#field garlic

(Allium vineale)

Native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, it is considered a noxious weed in the US. It spreads rapidly via underground bulbs and aerial bulblets, often in gardens and lawns.

All parts are edible—the bulbs, leaves, and flowers. They are often used as a garlic, chive or spring onion substitute in cooking, added to soups, stews, or raw in salads.

Finely chop and use as a garnish for omelets, potatoes, stir-fries, and eggs. Pulse chopped greens with room-temperature butter to make a compound butter for steaks, baked potatoes, or toast (or make rustic wild garlic butter below—my personal favorite culinary use). Swap basil for wild garlic leaves and blend with nuts, olive oil, and Parmesan for a savory pesto. Use the greens in savory Korean-style pancakes (buchujeon). Slowly simmer finely sliced bulbs and stems in lard or animal fat for a garlic confit used over fish or risotto. Roast bulbs to add depth to pasta sauces or mashed potatoes. Preserve aerial bulblets in brine to use like pickled onions or capers on salads and beef tartare. Use the flowers raw as a decorative and peppery garnish for salads or soups. Dry chopped leaves and blend with sea salt to create a vibrant wild garlic salt that lasts year-round.

Allium vineale (field garlic) is valued in traditional and alternative medicine for its antimicrobial, cardiovascular, and respiratory benefits.

Hanging dried bundles of the long, wiry leaves over doorways is believed to keep out unwanted spirits or negative influences. Historically, wild garlic was carried as an amulet for protection against the "evil eye" or general ill-will from others. In a literal and magical crossover, it is used to "ward" a garden, as its scent naturally repels garden pests and is symbolically seen as protecting the "health" of the land.

The pungent, sulfurous aroma is said to "scrub" the air of stagnant or "heavy" energy. Some practitioners use the crushed leaves in purification baths to "strip" away lingering negative attachments (though the scent is strong, so use sparingly!). Because it is invasive and hard to kill, it is used in spells requiring persistence or the strength to banish a persistent problem.

Connected to the planet Mars and the element of Fire, wild garlic is used to stoke internal "heat." Ancient soldiers often consumed garlic for strength before battle. Wild garlic is used in modern ritual to boost personal power, stamina, and the courage to face conflict.

It is used in rituals to "jumpstart" a situation that has become stuck or dormant.

(Quick notes found through google. Please use caution and further research before doing your own experimentation with this foraged food).

Fried Eggs with a Rustic Wild Garlic Butter (5/29/25)

Wild/field/crow garlic (Allium vineale) (5/20/25)

Wild Garlic for Protection (5/20/25)

Korean Steamed Eggs served with Steamed Shiso Leaves: Quick Microwave Meal (5/21/25)

Black Fairy Spear Charm—A Personal Working (5/21/25)

Wild Garlic Greens and Potato Pancakes (5/22/25)

Eggs Poached in Sorrel Apple Soup and Topped with Wild Garlic Rustic Butter (5/24/25)

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits with Wild Garlic (5/25/25)

Japanese Style Scrambled Eggs with Wild Garlic (5/26/25)

Cactus Fries—Deep Fried Cactus Paddle, with Mayo based wild garlic dipping sauce (5/27/25)

Grits with Cheddar Cheese and Wild Garlic-Pepperweed Infused Butter (5/30/25)

Omelette with Foraged Sheep Sorrel, Wild Garlic, and Pepperweed

Ciorbă de Cuie — Sort Of (5/31/25)

Cheese and Cactus Enchiladas with Ancho Sauce (6/1/25)

Papară with Foraged Herbs (6/2/25)

Southern Biscuits with Edible Flowers (6/8/25)

Ramen Garnished with Foraged Shiso and Wild Garlic (6/11/25)

Warding the House before Hallowtide (10/31/25)

Saint Catherine’s Day and Protecting the Household at the Beginning of Witches’s Nights (11/25/25)

Wild garlic under the Christmas Eve table (12/24/25)

Let’s talk about bulbils! joey makes fun of me on the reg for stealing these from all the forgotten scapes but GUYS

when garlic is done flowering, it leaves behind a small clone of the underground bulb at the top of the stalk (scape). ↓

as seen here in my one of my more popular tiktoks, with over 6 comments worldwide

this smol clone bulb is SO smol in fact, that instead of being called bulbs, they’re called bulbils. 🥹 you can plant them the same way you do a regular bulb, and doing so will even help to better accclimate your garlic to your specific growing conditions!! and doesn’t transmit soil-born disease!!! highly recommend if you want a 2-year garden project.

did i also mention that they are EDIBLE?

they are tiny bombs of garlic that you can do all kinds of fun things with without much work

toss them in salad! sprinkle em on top of pizza (my jersey trash fave!) crush em and toast them and have the best thing to dust on EVERYTHING

here i made garlic bulbil biscuits. just add them to dough as is!

common garlic is great to use for this if you grow it, but you can ALSO do this with field garlic (AKA onion grass, wild onion, allium vinneale, crow garlic). this is what i use mostly because it’s DAMN EVERYWHERE

I thought it would be funny to grow field garlic (allium vineale) in a garlic crouton bag. So I'm gonna. It's its own plant label.

Backyard Foraging Finds Recap

It never ceases to amaze me just how many varieties of edible and or practical “weeds” spring up in our small backyard year after year. For this reason, we rarely mow our lawn in a single year. The wild plants offers our chickens tasty treats and the pollinators a reliable source of sugar. We eat some of the greens as salad and even dry and storage others for later usage. Here’s my running list of the edible and practical weeds that I have “identified” from the zone 7a yard...so far, because I know there are so many more I’ve missed. What’s in your yard? 

Dead Nettles

Chickweed

Dandelion

Lambsquarter

Purslane

Dayflower

Poor Man’s Pepper

Plaintain

Wood Sorrel

Clover

Field Garlic