re: Yard Onions

Jeanne,

I grew up in Tennesee (hence my love of Southern foods like pimento cheese!), and we always called these dark-green tufts in the lawn "yard onions." Yard onions are definitely considered weeds. I mean, people try to eradicate them from their lawns. They tend to grow a little faster than the grass, so they tend to show up as little dark green tufts. They are a bit like scallions, only each green shoot (is that the right term?) is very thin and tubular and hollow, like a tiny straw or swizzle stick. If you pull them up, you'll see lots of little white bulbs, just as scallions have. As a child, I used to pretend-cook with these yard onions. But the first time I ever saw them mentioned in a recipe was last year when I bought this great Southern cookbook called _A Gracious Plenty_, in which a recipe for pimento cheese calls for yard onions. I haven't tried adding yard onions to my pimento cheese yet, but maybe your query has inspired me finally to do it!

Sandy