Happy Spring!
The walking onions in the photo below are growing in a shady area. At the moment they get a fair amount of sunlight but once the trees leaf out that area is quite shady.
Walking onions
First harvests of the season are: tender Walking Onions and Rossa di Treviso Chicory, a small harvest but an exciting first.
Walking Onions & Rossa di Treviso Chicory
I used the tender Walking Onions in a beef stir-fry dish (oops, got carried away with the sesame seeds).
Karen of Back Road Journal posted a Sesame Beef with Snow Peas, click here for recipe. I was craving a beef dish and her recipe was very timely.
Had all the ingredients on hand: sliced beef in the freezer, onions and garlic in storage but no snow peas, did not want to make a trip to the store so I substituted sunchoke (aka Jerusalem artichoke) and carrots that I had in storage and added the walking onion to give the dish some green. One change I made to the recipe was cut back on the chili sauce, 3 TBS is waaaaay too much for me.
NOTE: Sunchoke has a high content of inulin which some individuals have difficulties digesting, to learn more click here.
NOTE: How to make the carrot flowers in above photo? Click here and scroll down.
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Last fall when harvesting my chicory/radicchio I cut the heads at soil level and left the roots in the ground. The Rossa di Treviso Chicory (one of the 3 varieties I planted last year) in the photo below are growing from the root stumps, most but not all the stumps from the 3 varieties are producing new growth. I need to keep an eye on all the new growth and harvest before they bolt (chicory/radicchio are biennial and will bolt the 2nd year).
Rossa di Treviso Chicory
Brought in the chicory on the left and used it in a salad with Romaine lettuce, avocado, orange segments and walnuts. Dressed with a simple dressing of fresh orange juice, extra virgin olive oil, rice vinegar, salt and white pepper to taste. Walnut oil instead of olive oil would be nice but I ran out.
The chicory had just a hint of bitterness which played well with the sweetness of the orange.
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As mentioned in my March 7, 2016 post I am determined to grow onions successfully this year and started 3 different varieties from seeds. All have germinated.
While browsing in Job Lot I came upon packages of 40 sweet onion sets for $2.99. The sets look healthy and the package says easy to grow, sold. For $2.99 I must try as I have never grown onions from sets.
Sweet Yellow Onion Sets
I now have the opportunity to compare results from onion sets versus starting from seeds.
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Years ago I grew golden raspberries but somewhere along the way they disappeared. On the rack next to the onion sets at Job Lot were packages of Fall Gold Raspberry plants. I was drooling looking at those luscious golden raspberries on the carton plus the plant looked healthy so I bought one also.
Fall Gold Raspberry
No room in the fenced in garden so this was planted in an unfenced area, hope the deer leaves it alone.
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Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.
Do visit Dave at Our Happy Acres for more Harvest Mondays
Garden to Wok 
It seems strange to not be planting a garden this year so I’m enjoying reading about your new garden plans…I know you will have another successful growing year. Having sweet golden raspberries this summer sounds wonderful. I’m happy that you gave my recipe a try, thank you. I appreciate your note about the change you made. I’m guessing that the amount of spiciness to the dish depends on which brand of chili sauce with garlic that you have. My sauce was flavorful but wasn’t hot at all. I’ll change the recipe to state “or to taste”.
Hello Karen,
Will you be doing some container planting? You sure are going to miss the apple blossoms. True the “heat” of the chili sauce with garlic varies from brand to brand.
I always enjoy reading what you have been doing in the garden…the chicory looks awesome!
Hello Angie,
The chicory was a special treat without any labour involved.
Both your beef stir fry dish with the onion and the salad look delicious! The golden raspberry bush makes me drool just looking at the packaging. How wonderful it will be to have those fresh raspberries from the garden. Happy Spring, Norma!
Should have said: “like you, I was drooling” but I was too busy drooling… 😉
🙂
Hello Betsy,
Thanks. May not get any golden raspberries this year but I am hoping. Should have bought 2 plants.
The stir fry dish and the salad looks delicious.
Norma, I planted golden raspberries two years ago in our previous house and whatever harvest I got were eaten up by my little dog.
https://goo.gl/uIoaUN
Hello Balvinder,
Thanks, they were delicious.
I love sesame seeds so the stir fry looks great to me! I love the bitter of chicory and radicchio but my is not a big fan, so I stopped growing it. I love using walnut oil for a salad dressing too, and I had some for lunch today using Meyer lemon and a bit of honey with it.
Hello Dave,
I wish I could grow a meyer lemon tree but unfortunately not possible.
Hi Norma, your stir fry looks amazing to me, we love sesame seeds and I buy them in bulk. Looks like your walking onions are doing great. I tried to grow bunching onions with seed, first time. They look like little blades of grass and it has been weeks. Take care!
Hello Cheri,
I buy my sesame seeds in bulk also and do get carried away using them. The onion family are very slow growers.
Good luck with your onions Norma. Those salads look amazing, love the one with the avocado. I also love the way our blogging buddies influence our food decisions, your beef stir fry looks awesome, and I don’t think you went overboard on the sesame seeds.
Hello Eva,
I am anxious to find out the difference, if any. A lot easier to plant onion sets than onion transplants. I get lots of wonderful ideas from both my garden and foodie blogging buddies.
You continue to amaze, Norma. Harvesting already and it isn’t even April yet! I do hope the deer leave your raspberry bush alone. It would be so very nice to walk into the garden and taste a raspberry or 3 straight from your bush in mid-summer.
Hello John,
That was a harvest without work. I doubt I will get raspberries this year but hopefully next year.
The chicory salad looks and sounds marvelous. Not gonna lie tho, I am totally jealous that you are heading into delicious summery eats, while I am looking at slow cooked stodgy meals. Sighs!
Your garden is really coming to life, oh and really interesting about the Sunchoke having a high content of inulin, I enjoyed learning about that.
Hello Anna,
Now you know how I felt when you were enjoying the beach and I was shivering in the cold. Would you believe snow is in our forecast for next week? I am so not pleased. Glad you learn something from my post.