This week we is the annual discussion about onions. But first how about a few announcements.
We have a number of interesting projects for those people who like to do interesting projects. The first is the onion processing where you dust off the onions and lop off their tops. Simple. Easy. And can be done sitting down! Another project is weighing stuff for WinterShare. In particular we have garlic, onions, potatoes, winter squash and shallots. Some of these are awaiting other projects (like the aforementioned onion processing project) but others are ready wherever you want to lend a hand (like the garlic weighing project). All of these involve the ability to take things out of one bag, put them into another bag and check to make sure you put the right amount into the second bag, then correct if you are off. A bit involved but I’ve found most people get the hang of it after one or two bags. Let me know if you are interested in helping out!
As I mentioned in my brief newsletter on Monday we have honey for sale. Mae’s Market Honey from Fresh Earth Farms resident bees. You can order some online or pick it up at your next veggie pickup!
As of this newsletter we are scheduling the garlic planting for Saturday October 5th. Pencil it into your calendar and as we get closer and the forecasts become more accurate (Ha!) we will confirm that in fact October 5th is the garlic planting day.
What will we have this week?
The usual. Potatoes (we are giving out Purple Viking potatoes this week), garlic, onions, peppers and then some broccoli, some Napa cabbages, some kale, some okra, a few tomatoes, a few tomatillos, a few cherry tomatoes, and then some other things I am forgetting. The summer crops are quickly winding down though the peppers are hanging in there. I’m still hopeful that the beans in the hoop house will be ready before we get a frost!
It is also a ‘ShroomShare and FlowerShare week. ‘ShroomShare is oyster mushrooms. FlowerShare is a dwindling supply of annual flowers. This week might be the end of the flowers for this year but stay tuned. We also have gourds and hopefully some pumpkins that the deer left behind for a future FlowerShare week.
As of the time this newsletter was written it was unknown if we will have the potatoes for WinterShare ready for pick-up. If you purchased WinterShare, check your pick-up location for potatoes in case we found the time to put them together.
Farm News
Lets talk about onions — the equally smelly cousins of garlic. I know I’ve done the onion talk in the past but sometimes people forget, or weren’t around back then or simply didn’t pay attention (and I just want to let you know I know who you are). So it behooves us all to revisit onions every so often to refresh our memories.
We give out a variety of onions over the course of the season, from the green onions at the beginning of the year, to the sweet bulbing onions we are giving out now, to the pungent, storage onions we give out with WinterShare and to our regular shares closer to the end of the season. Each onion has it place in our cooking repertoire but in some cases — but not all — they can be used interchangeably.
Green onions are onions that are bred to not bulb. We typically eat the whole onion except for the roots. The white part of a green onion can be mild or strong depending on the variety. The green part tends to be more mild. They can be eaten raw or cooked, but usually if you cook them the whites are separated from the greens — unless you grill them which is what a lot of people do with the vast number of green onions we give out.
Bulbing onions come in two types — sweet and pungent. They can also be red, white or yellow (no blue though). The interesting thing to me as a farmer is reading a recipe that calls for a certain color of onion. Sometimes it makes sense because of the visual aspect of the dish. But more often people equate color to the type of onion — sweet or pungent — and there isn’t really any correlation. Some yellow onions are sweet. Others are pungent. Same can be said for red onions. Many recipes are more precise and will specify something like “sweet Spanish onion” which makes far more sense. But recipes that call for yellow onions are asking for trouble. Do you want a sweet yellow onion or a pungent yellow onion? I’m here to answer that question. And this applies to all onion colors.
Sweet onions are sweet because they have less of the sulfurous compounds that make onions pungent. These compounds also make our eyes water. Pungent onions have both sweet and pungent compounds but the pungent compounds overwhelm the sweet taste. So, if you are making a raw dish like salsa or Greek salad it is best to go with a sweet onion otherwise all you’ll taste for the next several days is onion. And if you find your sweet onion to be a little pungent, running the cut onion pieces under water will remove a lot of the pungentness (pungenicity?).
Pungent onions are actually sweeter than sweet onions but that sulfur really hides the sweetness. To bring it out all one has to do is cook the onion. You will find cooked pungent onions are sweeter than cooked sweet onions. That is why you should use pungent onions for dishes like onion soup where you are looking for that great onion flavor with sufficient sweetness and flavorful umami. That’s not to say you can’t cook sweet onions. They will be quite tasty too, just maybe not as sweet as cooked pungent ones.
Without the sulfurous compounds, sweet onions do not store as long as pungent onions. That is why pungent onions are frequently called “storage” onions. The sulfur compounds keep them from going bad. Sweet onions typically “store” for a few months before sprouting or rotting. They should be kept in a cool, dark place. Keeping them in the fridge will make them last longer but isn’t necessary and it would take up valuable fridge real estate. Storage onions can last six months or more with proper storage conditions. Green onions can last several week in the fridge — especially if you put the root in a glass of water (but come on who is going to do that?)
Shallots are like pungent or storage onions but tend to be even more pungent and store longer. Eating shallots raw is not for the faint of heart. We’ve tried them here and depending on the shallot it can either hit you with its strong flavor right away or it can initially taste sweet but then POW smacks you in the taste buds with a strong onion flavor. However, when cooked they are sublime. I would use shallots where you want the subtle onions flavor and not in a dish where it is one of many tastes, like in a chili. But of course they can be used in both places.
Joke of the Week
A farmer sits down on a plane and starts to read Seed Quarterly magazine. But the guy next to him, a lawyer, won’t leave him alone. Finally the lawyer says to him, “Let’s play a game. I’ll ask you a question and if you can’t answer the question you owe me five dollars. Then you ask me a question and if I can’t answer it I owe you a thousand dollars.”
The farmer says, “That’s mighty kind young man. Sure I’ll play.”
The lawyer asks, “What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?”
Without a word the farmer reaches into his overalls, pulls out his wallet and hand over a five dollar bill. The farmer then asks, “What goes up the hill on three legs and comes down the hill on two?” The lawyer thinks about it. He does an internet search. He calls his partners at the law firm but they are all stymied. Finally he gives up and hands the farmer a thousand dollars. The farmer reaches into his overalls, pulls out his wallet and puts in the thousand dollars. Then starts reading his magazine.
The lawyer of course is quite perplexed and finally blurts out, “Hey! What’s the answer?”
Without a word the farmer reaches into his overall, pulls out his wallet and hands the lawyer five dollars.
As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, jokes or puzzlers.