This is an old traditional weather rhyme – is it correct? does the thickness of onion skins vary from year to year? Can’t say I’ve ever noticed.
Onion’s skin very thin
Mild winter coming in,
Onion’s skin thick and tough,
Coming winter cold and rough.
So many of my recipes start with an onion and would be tasteless without, which always reminds me of the cooks in wartime who had to do without them. Back then hardly any onions were grown in this country and it was only later that Onion Sets became available for the home gardener. Sets are one year old onions that have been grown from seed, dug and stored over winter to be sold for planting in February or March.
We always grew a bed full of onions, from sets, at the smallholding that kept us going nearly all year. For a few years we also grew the over-winter onions which became available in the 1990’s . The sets for these are planted in Autumn and ready in early summer – filling the gap before usual onions are lifted. We stopped growing those when we had some problems with onion rot in the maincrop and it was thought they might cross contaminate.
I looked at the onion page in my little book “A Potted History of Vegetables” by Lorraine Harrison.
On the history of onions the book says that remains of onions were found in Neolithic Age settlements in Jericho, dating back to 5,000BC. They are thought to be native to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. They were introduced into India and Mediterranean regions and by Roman times their use was widespread.
I tried growing onions this year again even though I’d said the year before that the space was better used for something that either costs more or better eaten very fresh from the garden. All I ended up with was a handful of golf ball size as they got flattened early on – next door neighbours cat perhaps?
Definitely Not growing them in 2024. I’d rather have more space for green beans, runner beans and sweetcorn.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
