Grow your own plants - Spring Onions (Cilantro)

I like to use spring onions for cooking and garnishing, but can't seem to finish 1 entire pack bought from the supermarket. The pack of spring onions tend to go bad faster than I can use up.

I have now stopped buying them, and grow my own instead.

Firstly, they are easy and quick to grow. Secondly, they are much cheaper than buying from supermarkets. And most importantly, they are fresh and ready to be used as and when I need them.

I use a lot of shallots in my cooking and always have some in the pantry. Often times, they start sprouting before I can finish them up. These are in fact perfect for growing into spring onions.

I usually separate a bunch of them.

If the shallots have started growing some roots below, they are even better as the growing process will be faster. Unfortunately, shallots that are already soft can't be used and better to chuck them away.

Now all you have to do is get a pot of soil, plant the shallots into the soil, with the sprouts facing up and on top of the soil, leaving some space between each shallot. They grow well under direct sun and lightly damp soil. Mine gets direct morning sun and gets watered every morning.

Did I mention they grow very fast? Here they are after 1 week.

At this point you can start using them by cutting the leaves about 6cm from the soil. The leaves will grow again but they will not be as big and long as the first time. Alternatively, you can wait till they are fully grown, about 2-3 weeks, harvest them all and keep them in the fridge.

But I prefer to just keep them in the pots and cut them as required. When the bulb looks dried up, I pull it out and plant another sprouted shallot in. This way I can have a never-ending supply of spring onions!