I took a looky-loo at the recipe database on my iPad and did a search by keyword for green onions and scallions. Turns out that I have 247 recipes saved or created by me that include green onions. They’re a mainstay of some of my favorite Asian, Mexican and Caribbean dishes. I almost always have a glass jar with about an inch of water on the counter with a fresh, pungent bouquet of Stop & Shop scallions plunked in it.

But it has come to my attention recently that all scallions are not created, or even sold, equally.

Stop & Shop Nature’s Promise Green Onions/Scallions — $1.79 for 1 oz bunch. Yes, they’re organic, but they don’t offer any other scallions in the store. And they’re about the thickness of a pencil.

When I cruised across the street to Aldi in Waterford, I spotted the pre-bagged Dole green onions and it stopped me cold. Dole Green Onions — $ .95 for 5.5 oz. Five times the amount of onion for almost half the price. And each scallion was about the thickness of my index finger. It’s one of those bargains that make you give yourself a V8 slap to the forehead, even if you are only saving a buck.

But can I actually use 5 oz of green onions before they wilt? No problem; I simply grabbed a small pot from my greenhouse and filled it with potting soil and planted them (they still have the roots attached). Within two days, they were showing new growth. Now, if I need some of the green tops, I simply snip them off and it keeps on growing. If I need the whole onion, I pull it up from the soil, give it a rinse under the faucet and start chopping.

Just to contrast and compare, I went back to Stop & Shop and bought one of their puny bunches of scallions and planted it at home and placed it alongside the Dole variety on my windowsill. It grew just as well as the Dole, but it’ll be weeks before they are the size that the Dole variety was when I first purchased it. Bottom line: the Dole is a better deal all the way around, but if you absolutely have to have organic scallions, the S&S Nature’s Promise is only a deal if you plant it and let it grow for a few weeks.