Ch-ch-ch-changes! Planting onion sets turns into bonding time

When she’d first asked me to help her plant onion sets, I thought she was crazy, because planting things is not my thing.

Believe me, I wish I had the talents of my Mom. I swear that woman could touch a slip of a plant, put it in water, and roots would instantly appear! That might’ve been more my perception as a little girl, but, truth be told, Mom had a gift with plants.

She didn’t pass that on to me. I loved the livestock on our small farm. I would help with the crops, but, yep, livestock was my thing.

So, when my sister asked about planting onion sets, i questioned her.

“Are you SURE you want me to help?” i asked. “Are you really positive?”

She said yes.

Obviously, she was desperate.

At this point you may be saying, “What? But she’s writing about and focusing on locally grown food!”

Believe me, there is a reason why I have searched these people out. There is a reason they do what they do so people like me who don’t possess a green thumb won’t starve yet have good home grown goods!

I definitely got some of the onion bounty at the end of summer, but the majority of all those sets we planted were sold at two local farmers markets

When it came to my sister asking for my help, well, I caved. I like her too much to turn her down. And it was a fun time to work together and catch up.

I drove to our family farm where Bro and Sis live, and, after spraying myself with bug spray because I have the blood type ticks and mosquitos love, we walked to the garden.

At the time, they had a large garden plot and the rows were all prepared for the planting. The first year I helped, I was visioning bending over and putting onion sets in place..one…at…a.. time! But leave it to Sis, she was more modern than that. Bro and Sis had purchased an onion planter.

I would grab a bunch of the onion sets, separate them and plot one down the little planter shoot. Sis would pull out a side handle and the onion set would be placed in the ground. She’d lift the pole like planter straight up and…WAAALAH! The little top of the plant would stick have the earth!

Admittedly it took us a few tries each year to get our rhythm back, but once we did, well, it was almost depressing when we’d reach the end.

“What? No more?” I’d ask.

“Nope,” she’d say. “This onion planting for this year is in the books!”

Now for them to grow.

And grow they did! Every time we’d converse, which was often, I would ask how the plants were doing and I always got a positive response. Even in challenging years, they grew. I think those onion sets were bound and determined to show me that, yes, they could and would grow!

Bro and Sis grew market gardens for many years on a part of our family farm. The large garden was reminiscent of the ones Mom had and Bro and Sis obviously got her green thumb.

Mom would get her seeds at the local hardware store. Over time she discovered the varieties the family liked and would, after harvest, can and freeze the extra to be used for winter meals. Bro and Sis turned to seed catalogs and, along with the “regular” vegetables, would pick one or two different types for that growing challenge.

As their garden grew, they also turned to machines to help with the process, hence the onion set planter. The time saving tools helped on back strain, too.

Most of the farmland was rented out to a friend and fellow farmer and, with age and mobility challenges, the garden plot became part of that farmer’s field.

But they continue to think of selling at the farmers market - it will just have a different look and feel from the past.

Sis is doing container gardening now. They’ve always had great success with tomatoes and will focus on that for their farmers market sales.

I will be on the look out for onions this year, when I go to the farmers market. And, when it comes to tomatoes, I know where to go.