Crow Garlic / Onion Grass / Allium Vineale

Also known as field garlic, onion grass and crow garlic, Allium vineale is an edible, invasive European allium many people will already know. While they take some time to clean, they're an edible plant every forager should know that's easy to identify. Today we'll go over the basics of harvesting, cleaning and cooking with them.

While I've known of this plant and cooked with it a few times, I don't see it often in Minnesota and Wisconsin. On my recent trip to Georgia to speak at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, I noticed it right away on my first (fruitless) morel foray with my host Julia Kerigan, a mycologist at Clemson University.

Julia was nice enough to take a detour to her home where the plant seemed to be everywhere. Thanks Julia-the plants survived in a suitcase just fine.

Background

Native to Europe, A. vineale is considered a noxious weed and is common in disturbed areas like lawns, fields, and woods across North America. The name onion grass is apt, as in a patch where it's established the chive-like spring shoots can be as thick as grass. The hollow green shoots of A vineale are different from other wild alliums (Allium canadense, triquetrum and others) which have flat leaves.

The best time to harvest the bulbs is late spring to early summer. The leaves can be harvested through the winter and into spring. In the summer flower stalks will create small bulblets that are edible and look similar to the A. canadense bulblets below. They're a bit like miniature garlic scapes.

Harvesting and Cleaning

While some references I have describe uprooting the bulbs by pulling on the stems, I found that gave me handfuls of greens without bulbs. Using a shovel gave a much better yield. Unlike ramps / wild leeks it's fine to harvest as much of this plant as you want as the plant is weedy and aggressive.

To be clear, A. vineale are not as good as ramps in flavor or ease of harvesting. On the bright side, they're widespread and easy to find. As they're invasive, it's also fine to dig as many as you like. One thing I noticed was that looking for the plants with the thickest stems gave the largest bulbs.

After you've dug the plants up they need to be washed repeatedly until cleaned. This is a process, and it took me about two hours to clean six ounces of onion bulbs and greens.

After the plants are washed they must be trimmed. Just like ramps, there's a thin, chewy sheath surrounding each bulb that should be peeled off.

It doesn't stop there, the next layer of flesh surrounding each bulb was extremely bitter in my collection, so I had to remove an additional layer of flesh as well. Depending on your tolerance for bitter flavors it may not be an issue.

After the plants are cleaned I like to separate the bulbs from the greenish white flower stems. The green parts of the plant that can be used like chives will have a shorter shelf life than the bulbs. I store both plants in zip top bags with a moist paper towel in the fridge. The greens will last for a week, the bulbs much longer.

Depending on the size of the bulbs, your harvest my not look like much, as smaller plants will have bulbs the size of a pea, or smaller.

How to Remove Onion Grass

Like garlic mustard, this can be a stubborn plant to remove and it will take a few years. You'll want to repeatedly dig the plants and underground bulbs, making sure that any pieces of bulb that flake off don't fall back on the ground as they'll continue to grow.

Inevitably some plants will remain, so if you don't want to use Round Up, you'll need to keep digging the plants for a few years until they become less prolific.

General Cooking

When young and tender the whole plant can be cooked as you would green garlic or a spring onion. The green and white stems are a little tougher than chives so they should be thinly sliced for cooking.

You can use the plant just about any way you'd use an onion or a pearl onion. I find the flavor much more mild and less "sweet" than ramps but not as strong as wild garlic. To me they taste a bit like small white onions with a noticeably pungent, wild flavor. Here's a few things I'll make with them and other alliaceous plants.

• The bulblets can be pickled to preserve them, sprinkled on salads and just about any place you'd use pickled onions. I used to put pickled A. canadense bulblets on beef tartare.
• If you find the green and white parts of the plant tough, they a good stand-in for ramp leaves in an infused wild onion oil.
• Finely sliced, the stems and bulbs make great onion confit, slowly simmered in a few spoonfuls of lard or animal fat with a pinch of salt and herbs. Try it warmed up and spooned on a piece of fish or risotto.
• The leaves can make a decent wild onion butter. Follow my recipe for ramp butter, omitting the blanching of the leaves. I use the butter raw as a spread or warmed up and spooned on dishes like the soup below. Make sure to slice the leaves very fine.

A Few Wild Onion Recipes

The bulbs can be used just like pearl onions, but will fade into the background a bit if they're cooked until they're tender. Like other alliums, they have an affinity for bacon.

They made a nice bowl of peas with mint and homemade pancetta.

To make it, render 2 oz bacon or pancetta cut into thick lardons. Add the onion bulbs to the pan and sweat for a minute, season and add 8 oz quickly blanched English peas. Season to taste with salt, pepper, extra sliced onion leaves and fresh mint.

My favorite dish so far has been the simplest: a rustic onion butter made by simply cooking the bulbs quickly in butter until it browns.

The slightly funky wild onion aroma infuses into the butter and is lovely spooned piping hot on grilled meats or a simple plate of fried eggs. It's probably my favorite preparation for keeping the wild flavor at the forefront. I use about an ounce of wild onion bulbs to two tablespoons of butter.

Do you cook with field garlic? Feel free to leave a comment and share your suggestions!

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