Onions... Worth Their Weight in Gold

I heard a story about a man who heard that there was a country that did not have onions!  Can you believe that?  The citizens of this land never got the opportunity to enjoy this savory bulb that enhances every dish and provides great flavor to any meal.  The man loaded a sack full of onions and departed for the Onion-less land.

Upon arrival he visited with the king and showed him his great cargo.  He even prepared a meal for the people of the kingdom. Of course the people loved them!  They were so appreciative for his introducing them to onions, they paid him with GOLD equivalent to the weight of the sack of onions.  When the man got home, he boasted about his good fortune. 

An entrepreneur soon headed to the land with a sack full of garlic.  If they didn't have onions, they didn't have garlic.  What is better than garlic for flavor?  What could be more valuable than gold.  The man was sure that he would be paid in DIAMONDS!  He arrived, introduced the king and commoners to garlic and naturally, they were impressed.  They were so grateful for this discovery they did pay him.  What could be more valuable than gold?  Why, onions, of course.  The man headed back home with a sack full of onions.

I love onions and we like to plant them in our garden.  The first week of January, I received my onion sets in the mail.  Oh, Happy Day!

I always order from Dixondale Farms their Short Day Sampler.  This year I ordered 3 bundles.  Each bundle contains about 70 onion starts consisting of 1015 Texas Supersweet, White, and Red Creole Onions.  I don't know if this box is worth its weight in gold, but the contents are indeed valuable to me.

I pulled up rows, made a 4 inch trench in the middle and filled it with composted chicken litter.  then on either side of the trench, I planted the onion sets 4 inched apart from each other.  It is important to plant them only 1 inch deep.  If you plant them too deep, you risk them not bulbing and then you only have green onions - which is not a bad thing, but you want your onions to bulb.

I sat on my blessed assurance and rolled and planted until the box was empty.  218 onions in the ground when all was said and done!

One week later, temps dipped to the upper teens.  I hope my onions are okay.  I think they are.

They better be.  I only intend on crying over these onions after I harvest them and begin to cut them up.