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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