Wild Onions

Each spring Choctaws head out to look for the 6 to 12 inch stems of wild onions that feature one-inch wide clusters of small white blossoms. Wild onions go into a variety of dishes and you can decide what you like best. I prefer them on top of baked potatoes, with scrambled eggs and mixed with squash.

Many people loathe wild onions and consider them—along with wild garlic, leeks and dandelions--to be weeds. Some claim that they are poisonous to cattle, horses and to humans. One site that discusses the latter is “Notes on Poisoning: Wild Onion: http://www.scib.gc.ca/pls/pp/ppack.info?p_psn=161&p_type=all&p_sci=comm&p_x=px

A useful site that shows through photographs how to cook wild onions is from Wild Food Foragers of America: http://www.wildfoodforagers.org/wgonion1.htm

Ingredients:

1 cup of chopped wild onions (cultivated well away from cattle and pollution); be sure to peel the tough outer portion of the bulb and cut away the roots (although some say the roots can be used in your stock pot)

1 cup of vegetable stock

In heated frying pan or skillet, cook the onions in the stock until the water is almost gone, then add desired seasonings (pepper and garlic is what we use).

Add 6 stirred scrambled eggs (turkey, duck, goose, or *chicken) and cook until done, or add just the onions to your other dishes.

*Old World ingredient