I seem to have slightly over-planted our Egyptian onions this year.  I only put in three small beds...and then three more patches sprang up from compost piles where I'd tossed the excess bulbs.  The result was so many onions that I didn't even put a dent in the population by pulling whole plants to eat over the winter, and now that it's time to harvest the top bulbs, I'm officially overwhelmed.  This basket is less than a third of the harvest!

Rather than composting the top bulbs (a method that clearly failed last year), I'm going to sell them in big bunches to anyone willing to start a good-sized Egytian onion patch.  I don't really want to get into the retail side of mailing off a few bulbs here and there, but if you're a regular commenter and just want a tiny start, email me and I'll likely oblige you.  You definitely want these plants in your garden if you grow in zones 3 through 9.  Sorry, I can't mail them outside the U.S.

To order, click on the paypal button above to buy 100 top bulbs for $25 (with free shipping.)  100 bulbs will weigh approximately 5 ounces and will be enough to start one good-sized bed that will feed one or two average people.  Your package will contain small, medium, and large bulbs.

If you really want to feed an army (and help me get rid of these top bulbs as quickly as possible), you can buy 500 top bulbs for $75 (with free shipping.)  If so, click this button instead.

Once you receive your bulbs, plant the Egyptian onions as soon as possible in good garden soil in full sun.  The very top of the bulb should be poking out of the ground, but the rest should be submerged.  Some people recommend planting them a foot apart, but I've found that my plants do well in raised beds spaced only about three inches between centers.  Leave the plants alone for a few months, then you should be able to start harvesting green onions in the middle of the fall through the winter.

To maintain a perennial patch, cut only every second or third leaf, making sure that the plant has enough green leaves to continue growing.  You can also dig up entire bulbs in the winter to use in recipes that call for leeks, but you'll want to let all your plants grow the first year.  By this time next year, your plants should be putting up top bulbs, each of which can be planted to expand your patch.  As long as you don't get too greedy and overharvest, Egyptian onions will soon become your most dependable --- and easiest --- vegetable.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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