Richey: Wild onions help with healthy cholesterol levels

If one is interested in adding foraged wild foods to dinner, an easily accessible, cool-season plant to start with is wild onion, which often can be found growing in one's own backyard.

Wild onions (Allium canadense), native to Eastern North America, have been used for food and medicine for centuries. The light green shoots grow in clumps, and have a strong onion smell when mowed or pulled up.

First, before harvesting anything for food or medicine, select sites away from industrial runoff, roads, railroad tracks where the Department of Transportation might spray herbicides or animal waste. Always know the status of the plant in your region, and only harvest what you need, leaving plants to propagate. If the site is your backyard, harvesting probably is safe.

Before nibbling, however, be sure that what you've harvested is wild onion and not something poisonous like daffodil, which also is a bulb.

Wild onion bulbs are very small and have a distinct onion odor. After harvesting, grab the green ends in one hand and knock the loose soil from the bundle of tiny white bulbs. Then clean them in the sink really well, as you pull them apart from each other. The root hairs will be tangled together, so gently separate them on a cutting board. After slicing away the root hairs from the bulbs, the onions are ready for adding to a variety of recipes.

Adding wild onions to dishes is a great way for food to be your medicine. Onions are high in anti-cancer sulfur compounds and help with healthy cholesterol levels. Onions also are high in quercetin, a fla

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