Growing Onions On Your Windowsill

Val asked me if I wanted to write a goodbye post. I thought that was a good idea, especially since I was partway through an experiment, of sorts. 

Have you heard that you can grow your own green onions on your windowsill? I don't mean from seed or sets, though that is probably a better way to go than this plan. 

I kept running into this supposedly great idea---on Pinterest, on the Food Network, on food blogs. Oops! Guess I blew the surprise ending when I used the word SUPPOSEDLY, huh? 

I really was game for this to work.....
Even if the kitchen did smell a bit like an onion patch. After all, we are senior citizens and our sense of smell is not what it used to be, so who cared, right? 

The deal is that you purchase green onions and cut the tops off to use in cooking. That leaves you with the bottom white part, with the little hairy bottom. Are you with me on this? 

You just plunk the onion bottoms in water and wait to see the wonderful surprise. 

Number one problem: How do you keep the dumb things upright? All the pictures I saw had them propped in in little mason jars. Who has tiny mason jars? Or in tiny vases. Who saved those when we moved 5 years ago? Not me. Or in the right sized Dixie cup? Not going to go buy the right size Dixie cup for onion, for heaven's sake! Besides, it seemed to me we needed some weight to keep the wonderful experiment from tipping over. Right? 

Dug around and came up with a small clear votive cup that looked a bit like a flower pot. How clever is that? Surely that will help make this a success. Right? 

Here we are at day 1: 

Isn't that cute? 

Fits ever so nicely on the window sill above my kitchen sink. Where the wafting breeze will carry the slight smell of onions throughout the house. 

There isn't much else to do. Just watch each day and see the things grow. 

Here we are at day #14: 

Not too shabby. You can see the roots are really getting long. I wish the tops were looking that healthy. But maybe I am just impatient. Right?

In about 3 more days, things are looking a bit unappetizing. The tops are drooping, dare I say slimy? I have changed the water from time to time, but, as you can see, it's really looking foul by this point. Ugh! 

Would I eat the tops? Not on your life. Would I save the white part to chop up for a recipe? I will never, ever, ever be that desperate for onion flavor. NO MATTER WHAT. 

Just in case I somehow messed up this process, just in case my original onions were a bit long of tooth, I actually tried the experiment one more time. 

Same results. 

I have no clue what happens if you keep clipping the tops off. I was pretty tired of seeing less than stellar onions growing right at eye level every time I was in the kitchen. 

Chucked the whole thing out. 

TWICE. 

I proudly give this idea a BFF rating. In case you don't remember what that acronym stands for, it is a 

 BIG FAT FLOP

Well, hated to retire on such a downer, so I am going to leave you with something that actually works! Did you know that if you hold down the WINDOWS button [wondered what that was for!], then hit the D button on your keyboard, that will take you to your desktop, slick as a whistle?  Go head. Try it. I'll wait.......... 

See? Pretty nifty, huh? 

This is really the final good-bye chapter of the Cheap Senior Citizen. I take my leave of the wonderful world of Planet Pookie. I have appreciates the opportunity to express my somewhat wacky view on things. But after three years, I have run out of things to say. 

Jim will be so happy.

Ruth has been writing Helpful Hints and Test Kitchen posts on this blog for a few years. We have enjoyed her posts, learned a lot and laughed a ton.  Her humor will be greatly missed.

Thanks, Ruth, for sharing so much with us.  We will miss you. 

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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who shares helpful hints and results from her test kitchen.

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