Making Your Own Onion Salt And Chives
Organic Seasonings From Garden Cuttings
Making your own onion salt at home is simple and cost effective. The results are an organic seasoning made for pennies on the dollar. I love making my own homemade items because I know exactly what the ingredients are. This recipe is ideal for anyone living a frugal or organic lifestyle.
I preserve cuttings from these aromatic plants found in my garden and make my own organic seasoning out of them. Growing them myself insures they are truly organic. There are two ways I use to preserve onions - dried chives and onion salt.
If you grow them in your yard you can top the plants and have fresh seasoning for cooking meats, stews, stir fry, and soups even chili. If you don't have a garden, you can still make these seasonings using scallions from the produce section at your local market.
Reuse old canning lids and jars or refill an old spice jar with this easy recipe.
Onion Salt Directions
You will need iodized salt, fresh cut onion chives, and a pint jar.
1 - Use a layer of salt about 3/4" thick in the bottom of the jar.
2 - Add about 3 tablespoons of fresh chopped onion chives just enough to cover the lower layer of salt.
3 - Pour salt on top of the chives layer and repeat until you have either used the chives you cut or are at the top of the jar.
Let this mixture sit for about 4 days before disturbing it. The salt will be clumped around the onion pieces. From here you can mix it up by rolling the jar around or stir it up with a fork to break up the salt.
If you would like to grind down the onion tops in a mortar and pestle wait until they are fully dried out and then put them back into the jar.
Mix well and add to your favorite recipes!
Dry Onion Chives
Onions in the garden
Here are more ways to cultivate onions from kitchen to garden planting.
Onion Sprouting in the Kitchen? - Onions Make Great Companion Plants!
Root Onion Starts - Onion Cuttings Grow Again
Topping Onion Plants
Rinse In Cool Water
Top onion plants to about 6" from the white stalk. The greens are then placed in a strainer to wash off the dirt and anything else that may have accumulated on the tube-like leaves. Trim away any of the dried brown tips and toss these.
When the tops been have thoroughly rinsed in cool water, take a paper towel and blot gently to dry them off. Handle them with a light touch so they are not bruised. From here they will be placed on a cutting board for slicing.
Cut the greens in sections about 1/2" wide. The chives can then be set out to dry or layered in salt.
Don't worry about taking cuttings. Onion chives grow back quickly in their growing season. Mine spring right up to trimming length in about 10 days. Top them every 2 weeks and they will keep growing back.
These stragglers are plants that survived winter so I know they are strong willed. The more pungent the onion the better your salt will be. The oils will absorb into the salt and be a great seasoning.
(Onions 2013 window box planting)
Onion - Grow Them Yourself
Growing onions is one of the first things you can do if you are a new gardener. This is an easy plant to grow yourself. Taking time to make sure they are in soil that is never dry is the key to good growing and achieving that green thumb. Sprinkle seeds onto garden soil and keep watered and onions pretty much take care of themselves. An added plus is they repel bugs.
When sprouting these tiny seeds, mist the soil until they are strong seedlings, then water them gently. They root well once established.
Onion Chives - Seedling Onions
Garlic Chives - Heirloom Garlic Seeds
By utilizing the greens on a live growing onion you can have fresh seasonings to use in your cooking. This technique can be applied to garlic as well if you want to make your own garlic salts. Making it yourself is healthier for you and your family and it is a fun project that will save you money!
