Walking Onions are classified as Allium Cepa var. Proliferum and also known as Tree Onions, Top Setting Onions and Egyptian Onions. They are a top-setting onion that produces a cluster of bulbils (little bulbs) on top of a tall stalk (pic to right). Each of those bulbils in the cluster, when planted, will produce a single onion the following season, and each single onion will produce a stalk with bulbils. It is very sustainable if you use the onions right away, or you can/pickle/freeze/dehydrate them for long-term use because they do not store well.

I culled most of my walking onions at the end of the 2022 season, with only a few stragglers that popped up on their own.

I am eternally grateful that I was introduced to them, because eventually they led me to potato onions, but walking onions neither store well nor do I care for the leathery slip/tab that runs up the side of the bulbs (see middle pic below). They are also smaller than potato onions, and have an oblong shape similar to shallots.

Plus, I prefer the taste of potato onions.

During 2023 I had an online chat with a gentleman who corrected me, saying I was supposed to be eating the bulbils, not the base bulbs. I accept that some people do that, but the bulbils are roughly the size of an American dime (barely quarter size at the largest) or pearl onion. I cannot imagine using those in recipes. I removed the skin from one and there was barely an onion inside. To each his or her own! It's not for me.

2024 I gave away the last of my bulbils and that completed my journey with walking onions. I will no longer grow them.