When I cleaned the perennial beds this week I uncovered clumps of chives. New green growth pushes up from under the dead leaves of last year's plant.
Once the old grayish brown remains are pulled away, there stands the chives plant with green leaves and their faint onion smell.
All of our chives plants (there are many clumps in the lakehouse gardens and at the farm) are divisions of a plant that Ed's grandmother, Clara Finkbeiner Eichler, gave to us when we first moved to Pigeon. Grandma Eichler had received her chives plants from Clayton Diller's mother, Edith, who lived just up the street from Ed's grandmother.
Many, many divisions later, we enjoy the color of chives in the spring, the lovely lavendar blossoms in June and the aromatic taste almost any time of the growing season. My favorite way to enjoy chives is to snip the leaves into tiny bits and stir them into a fresh carton of cottage cheese. Chives is good in scrambled eggs, too.
In our gardens, chives is a heritage plant and a kitchen door necessity.
Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler
That is exactly what I do Wanda, cottage cheese, the main use and in recipes calling for chives. My chives came from my mother's plant which came from my grandmother's plant and who knows where from before that time.
ReplyDeleteThe above was my post
ReplyDeleteCarol Geiger
I am moved by the heritage nature of plants. Yesterday we drove through Huron City, a museum complex between Port Austin and Port Hope. There is a lovely row of Seven Sisters roses along a white fence in front of the main house there. I have one Seven Sisters rose which is already leafing out. I wanted to see what the roses at Huron City looked like.
ReplyDeleteTo my dismay, the entire row of roses has been removed and there are grape hyacincths growing in the ground where the roses had been. I shouldn't be heartbroken by the loss of roses, but I am close. The drift of dark green leaves and the late June pink blossoms are gone.
So, these heritage plants come to mean a lot to us.
Thanks for your comments, Carol.