Early each summer, the onions are ready to harvest. These early onions are the sweetest ones, you won't have to make sure everybody is eating them, you know, like garlic.
Allium cepa, or onions, have been traced back to 5000BC, the remnants found alongside dates and figs. The Egyptians cultivated them 2000 years later and fed them, along with radishes, to the workers building the pyramids. They have been an important food source and potent medicinal plant since then. Quercertin, found in onions, is being touted today as an anti-inflammatory and cancer fighter. Christopher Columbus brought them aboard the Hispanola to the New World, but found they were already being eaten in wild form by the Native Americans.
They are easy to grow and when the tops dry, pluck them from the earth and let them cure for a couple of days. Bunch and hang them in a shady spot. It would be perfect to store them in a root cellar but mine hang by old baskets in my garage. They will still be edible by Thanksgiving if I have any left.
Most importantly, if you cry while slicing an onion, if your eyes nearly burn out of their sockets, hold them under running water or submerged in a basin of water while slicing. Also, chill beforehand.
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