Cipollotti

How They Grow

• Spring onions or scallions are young onions harvested before the bulb grows.
• They are picked about 60-120 days after the bulb is planted, depending on local temperatures. To keep them tender, they are blanched by covering the base of the plants using the soil between rows.
• There are two types of spring onions: white and red.
• White spring onions are white onions harvested before fully mature, and have a strong flavor. They are great for cooking.
• Red spring onions are young red onions that remain sweet even after cooking, but are particularly good raw.
• Their characteristic smell and the fact that they make one cry are due to volatile sulfur compounds that form when the onion is cut.
• They can be machine harvested or hand picked.

Their benefits

• Spring onions are rich in potassium and have a good calcium content.
• They contain vitamin C and vitamin groups B1, B2, and PP.
• They can aid digestion.
• Thanks to their depurative, detoxifying and diuretic effects, they are very useful in weight loss diets, especially for people who are overweight because of water retention.

Conservation

Keep spring onions in a dark, dry place, and spread the bulbs to that air can circulate between them. If kept in the refrigerator, put in a sealed bag.