometimes have weird names but this one takes the cake.  Crow's poison, from what I was told as a kid by Granddad, was labeled such years and years ago.  Maybe this is just a local thing as another name for the plant is false garlic. Understandable...but crow's poison is a different story altogether.  It seems that once folks found that the plant was toxic to most animals, they decided to make use of it.  Being a resourceful folk during a time when the corner Walmart was not there, farmers smashed the plant to get the inner sap.  That juice was plastered all over their young chicks in an attempt to keep crows from nabbing them for supper. The thought was that if a crow stole a chick, it would eat the toxic gunk along with the chick resulting in a dead crow.  The smashed bulbs were also mixed with grain and left in fields in hopes that a whole murder of crows would die.  The murder was murdered, in that case.  Which is a tad ridiculous as no one calls a flock of crows a murder of crows and not many folks think of killing birds as murder.  (I do...on both accounts.)  So there you have it.  A weird name for a plant, an edible plant that everyone hates,  a toxic plant that may or may not be toxic, a story passed down through the generations that may be just a great tale that contains not a bit of truth.  Lots of fun stuff!