Allium schoenoprasum
150 seeds
Maturity: 80 days
Potential perennial
Grown by Foundroot in Haines, Alaska using regenerative agriculture practices.
The oldest species of edible onion with known use in China since 3000 BCE, Chives are grown for their leaves and edible flowers. Hollow blades of greens grow in grass-like clusters over 12" tall and produce delicious lilac colored flowers. Tolerates poor soil, variable conditions, and neglect while being the first plants up in the spring. An essential part of any home garden and one of the easiest perennials to establish down to Zone 3, possibly below with some mulch. Plants will produce seed readily but are more often dug up in clumps and divided to share.
FROM THE FARMERS
Chives are the first thing to come up and tell us that it is spring. When you have eaten through the last of your stored food, chives provide the fresh flavor of homegrown goodness that gears us up for the growing season. As ignorable, cold hardy, and tolerating of your worst soil as rhubarb, we recommend everyone start their garden with a patch of chives. We bordered our home space with them when the garden was established, sowing directly from seed, and they have come back reliably ever since. Smoked salmon cream cheese should never be without chives on your Sunday bagel.