onions

 

 

i miss this.  at the old house i never kept my onions in the frige no did i ever buy onions. 

whenever i needed an onion, i would simply send a boy out to the backyard to pull one.  we had a fantastic pull one plant one routine going on.  the chosen little boy would take his time deciding on the best onion to pull, yank it out of the ground and pull a replacement onion set out of his pocket.  he would then drop the tiny new onion set into the hole left by his newly picked mature onion as rehearsed with his mother.  this little boy would usually bring his freshly picked onion in through the back door, greens, dirt and all and swing it wildly though the living room sprinkling my compost all over the room before dropping it as requested into the sink for me. 

i would rinse it and peel it and cut off the greens dropping the scraps into the compost bucket which would then be sent back out to the back yard by another little boy.  i miss that

fresh onions are beautiful.  i am reminded of my 4h days whenever i trim fresh onions.  i often step back and judge them when i have trimmed and peeled them.  often times i award them a blue ribbon in my imaginary county fair.  this is why i have 67 photos of onions on my computer at all different stages of the planting, growing, picking, cleaning, cutting, cooking and composting. 

i paid $2.99 last week for two pounds of yellow onions that i will use up within about two weeks.  i paid $1.79 for a bag of onion sets last year that lasted me for six months.

i don’t have a garden at the new house yet.  lots of things seemed to be priorities when we first moved in, but now i am realizing that had i planted things immediately upon moving in, we would be harvesting by now.  on the other hand, i remind myself that i was 8 months pregnant and surrounded with boxes to unpack when we moved in. 

i have selected the area that i will start converting into my garden, purchased soil and even have a few plants to go along with the hundreds of seeds ready to go in the ground.  i just need to find the time, inspiration and energy to get it done.

i am going to attempt an in ground garden for the first time in florida.  i have always done well with raised beds but for my kitchen garden here at this house i want to see if i can avoid the raised bed theme.  i plan to grow all my herbs, onions, garlic and tomatoes just steps from my door so that i can seamlessly harvest and cook. 

of course before i have even started this garden, i am busy planning the rest of them.  i’ve been fascinated for the last year or so with urban gardens and permaculture and the possibility of growing a large percentage of what we eat instead of buying it.  we have a relatively constant growing season although rather poor soil quality. 

instead  of dreaming about what i don’t have and blogging about what i miss, i should really just be out there making it happen right now.  but i’m comfy and it’s raining out and huck is nursing so i think i will just have to wait till tomorrow to make that happen.

goodnight world.

sweet dreams of onions and blue ribbons