One Inch Green Spear Defeats Winter

Green, spicy, chewy.  With one bite, an inch-long green spear defeats the winter doldrums.  But perhaps I should start at the beginning.  This year, the groundhog saw his shadow—what?  Start farther back?  All right.

A decade ago, Grandma gave me
an onion chive plant; it was my first herb.  Like most things I heard about before 30, I knew nothing about onion chives.  I planted it and went to the library for reinforcements.

Onion chives are easy, hardy perennials, which grow in one foot mounded clumps.  The leaves look like long spears that point up until they get too long and then cascade.  Lilac pom-pom flowers grow on tough stalks.  You can eat the leaves (cut them off in handfuls close to the base), and the flowers (disband the flowerettes from the stalk).  The stalk is edible but tough.  Cut everything off close to the base in midsummer to generate new growth.

One year, when there was still snow in the shade, I saw weeds by my hose, along the south side of my garage.  Like a general, I went into battle-mode.  I found Grandma's onion chive plant, divided a clump off, and planted it in the weed-free hole.  Sleeper agent planted.

When I can't stand winter any more, I patrol the garden looking for signs of spring. 

A month ago, the enemy saw its shadow.  Last week, we had a foot of snow.   Three days ago, while on patrol, I tore off last season's brown, dead growth from the onion chive clump. 

Today, I pulled off one green spear, about an inch long.  Sleeper agent activated.  Winter is retreating in our garden.

Skirmishes with winter will last another two months, but we will be eating chives in everything but cookies and milk.  Every bite is a victory.