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Andy on Onions
by Andy Griffin
Mariquita Farm
Organically Grown Vegetables, Berries and Herbs
P.O. Box 2065 Watsonville, CA 95077
(831)761-3226
www.mariquita.com
 Our farm lies almost exactly 37 degrees of latitude north of the
equator. Follow the line of the 37th parallel as it circles the globe
and you will soon pass your finger directly through downtown Ragusa in
the Italian province of Sicily. It is this seemingly irrelevant
geographical fact, more than any Italophyllic tendencies I might
display, that has prompted me to grow such Italian varieties of onions
as the bianco di maggio, the long red onion of Tropea, the cippolini
bourettana, or the cippolini Rovato.
It is easy to take onions for granted. Onions are cheap and
ubiquitous. The onions play a pivotal roll in a million recipes but
often its importance is disguised or overlooked because of some other
flashier ingredient. Onions remind me of spicy, girly back up singers
whose role on stage is to sway back and forth cooing the sweet harmonies
that permit some otherwise average hunky lead singer to sound good.
Don't let its commonness or utility lead you to believe that onions are
easy to grow. True, if you have a sunny spot with plenty of water and
deep rich soil with good drainage you can grow nice onions. But onions
can be very picky about the time of year they need to be planted. Not
every onion variety can succeed in every growing region and an
unseasonable frost can foul up even the most carefully planted crop
causing the plants to set seed without ever setting a bulb. For most
growers success at onion cultivation comes from experience and
experience can be a stern instructor. I'm really proud of this year's
onion crop because I've failed miserably in the past. The bianco di
maggio is a sweet onion anyway but this year it tastes particularly
good. I don't claim to be objective, it could be that I'm savoring the
sweetness of success as much as tasting any sugars that are wrapped up
in the onions.
The flavor of an onion is determined mostly by variety. The sweetest
onions are not the keepers; they will resprout quickly after harvest. A
storage onion is typically a much harsher onion when eaten raw, though
it may be the sweetest onion when cooked. But an onion's size has
everything to do with the manner in which it was cultivated. Only a big
onion plant can produce a big onion bulb. Every onion is hardwired with
an internal biological clock. Different varieties of onions are
stimulated at different day lengths to begin their bulbing process. For
the grower the trick is to achieve a maximum plant size before the day
length initiates bulbing so that there is a lot of leaf to capture the
sun's energy and create a big onion. So called short day onions grow
most vigorously during the shorter days of fall and winter and begin
bulbing with the lengthening days of spring. These onions are typically
planted in August and nurtured over winter. The bianco di maggio is
such an onion. Its name means 'May white' in Italian. Because hard
winter frosts here can cause this onion to bolt prematurely I plant the
bianco di maggio in March so it doesn't mature until later. So called
long day onions grow at their best during the long days of summer and
begin to bulb up as the days get shorter in early fall. The beautiful
little disk-like gold cippolini and the red torpedo type onions are long
day onions and are dried, cured and ready for sale by fall.
 People will approach me and complain that they can't get a nice Vidalia
onion in the farmer's market. Vidalia lies near 32 degrees latitude,
considerably to our south. Latitude has a tremendous effect on day
length, just as altitude can have a powerful effect on temperature. If
you want a Vidalia onion in the farmer's market, you need to go to a
farmer's market in Georgia. Maui, Hawaii, at 21 degrees latitude, is
the home of the famous sweet Maui onion. Lawyers, guns, and money can't
make a Maui onion grow well here so far to the north of its tropical
homeland. Tropea is a town in Italy close by the 39th parallel and it
faces out onto the Tyrrenian Sea in the province of Calabria. Tropea is
famous for its pungent, football-shaped, red torpedo onion and it turns
out that this onion grows nicely for us here as well. Tropeans take
their onions very seriously. When I mentioned in an email newsletter
last year that I couldn't find Tropea on a map I received an immediate
response that thanked me for appreciating their onion and clarified
their place in the world. We will have some beautiful long red Tropean
onions in several weeks and I hope that you too will take them very
seriously. For now we have the lovely bianco di maggio, sweet and
fresh, wagging their crisp green tails, perfect for a salad or cooked
dish even if they are two months "late". See you Saturday.
copyright 2002 Andrew Griffin
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