I love summer vegetables. We’ve been eating the most wonderful Pasta Primavera with squash and zucchini every week and some friends dropped off a bag of delicious homegrown tomatoes. But no summer vegetable has my heart and devotion more than the Vidalia onion. I only cook with sweet onions because they are so superior to all others (in taste and lack of tears), but the Vidalia puts the Texas Sweet and others to shame. For as long as they sell Vidalias, there will always be one or two in my grocery cart. When we buy a house, we want a garden to grow tomatoes, basil, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and whatever else strikes our fancy. But I’m saving the sweet onions for the farmers in Vidalia, Georgia.
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My Dad, who’s parents retired to Vidalia, has a cousin who grows Vidalias, and growing up we would get the throw-aways – fit to eat but not to sell – in 50lbs bags. Mmmm boy, there’s nothing better than a Vidalia, farm fresh cucumber, and tomatoe marinated in oil and vinegar!!
Vidalia’s Rule!!!
We have the most teensy-tiny garden around our rented suite’s patio, but we have chard (Northern Lights variety – so pretty!), strawberries, about ten kinds of herbs, zucchini, a cucumber, three tomato plants, four green bean plants, all the lettuce we can eat and then some, nasturtiums for salads, basil, and a few other things. It’s a lot of work, but so rewarding!
PS Kristen – I still use your recipes for West 38th St pasta and Jambalaya (which we ate tonight!) regularly. If you ever get a chance to post more recipes, I’d love it.
I’ve never used a vidalia onion and now I want to try one.
Brianna, how big is your garden? That hits a lot of the things we use regularly and would want in one our own.
I second the recipes idea… I’m, uh, working on my chef skills and need more good ideas.
It’s tiny! We have a small concrete patio, about 10 feet by ten feet, which we have planters and a hammock on; two very small beds, 6 feet by one foot and four feet by four feet or so; and then a bunch more planters and pots scattered on the other side of the one and a half sides of the patio that are fenced. The beans grow up the fence. I’ll try to take some photos of it and post them later this week.
I want that pasta primavera recipe! :)
Most wonderful was probably too strong of a way to describe it! I just get tired of pasta with meat sauce and pasta with mushrooms after a long winter. I do try to change things up in the winter and make Penne with a creamy tomato sauce, sausage and mushrooms sometimes, but simple spaghetti still gets old.
I don’t know, Kristen. I live about an hour from Walla Walla, WA and the Walla Walla Sweet beats Vidalias all to pieces here. I agree with everything you wrote about onions; they are one of God’s most gracious gifts. My MIL and I buy a 50# bag and run them through the food processor and freeze them in 1 cup portions. All winter long when we make *anything* (except ice cream) we toss the onions in. Oh yeah!
Carol, it probably has to do with the shipping. But I’ve had Texas 1015 Sweets when I lived in Texas and I think the Vidalias shipped to NC and Virginia are far better than they were. I’ve had Walla Wallas before and they were pretty good but not as good as the Vidalias, but of course, had been shipped all the way to Colorado so… that probably makes a difference. When I get a food processor, I am *SO* doing what you do! Great idea!
Cool…