Great Gardeners Deserve Great Onions!

After all these years the arrival of a seed catalog from a company that I love still gets me excited about the garden all over again.  Yesterday we were on the way out when we picked up the mail.  The name Dixondale Farms  on a thick manila envelope was a welcome sight.  I am a person with a powerful curiosity and I would have loved to rip open the envelope right there in the car,  However the envelope was carefully sealed with plenty of clear shipping tape.  There was nothing for it, but to wait until I got home to open it.  Waiting only intensified my excitement.  When I did get to open the envelope, inside I discovered these beautiful catalogs and a nice letter from Mary Caddell.

This year their catalog features a photo of one of my bodacious braids of  Red Marble Cippolini onions.  I have always loved to braid my onions.   I braid them between two strands of garden twine.  The more onions you add, the heavier the braid gets and the tighter the strings hold together.  I could not have been more delighted when I was asked for this picture for use in their catalog.  After all I consider them the very best supplier of onions plants in the country.  Plants and Stones has never done any advertising.  We are not in the business of endorsing garden products.  Any recommendations we make are unsolicited and reflect our true feelings.

What a great looking plate of sliced onions.  I love the way the brilliant  color goes all the way to the center of the onion.  How about a beautiful slice of onion on a burger.  My Dad used to get two nice slices of homemade bread, slather one with butter and make a sandwich using one big slice of an onion like this one.  When I look at a plate of sliced onions I can see him and the way he enjoyed those onion sandwiches.  Some of us would join him, leaving the others to complain about our onion breath.  It was so worth it!!!

These onions grow to a very nice size here.  We did plant a few close to keep them small.  Here I peeled a small Red Cippolini.  The outside skins are dark  red, but the onions themselves are almost magenta. This is one of my favorite colors.  I wonder how many people grow onions that match their winter vest?  What a delight it is to add this brilliant color minced in tuna or potato salad.  Pretty little purple onion rings make up for the loss of summer flowers in my salads.  However, don't use them for French onion soup. Long cooking  makes them sweet and delicious, but the color change to death gray is unfortunate and unappetizing.

I will have to decide which of my gardening friends will receive  the extra catalogs.  Fortunately you can get one of these great onion catalogs and your own picture of my beautiful onion braid  by clicking on Dixondale Farms and ordering one.

Let's not forget that  Ed planted and harvested the onions.  He weeded the center of the bed where I can't reach.  Without him I could never have so much garden fun!  Usually we wait to order our onions until January or at least December.  Perhaps I should get my order in early since more of my friends will be ordering onion plants too.  They have lots and lots of onions for sale, but I want to make sure I get mine!