Nourishing Bites | Layer by Sweet Layer Part I
Ailsa Craig Sweet Onions | First grown in 1887!
Part I | Part II
It was nearly August in the summer of 2011 when I pulled the farm truck, Old Green, out into the field to harvest onions. Borettana Cipollini, Mustang, Red Wing, Flat of Italy, Rossa di Milano, Walla Walla. For me, the annual onion harvest can be the most pleasant work in all the world. Of course, like all harvests, many things must line up: a high quality crop, low weed pressure, calm, mild weather, and the time to devote, but when all comes into blessed alignment, there is no greater satisfaction, except of course, to share it with someone you love.
Onion harvesting, in particular, is close to my heart for many reasons. The summer has turned on its axis and it is suddenly as if I can now see the remainder of the season tangibly ahead. There is the special joy of bringing in from the field a crop that takes time to cure patiently, without further demands. Quantifiable and beautiful, each time I pass the drying shed, I marvel at a tangible display of this symphony of food. I think of everything that came together miraculously to make such abundance possible. This is not so with most crops; early season harvests require very intense week to week tending and then before I can blink, the harvest is over and vanishes from sight - tucked onto your counters and into your fridges. Unlike the racks of drying onions, most of a farmer’s work flashes into invisibility.
I love onion harvesting too, because even if I must work under the sometimes broiling heat, the aroma of fresh onions hangs in the air, sending my thoughts to the restfulness of cool fall weather and deliciously hearty winter soups. I know the intensity of this hot weather- it too, will not last forever, which makes everything more tolerable.
This act of coming full circle, of seeing the results of care, planning, skill, diligence, and love is such a gift. I work slowly, methodically, bulb by bulb, and think of all that had to happen, to unite with perfect timing and connection - so much of which I will never know the half of- including the mysteries of soil and seed and sunlight. This time is an important chance to sit in awe and gratitude for our intensely complex world.
This feeling of being intricately connected to a partnership with Nature, but somehow also a witness to the magic is sublime. How I wish all humans could experience some version of it, for it is truly nourishing in a way that I cannot explain.
On that particular summer weekend all those years ago, the onion harvest spread out before me like a beautiful quilt unfurling under the arching maple in anticipation of delightful picnic lunch. You may laugh at this poetic version of farmwork, but aside from the gift of good weather, a gorgeous crop, and time to devote to this simple act, there was another reason I was feeling happy down into my bones.
Brad had arrived. It was the weekend we first met. ~AJ
2021 Onion Harvest | Archie hard at work.