Most of my day is spent in the Small Gardens. Either the vegetable plot or the flower beds have laid claim to my time which is alright by me since that is where I prefer to be. While setting in more tomato plants (this makes 40 total so far), I noticed that some of the chives have started bolting. Personally, that is fine by me since I adore the blooms. Throughout the vegetable plot and the flower gardens there are volunteer clumps of both types of chives. While admiring the blooms, I also noticed that most of the plants had bulbils on top. These tiny bulbs will soon be heavy enough that the stem will bend to the ground and a new clump of chives will take root. These and the billion or so seeds from the blooms explains how the entire yard is now filled with chives. Son keeps telling me that we should market them!
Out of curiosity, I pulled off some of the bulbils and smelled them. Pop always said that if the plant smelled like an onion or garlic, then it was definitely an onion or garlic (or chive). The mimic plants do not have this odor. Yep, the ones I was admiring definitely had a garlicky smell to them. A small handful of these bulbils would flavor up a pan of stir-fry or a shrimp dish quite nicely and there would be no mincing needed! I moved on to another clump of chives, pulled off a handful of bulbils and noticed that these had a more oniony smell. Tomorrow, a cluster of bulbils from each will be used in some dish just to sample the bulbils and perhaps I should try pickling some of the tiny bulbs from the wild onions that are also taking over the place! These will be some fun experiments!
No comments:
Post a Comment