Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)
 
This member of the onion family, smaller and with a very delicate scent, is native to northern areas with a temperate climate. Chives have long grown freely throughout Europe and North America, but common cultivation in Europe does not seem to have started until the late Middle Ages. This herb became popular only in the 19th century. 
 
culinary uses
 
Chives should never be cooked because cooking very quickly dissipates the  its flavor. Chopped with a knife or cut with scissors, it can be added in generous amounts to many dishes and salads. Its delicate onion scent, crunchy texture and fresh, green appearance bring life to a potato salad and countless  soups and adds an equally pleasant note to any herb sauce. it became a habit to serve  chives with butter or sour cream as a dipping sauce for roast potatoes. Mixed in thick yoghurt, chives make a refreshing relish to go with grilled fish. The bright, attractive flowers have a pleasant, light onion flavor and are great sprinkled over herb salads or added to omelets.
 
Essential:
For fine herbs.
 
It goes well:
With avocados, courgettes, cream cheese, egg dishes, fish and seafood, potatoes, smoked salmon and root vegetables.
 
Combines well:
With basil, chervil, parsley, cecilia and tarragon.
 
Flavor Notes:
All parts of the chives have a light onion aroma and a spicy onion flavor as well.
 
Parts Used:
The stems and the flowers.
 
Cultivation:
The chive grows in the form of clusters of hollow stems, green, shiny and grass-like, with corollas of small, spherical flowers, between pink and purple. It is a robust and perennial plant, easy to grow in any garden soil, but it must be watered well, because the small bulbous roots are located very close to the surface. The plants die in winter, but bloom again in early spring. they should be cut and not plucked, preferably the outer ones first to keep the bunch composed. Always leave a few top shoots on the bunches in order to preserve the strength of the bulbs.