All you need to know about CHIVES

 

Sowing, growing and eating………..

 

Chives

Chives are both an easy and versatile herb to grow. A perennial plant it will come back year after year although it will die back in the winter. Easily propagated by either shop bought seed or by saving the seed-heads of your own plants, it can also  be grown in pots for kitchen windowsill crops throughout the year.

With a lovely mild onion flavour they will enhance any salad, chopped and sprinkled over the top, and in potato salad they are heaven chopped into deliciously creamy mayonnaise.

One of my absolute must haves for both the outside herb bed and indoors in windowsill pots.

 

How to grow Chives

Chives are quite easy to grow with no special knowledge required. Pots of chives are normally available to purchase in garden centres, however they are easily raised from seed in both pots or open ground.

Sow seeds in pots or modules indoors in early spring, keep the compost moist but not soaking wet (chives are part of the onion family and require moisture to swell out the bulb and leaves).  once  the seedlings have grown to around 3-4 inches you can start to use them either in pots in the kitchen or planted out into outdoor herb planters or directly into the garden where they will thrive. Keep them well watered in a sunny position. The best way to stop them getting long, leggy and possibly turning yellow is to USE THEM!… The more you cut small bunches of chives from your plant the more they will put on new growth.

The pretty flower heads will eventually appear on top of the chives and these can either be left on for colour if in the garden, snipped off or if you want to start collecting your own seeds, wait until the flower heads have started to dry off a bit, then snip them off into a paper bag and keep in a dry place where eventually the small black seed will drop out of the flowers and can be sown immediately or kept for the following year.

 

Varieties of Chives

Garden Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

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Garlic Chives

Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) have a mild garlic flavour to them. The stems of garlic chives are often flatter than the garden chive and they have lovely white star shaped flowers in the summer. They are normally slightly taller than garden chives reaching around 12in (30cm) in height before flowering.They can be used in exactly the same way as garden chives.

Culinary Uses for Chives

Chives are best used fresh and you should always add chives at the end of the cooking process as if cooked for too long they will lose their flavour.

  • Add a generous amount of chopped chives to cream cheese, sour cream, creme fraiche or melted  butter to top jacket potatoes or grilled meats.