All in a Day's Work

The North Forty onion harvest, in all its glory, finally, and I repeat finally, rests on the back porch dining table.  Each has been artistically arranged by Better Half, one not touching the other, based on his internet research on curing onions.  Better Half took over the onion harvest, once I plucked them from the soil, strolling to the porch with the overflowing bucket of onions, while I slaughtered weeds in the 100 degree heat on the 4th of July.    The poor onions, however, made a few trips across the yard before arriving at their final resting place.

Several minutes after Better Half had initially retreated to the back porch with the onion harvest, he trudged back into the blistering heat with the onions.  His research indicated that onions should remain in the garden on top of the soil for a couple days before curing.  So, he poured them back onto the ground, arranged them nicely, and returned to the shade of the back porch.   As I continued to weed in the garden, the onions began to give off  a quite not all-together-unpleasant pungent smell. They were actually sauteeing themselves in the mid-afternoon heat. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Better Half striding back across the yard to the garden, sheepishly, empty bucket in hand. Further research indicated that, since the weather had been dry and hot, there was not a need to cure the onions in the garden.  They could be simply be laid out on a surface to dry.

So, we picked up the onions he had just arranged on the soil, and put them back into the bucket.  Off trotted Better Half, again, with the onion harvest. 

When I could stand the heat no longer, I, too, retreated to the blessed shade of the back porch. There, Better Half had laid out the onions in a square pattern, with the greens in the middle and the onion heads in a square around the perimeter.  He had first laid a piece of plastic on the table, and then covered it with a decades old sheet.  He was meticulous in his placement of each onion.

To cool off a bit, I headed to the hose, where I took a long drink, and cooled myself with its fine mist.  When I returned to the back porch,  a new curing plan had begun to take shape. Rather than a square, two long lines of onions were being formed on the dining table.  Each onion had its own drying area, and no onion touched another.

At this point, I thought it would be nice for Better Half to share what he had learned.  I asked him to write a guest post for the blog.   He demurred, but did take the photo above of the onions contentedly, and quite stylishly, drying on a corner of the dining table.  They remain there today, safe from the unrelenting sun and warmth.