I’m a total sucker for any cooking-oriented clickbait post on social media. Especially ones with headlines like “25 Secret Cooking Tips From Pro Chefs” or “Kitchen Stuff You’re Doing Wrong!” Rarely, do I actually find anything all that earth-shattering or enlightening, but once in a while something truly useful is offered and I’m grateful that I caved and made that click (annoying ads aside). This was one of those great times. It was so long ago, that I no longer recall exactly where this tip was posted, but I’m so glad that it was.

So many recipes in my regular rotation call for scallions (green onions). They keep relatively well in the fridge, but after a week or so, they’re usually in a sad, pathetic, limp state. This little hack allows you to have a generous supply of scallions at your disposal, without having to remember to include them in your regular grocery order.

Simply cut off as much of the green part of the scallion as you need, taking care to retain in place the part of the scallion root-end that is entirely white (including, of course, the root itself). Then, place the severed scallion roots in a vessel with just enough water to leave the tips exposed out of the water. Within just a few days, the green part of your scallions will start to grow! The scallions in my image above had been cut merely five days before I took this photo. The only drawback is that you do have to remember to add-in and change-out the water every other day or so, otherwise the water level will get too low and what water remains will start to reek of onion. I’ve had little glasses of the same scallions on my windowsill going for a few months. After then, the new growth starts to become sparser and the submerged root end takes on an unattractive brown color, so at that point, I replace them.

I think they look pretty perched up on the kitchen windowsill, especially in the cute little Swanky Swig glasses that my Mom gifted to me a few years ago. If you’re much older than 40, you’re probably familiar with Swanky Swigs, as it seemed like everybody’s grandmother had a bunch of these floating around her house. Swanky Swigs were a hugely successful marketing strategy innovated by the Kraft Company in which they packaged their entire line of processed cheese spreads in reusable glass containers. Launched during the Great Depression in 1933, and decorated in attractive, colorful floral patterns, they soon became wildly popular and were a part of the Kraft product line well into the 1970s (click here for a more detailed history of these colorful little glasses). My Mom, who was born during the Great Depression, became enchanted with Swanky Swigs as an adult and amassed a collection of several dozen. A few years ago, while cleaning out her house, she asked me if I wanted them, and I couldn’t resist taking them all. They’re the perfect size for a kitchen windowsill, especially for this scallion hack, and I think of my Mom every time I see them.

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— Text and all images by Stacey