Here it comes again!

[Clipper]

Yet another blast of snow and winter weather headed your way. NY and the NE have sure been under the gun in recent weeks. Winters are expected to be moderately harsh in upstate NY, but nothing like I have been seeing photos of in recent days. Camps and houses completely coated in ice and blown snow, and ice piling up on 10 and 12 feet deep on the banks of the Niagara river. I remember blizzards and heavy snowfalls and ice piling up on the shores near Sylvan Beach and damaging dwellings in years gone by, but I think it is the first time I have seen pictures of those camps in Sylvan Beach coated with a thick layer of windblown snow and ice.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/march-roars-in-like-a-lion-millions-to-endure-coast-to-coast-snow-then-punishing-blast-of-record-cold/ar-BBUeRtV

We are expected to return to winter this coming week also, but nothing terribly harsh. A possibility of snow flurries on Monday, and temperatures dropping back to the teens and twenties at night and only the mid thirties during the day. February has been the third wettest month in history. We had 10 1/2 inches for the month.

Yep. Spring is just around the corner. Only question is what corner. Not the next one that is for sure. I guess we can all just stay in, stay warm, and watch 60's beach movies and travelogues of the Caribbean while patiently waiting to turn that corner. It is a dark and dreary day here today with a steady drizzle falling and a high of 58 expected this afternoon.

[clarencebunsen]

It's all relative. This week my brother-in-law posted pictures of going out into -40 temps in Winnipeg.

[Clipper]

Experienced that a couple of times living in northern Minnesota. No thanks. Living in the South has turned me into a "weather wimp." I have gotten so I wear a winter coat when it is in the fifties. That was almost t-shirt weather a few years ago. When we first moved here I never wore anything heavier than a quilt lined flannel shirt all winter long.

[Deleted]

From evening news we( Mohawk Valley ) in this area might be missing out of the full throttle of this storm. I hope.

[clarencebunsen]

Some snow but not a lot and cold this week. It's the time of the year when I am ready for winter to be over.

[Deleted]

Yup but this is March and that is a crazy month for weather systems.

[Clipper]

It certainly is PB. We have robins and cardinals hopping about the yard and a pair of wrens building a nest in one of my birdhouses by the garage, but the warm weather ends today and the coming week will see those winter temperatures again. When I took the dog out this morning, the daffodils are in bloom and I could smell the wild onions that pop up all over the back yard. I don't know where they come from or what they may be, but they grow wild in clumps similar to chives. They are about 4 or 5 inches tall already, but during summer I mow them and when I do I get a whiff of the onion smell.

[Deleted]

Oh yest those wild onions. I remember them well from living in Missouri. Sometimes the dairy farmer we got out milk from while in House of Studies his cows would get into them and dine on them. I just got used to onion flavored coffee then I was transferred. Occasionally I made chocolate pudding. Had that hint of onion also. Cheerios on the other hand never tasted so well.

[Clipper]

LOL! I can imagine milk permeated with onion. Yuk!

[Deleted]

And Brother Vincent would say to us: You drink that or you drink water. Your choice. We listened to him. He served as a Marine.

[kit]

Clipper, those wild onions could be a very valuable commodity to your culinary repertoire. Are they bulbous like regular onions or more like scallions, or maybe chives? Whichever, I'm sure you could add them to your dishes as a main ingredient or a garnish. Any chance you could take a photo of them sometime and post it? I'd like to see what they look like.

[Clipper]

When we first moved here I thought that they were chives and I tasted them. They smell like onions but they taste like grass. No chive flavor. I have never dug any up to see if they have a bulb on them or not. If they do they would probably never bulb out big enough to be eaten like scallion in this clay. I have a hard time keeping enough compost in the garden to keep the soil loose. Where those thing are growing in the middle of the lawn the ground is like cement and probably gets even more compacted when I mow.

truth be known I don't really like chives anyway, and I can buy scallions during the summer growing season here two bundles of 10 or12 for a little over a buck. The only thing I ever use scallions in is fried rice.

[kit]

I guess the wild onions aren't as valuable as I thought. When I used to ride my motorcycle in the summer on 'head-clearing' runs through the country, I'd often pass through an area where a framer had recently mowed and would get that wonderful smell of freshly cut tarragon. Wow, that was sure a treat. It was certainly better than if the farmer had recently fertilized, that's for sure.

[Clipper]

Kit, I am sure that there are many varieties of onions growing wild that are quite edible, but those in our yard don't seem to be among them. I guess I am not that culinarily adventurous or curious. I have tried growing shallots and onions in the garden here with no luck. I have tried planting onions from seed as well as from sets when my dad lived with us with little success. He loved scallions and radishes. For one reason or another the onions I planted would get about half the size of a golf ball and then would rot in the ground while the rest of the garden thrived. Probably a matter of not enough drainage for them in the heavy soil. The garden plot has historically been very fertile and amenable to growing things. It was a tobacco plot for many years right up until about 5 yrs before me moved here.

Have you ever foraged for wild leeks? There used to be a huge area covered with wild leeks behind the West Canada Valley High School. My paternal grand father used to forage for leeks in a spot between Clayville and West Winfield where we also used to go to pick wild mushrooms and puffballs. My grand mother would make a cream soup with them and potatoes that I never liked as a kid and would not eat.

We just use either Vidalia or Texas sweet onions for most things, and occasionally a red or purple onion for color in a salad. We went to a spring ramp festival once when we first moved here. There was a variety of dishes utilizing ramps as well as raw ramps for sale. People eat them like scallions. For me they tasted more like leeks and were a bit too pungent for my liking.

Do you use a lot of shallots in your cooking? My sister in-law as well as my oldest son's gourmet cooking lady friend cook with them often. I never thought the taste to be all that much different from an onion and worth the price they garner. Regular onions and garlic seem to fit all of OUR culinary needs.

Your reference to the smells you experience riding through the countryside on a motorcycle bring back fond memories. The smell of freshly mown hay, the fresh smell of the air after a summer rain, as well as the smell of pine as we used to ride up North. I haven't ridden or owned a motorcycle since the early 80's. I stopped riding when it seemed like every car on the road was out to kill a cyclist. It was like there was a bounty on us, haha.

[BHU]

If you have a recipe that calls for shallots you can substitute red onion. They're very similiar. While were on the subject of onions i love french onion soup. Panera used to offer it & it was fantastic. The last time i checked their website it wasen't on the menu. I've always wanted to learn how to make it but never have.