Home Growing food / Gardening Grow Green Onions … from your Groceries!

Grow Green Onions … from your Groceries!

by Ann
26 comments

Grow your own green onions

This is a little different from my normal recipe posts, but I HAVE to share this with you. This is so ridiculously simple, I don’t know why we haven’t been doing it all along, except maybe we never thought to … you know how when you buy green onions at the store, the bottom part has roots on it? Well, those roots, if you place them in water and put them in a sunny window … they grow!


Well, duh! Why didn’t we think of that? Why have we been throwing away green onion roots all this time? I showed it to my mother and she said “well, of course!”

All you do is cut off the white part of the onion. Use the green part for cooking.

Grow your own green onions

Put them in a cup of water:

Grow your own green onions

And set them in a sunny window. In a week or two, they will look like this! You probably have to move them into a larger glass as they grow.

Grow your own green onions ... in water! from your groceries

Change out the water every once in a while. Whenever you need a green onion, just pull it from the glass, chop off the top, and put the roots back into the glass.

Update: After a couple months growing in water, they looked like they needed planting. They were getting a little “gooey” on the sides. So I planted them in a pot and they are still growing 6 months after I initially wrote this post. Every time I need a green onion, I just chop off the tops of one or two of them, and they grow right back! I never buy green onions anymore.

This post was shared at Tuesday Talent Shows, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways and These Chicks Cooked Whole Foods Recipe Swap.

You may also like

26 comments

zelda March 10, 2012 - 8:38 am

What a brilliant idea~thanks for shearing.

Reply
Lisa @ Lisa's Dinnertime Dish March 10, 2012 - 8:44 am

That’s brilliant, Ann! I love this idea!! I always seem to either not have any green onions, or the the ones I have are going bad, so this is perfect. 🙂

Reply
Tiffany/MyCrowdedKitchen March 10, 2012 - 8:50 am

Thank you for sharing this! I’m going to start doing this. 🙂

Reply
willamettevalleyhomesteader March 10, 2012 - 9:18 am

I have some in soil in my solar greenhouse but never thought to grow them indoors like that. Great idea.

Reply
Michele March 10, 2012 - 10:27 am

Brilliant! Thanks, dear Ann, for the nudge. Now I’m really encouraged to do this. It works! 🙂

Reply
Tiffany {A Clove of Garlic} March 10, 2012 - 12:28 pm

You did it! I saw this on Pinterest and thought, “Does it really work?” I mean, it made total sense but then I thought, “Why isn’t anyone doing it???” But you did! And you inspired me. I will have to make it happen…

Reply
Ann March 11, 2012 - 7:54 am

Yes! I’m so glad you’re going to try it 🙂

Reply
Tammi March 10, 2012 - 2:05 pm

This does work. i been doing it for about a month now. Wondering if it will work with stuff like leeks

Reply
Ann March 10, 2012 - 2:55 pm

It probably would … it’s worth a try!

Reply
Sawsan@ Chef in disguise March 11, 2012 - 6:48 am

Love it Ann!
I saw it on pinterest but seeing you do it made me think that I really should give this a go
it doesn’t get any fresher than this!

Reply
Ann March 11, 2012 - 7:56 am

I hope you try it too! It’s so fun.

Reply
egg me on March 11, 2012 - 1:21 pm

Genius! What a great idea. I’m trying this.

Reply
PolaM March 11, 2012 - 5:04 pm

That is brilliant! Do you think it would also work for leeks?

Reply
Ann March 12, 2012 - 10:38 am

I haven’t tried it with leeks, but I bet it would!

Reply
Epicurea March 12, 2012 - 10:30 am

just came across your blog and am already hooked. this idea is genius (and i love the beerstein-like glas)!

Reply
Ann March 12, 2012 - 10:38 am

Thank you! I’m so glad you stopped by 🙂

Reply
Melissa Placzek March 13, 2012 - 7:02 pm

I’m totally sharing this! did you see (I think it was over at Gypsy’s Melting Pot…I’ll go look for it and try to post the link)…where you bury the bottom of a stalk of celery in your garden and you can grow your own celery from an old stalk? so cool!

~M

Reply
Ann March 13, 2012 - 8:04 pm

I did! and guess what I am growing next? hee hee 🙂

Reply
Springtime at last :) « kidssakes March 17, 2012 - 2:48 pm

[…] you and interesting for the kids… grow green onions from your groceries, demonstrated here by Sumptuous Spoonfuls, a totally ingenious and fun idea… Growing green […]

Reply
Kitchen Gardener: Grow Green Onions From Cuttings! April 1, 2012 - 5:24 pm

[…] to the charming blogger Sumptuous Spoonfuls for the initial idea. You can see her post on it here, in case you don’t believe me that it worked, because she did it, too! But I am pretty much a […]

Reply
Debi September 29, 2012 - 6:41 pm

I am going to the store first thing in the morning to buy green onions! ~smile~ Thank you for the great post! <3 and hugs sweetness!

Reply
Ann September 29, 2012 - 6:47 pm

I’m so glad you’re going to try it, Debi! 🙂

Reply
Ally's Kitchen September 30, 2012 - 10:37 am

Cool beans, Ann!! Love, tweeted, and shared on FB! xo

Reply
Ann September 30, 2012 - 10:51 am

aw thanks dear Ally!

Reply
maz lovefoodies February 1, 2013 - 11:39 am

What a eureka moment! It never even crossed my mind, yet I use spring onions almost everyday in my Chinese cooking, Makes me want to go fish the roots out of the bin now! (of course I won’t but ughhhh all those wasted roots over the years!).
Thanks very much for sharing this idea. Fantastico..and you’ve just made a foodie lover very happy!

Reply
Ann February 1, 2013 - 7:06 pm

I felt the same way when I discovered this trick! So glad I could help 🙂

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More