Background: Y’all know I’m crazy for Wild Onions (aka Meadow Garlic). The past couple weeks are the most bittersweet time of year for me. The hellscape of summer is looming. The not hot times are over. It feels like plucking the bulblets off the tops of the meadow garlic before they wilt away is the last time I will fully enjoy the outside for months. I will survive it. I will find things to enjoy. But I will long for the not hot times. Here’s what I do as much as I can this time of year.
- Find a patch of Meadow Garlic with little papery white cones of flower bulblets on top.
- Pluck a handful of them from an area well populated with them.
- Don’t gather more than a handful in any one location.
- Plop them into a jar of pickles in the fridge when you get home.
- Use them like you would capers or pickled garlic.
Why It Works
- This is your last shot before next fall.
- The handful is the right amount this time of year. It’s not too much to process or store.
- You never want to forage more than 10 percent of the plants you find in a given area.
- Any jar of pickles will do. Make sure it’s a brine you like, obviously. (Does everyone have pickles that wound up in their fridge that they don’t like?)
- The bulblets on top are like tiny cloves of garlic, but also, like capers, part of the flowers.
Mods:
- Make your own pickle brine.
- Flavor the brine with coriander seeds, which are also setting now.
- Long for November.