I’ve written about the benefit to you, the customer, of knowing your farmer, of knowing who’s growing your food. There’s a flip side to that equation which occurred to me this evening, when I returned home from a day out of town. After checking the livestock, the next chore was to check on the little growing things in the basement, where our earliest Cool Beans plants get their start. So far, the onion family (leeks, scallions, shallots, sweet and storage onions) are up, and about twenty flats of the earliest herbs are germinating. Tomorrow, I’ll seed the eggplants, and next week it’s time for peppers and some of the first broccolis. In three weeks, once the tomatoes and cabbages and cauliflower have been seeded, I will not be able to wash a load of clothes in the basement without moving some flats first, but right about then the hardiest seedlings – these onions – can start moving out to the greenhouse.
Although there have been flats of seedlings germinating in my house every spring for decades, this year is different – because I know where these onions are going! They’re going to Sharon, John, Seppi, Lori, Ed, Lauren, Susan, and everyone else who’s signed on as a Cool Bean for this season. Even though our first harvest is still months away, your food is being nurtured and tended with you in mind. And I honestly had not realized that it would make a difference when I’m caring for these tiny plants, but it truly does.
This is a Cippolini onion, which has a flat bottom. The particular variety is Red Marble, which has a gorgeous deep red skin. It’s beautiful in salads.
Hard to believe we’re looking at several hundred in this flat, isn’t it?