GARLIC, ONIONS, AND LEEKS are all part of the allium family, which includes hundreds of species and varieties, some sweeter, some with more bite, most having bulbs that last if stored with good ventilation. Although not as perishable as other vegetables, they may not make the grade because they are ugly or misshapen; also, we are accustomed to throwing out the tops and keeping the bottoms (the bulbs).
In the field, garlic bulbs can often become misshapen due to insufficient water or heavy soil. If one clove out of the bunch is malformed, farmers have trouble selling it at markets. They may use it as stock to replant or sell it cheaply as farmer’s garlic. The rest of the garlic head is perfectly fine. Once garlic gets “old,” it also may sprout green shoots. These shoots are tasty to eat as well.
The most perfect young garlic is juicy and mild enough to mince and eat raw. However, the more mature and less perfect cloves can be savored and turn sweet and soft by slow roasting and combining with other flavors.
Like other allium family members (including shallots, green onions, and leeks), the onion is not a root, but a bulb, and grows wild in one form or another in much of the temperate world. It is great cooked or raw and rich in vitamin C, minerals, and trace elements. Onions should not be stored in the refrigerator. Sprouted onions (unlike sprouted potatoes) are fine to eat. Drying garlic and onion scraps can also make them sweeter, with good flavor. Dry overnight at 130°F until brittle. You can use the small dried flakes of onion in dip.
Green onions (aka scallions) last well in the refrigerator, but even when they begin to wilt they can be frozen or dried and made into onion salt. And after the tops are used, the bottoms can be replanted in a pot of soil. The green onion tops will regrow, as will leeks.
Leeks are a member of this family with a very small bulb. Cooks only covet the 5-inch or smaller white stalk at the bottom of the leek plant (recipes calling for leeks’ “white and green parts only” mean this). The rest of the two-foot plants, the wide, leafy tops and the roots below, are tossed, presumably because they are large and fibrous. It seems a shame to discard four times the volume of this winter green when the tops are completely edible.