Harvesting chives

[taxlady]

Tell me about your method for end of season harvesting of chives. I always have a whole bunch of dead, dried up chive leaves and dried up scapes mixed in with the chives. It's tedious sorting the good green leaves from the dried up stuff. How do you do it? Do you have any tips or tricks? Or do you go through the tedious sorting process? By volume, I had about three times as much dried up stuff as green stuff by the time I was done.

 

[pepperhead212]

I can usually find a cluster of mostly green chives, though I do have to look around more for them at this time of year. The garlic chives at this time have those hard flower stalks, but they are easy to pull out from the top. Once they are all dried out, from the cold weather, I weed-wack them flat to the ground, so next season, new clusters grow up.

 

[taxlady]

I usually trim my chives down to about an inch height. Is there an advantage to whacking the chives flat to the ground? Does it stop it from having so much thatch? My little patch of chives has been growing in my garden for somewhere around 20 years and has been moved twice.

I remember when I first found out how hardy and undemanding chives are. We (me and my ex husband) rented an old house on a plot of land that seems to have been mostly used for harvesting wood. There had been some kitchen and vegetable gardens, but not much in the way of regular farming. Well, one day I went for a walk, to explore my surroundings. I came across a large clump of chives, growing at the edge of what seemed to be an old vegetable garden. I don't think that clump of chives had had any care in the previous 30 years. So, they obviously will keep coming back, even if they are never cut all the way down.

 

[Badjak]

I just sort, but so far it's just the odd one I need to take out

 

[taxlady]

Oh, and how do you store them or use them up? I usually lay them on a piece of waxed paper and roll them up, in the direction that keeps the package long. Then they go in a plastic bag and into the freezer. But, they are not nearly as decorative after being frozen. They seem to work best sliced small and added to something like soup, where their floppy texture is less noticeable.

 

[pepperhead212]

I just use them fresh, and in the off season, I plant a few in the hydroponics.

 

[Badjak]

I'm just harvesting what I need
I'm hoping they grow yearround. I don't know yet.
Mine are actually spring onions that I planted out and keep harvesting from.
They look and taste like chives though. No flowers yet