Thursday, July 11, 2013

Onion Harvest


While I’m trying to recover from nerve damage incurred during my recent shoulder surgery my friend Pam comes to do many things I normally would do for myself. She bakes bread and prepares food, does laundry and anything else that needs doing. Today, among other chores, she harvested our onion crop. Here she is bringing one load into the snake room.*


This year’s onion bed had been enriched last fall with chicken house cleanings: straw and manure. The pay-off is a fine onion crop.


We cure the onions by spreading them on a wood pallet that permits air circulation. The pallet sits in the snake room where it is protected from direct sun. Both doors are open to keep fresh air circulating around the pallet. After a couple of weeks the onion tops will be dry and brown, but still flexible. That will be time to braid the onions and hang them in the basement for easy access and storage.

Now Pam is making pita bread, roasted red pepper hummus and tabouli salad. I’m grateful to have Pam, a smart, capable stand-in.

* The breezeway in our house is called the “snake room” because a rattlesnake came in while the room was under construction. The snake climbed the screen of the sliding door trying to get out. Kent, the contractor, dispatched it with a hoe. We believe our breezeway was a rattlesnake highway to winter hibernation in the rocky ledges below the house.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer

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