Nodding Onions

Nodding onions are found throughout the western half of Montana.  Several mostly open slopes near my cabin support fairly dense populations of wild onions. All parts of nodding onions are edible.  The flowers are particularly peppery.

I harvest and eat a few nodding onions every so often.  Desiree has adopted nodding onion as a flavoring ingredient when cooking fish.  They work well for this.  Most articles about nodding onions suggest using them as herbal flavoring rather than using them as a replacement for domestic onions.

Also, a word of caution.  Early in the spring, before flowering, death camas, another member of the lily family, can be mistaken for a wild onion.   As the name implies, death camas is poisonous.  Death camas is said to be quite bitter to the taste.  If you intend to harvest nodding onion, do some research.  Several informative videos can be found on YouTube.  I have included the link for one here.

Harvested Nodding Onions and Flowers

Desiree and a Handful of Nodding Onions

Onion Versus Death Camas Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8vz7B0hLC8

—Mitchell Hegman