It’s that time of year.  The wild garlic has sprouted up in my yard in what seems like overnight and I’m ready to start using it in my recipes.  But, how do I know if it’s edible?  And how can I tell if it’s wild onions or wild garlic popping up?

Wild garlic growing in the woods by my house. It looks like grass at first glance, but closer up it reveals its similarity to green onions or chives. It is also far outpacing the yard grass in this cool weather.

A full wild garlic bulb with stem pulled from the back, left of the clump in the above picture.

Wild garlic is identified by its garlic/onion odor and hollow stem.  Wild onions have a flattened stem.

How the wild garlic bulb looks when split open. Although difficult to differentiate from a wild onion, both are edible and good tasting!

And the taste?  Today’s sample had a wonderfully strong flavor of garlic with the slight heat you would expect from a standard onion.  Yum!

Remember that while both are edible, I don’t recommend randomly going out and tasting your yard greens without proper education!  You could get a rotten tummy or even poisoned by popping the wrong yard greens into your salads.  So please, take my info at heart, and if you have any question as to plant identification: Stop!  Don’t eat it!  Learn from an expert!