Warming to my theme
These are onion flowers. Not something you want to see.
Oh, they’re attractive enough, but it’s a bad sign. Veg that goes to flower stops doing what you want it to do — in this case, make a big, fat onion — and concentrates on making seeds.
Onions are usually biennial — it takes two years to go from seed to seed. Year one, they make a stalk and an onion, then they hibernate for the Winter. Year two, they wake up and make flowers.
But sometimes, when conditions are right, they think one season is two. This year, we had a hot spell, then a cold spell, then a hot spell. Some of our onions were all, like, “woohoo! It’s 2013!” and started to flower (or “bolt” as Mister Fancypants Horticulture-talking Dude would say).
I know, right? Onions are so stupid.
Once they’ve flowered, they’re still edible, but they’re puny. And weirdly firm. And they won’t keep like the others. I’m thinking of throwing them whole into vegetable soup, for a sort of Onion Surprise effect.
Good weekend, alliumophiles!
August 10, 2012 — 10:32 pm
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