Some thirty-odd years ago, SABC ran a TV program called Señor Onion. He was a Mexican (or Spanish?) onion and he used to play a guitar and sing; and lived in constant fear of being eaten.
It has taken me all morning, to find something on the internet, to jog your memory of this Mexican aromatic, but I can only find three references to this show, and no visuals. How on earth did we do this in the ages gone by?
Now that I have set the scene, let me share my lessons on life. Onions.
The by-product if you will, of living off the land, is good neighbourliness. It reminds me of a line I read in a sci-fi novel, which was not any easier to find on the internet. Because I read in a paperback, before I started using e or audio books, and now I can’t recall the author, nor the title. But it goes something like this:
A man stood gloriously in the sun, thinking it just and right that the sun shines just on him. Not realising that the sun shines equally on another, regardless.
So, thanks Sjelda. The onions you needed to thin out for an optimal harvest, established themselves very well in our garden, and reaped a bountiful harvest.
PS – nice idea about the “stem onions”!
Space.
Do not be stingy with your surface area consumption. Onions need breathing space in order to develop. So while sowing them makes spacing a bit challenging (given the tiny seed), the better you do at this stage, the less work there is later trying to transplant them without damage.
The same can be said for carrots, but that is another blog for another time.
Sun And Water.
In these particular beds, we make use of flood irrigation. And the onions furthest from the corner, had the most sun, and yielded the largest onions.
Harvest.
When the leaves start laying flat, probably a good time to harvest. We harvested over a period of just over a month, which tells me they can stay in the ground for a bit. We stretched it out a bit, so that we could cope with the volumes during the curing process.
Curing.
We built this air-dry cage. No dark cool places available in this semi-arid country, but the air is nice and dry. So dry, it takes a week to dry out freshly harvested spinach, herbs etc. These green things we wash, lay out in a single layer on a dish towel on the idle Jewel, under a food covering, and when we return next weekend, we have dried herbs. Celery leaves work particularly well.
Back to the onions. They stay in the cage for about 2 weeks. Then I check that they sealed properly. This is why it is important to only harvest when the leaves have fallen flat. That creates a natural seal to keep the moisture inside the onion, and no chance for moisture to escape via the stem, resulting in air pockets, or for rot to enter through the stem, and set in the middle of the onion.
Once that state of “seal” is achieved, I cut off the excess stalks, and then leave them in the cooler (not really cool, but at least dark) for another two weeks or so.
Then they are ready to use.
Use.
Caramelised onions. I shared my brother’s recipe before. Simply slice them up, toss in a little olive oil, and leave in slow cooker overnight on low setting. Next morning, if there is any moisture left, let it cook open for the moisture to evaporate.
It makes the sweetest tasting caramelised onions, without using sugar, and freezes well for later use on pizzas, smoked cheese, etc.
Pickled onions. The recipe I can share here, is for pickled ginger. I have not tried pickled onions yet.
Onion sourdough bread. Sweet & sour.
Décor. I like the whimsical Onion flower.
Factoids.
It is the tissue like skin, which makes you cry.
It is that very sweetness, that makes them a health food. They are filled with complex sugars that keep our metabolism healthy, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre beta carotene, folate (one of the B vitamins), and they have no fat.
An average sized onion has 30 calories.
It’s a strong antiseptic (and keeps unwanted people at bay also. But then again, wanted people too…. 😉)
If your feet are cold, rub chopped onions on them. The increase in blood flow will warm your feet.
Get rid of inion breath by eating parsley.
In 2012, worldwide production was estimated at 74m tonnes.
And with that, I serenade you good night. 