Spring Onion Summer Isle

Summer Isle is an early-maturing Japanese bunching onion with a lovely sweet, mild flavour and is reputed to be less pungent than many other varieties. An AGM winner recognised for its excellent garden performance, it's a fantastic choice for salads and stir-fries. Sow throughout the growing season for summer and autumn harvesting.

Sow: from March to September in the open, about 10mm deep. Sow sparingly to minimise thinning and make further sowings every few weeks for a succession of salad onions through summer and autumn.

Grow: pull as needed. Later sowings can be protected with cloches as the weather turns colder, extending your harvest into the winter months.

Enjoy: we find Summer Isle particularly good raw in salads, where its sweet, mild flavour really comes into its own. It's also excellent sliced into stir-fries. Surplus spring onions can be cut into strips and frozen, ready to add straight to cooked dishes another time.