National Onion Day 2024

[TomatoNut95]

I can't ever remember having a Vidalia onion.
So today I bought a 3 pound bag for 3.98 just to see what all the fuss is about.

My internet here at home is pathetic so I never search online for recipes, besides I prefer paper instructions than online stuff.
Maybe next time you make it you could write down what you put in it. Sounds so delicious; maybe it's just a pack of ground beef, cheddar cheese, chopped onion, corn chips all wrapped in tortilla shells? Now I've gone and made myself drool..

[karstopography]

The trouble with buying onions is that the bin onions tend to be huge and most of the time it’s a waste buying an onion where many weigh close to a pound when maybe 1/3 an onion is needed. Once cut, onions do not store well. The bag onions are smaller, but it’s hard to inspect them in the bag and their quality is sometimes suspect.

The Texas Legend onions I grow check a lot of the necessary boxes. Good onion to cook with, sweet enough for sweet onion uses, enough pungency for that need, and they store well. Want small ones, don’t feed them much, let the weeds grow a little or space them close. Want bigger ones, do the opposite.

Anytime I can bypass the grocery store produce section it’s a win. Growing my own onions helps me do that and they aren’t a high maintenance or fussy crop or expensive to get the sets. The starts are super cheap here. With some garden vegetables the math might be sketchy, but in my experience, onions aren’t one of them.

[worth1]

I can't ever remember having a Vidalia onion.
So today I bought a 3 pound bag for 3.98 just to see what all the fuss is about.

My internet here at home is pathetic so I never search online for recipes, besides I prefer paper instructions than online stuff.
Maybe next time you make it you could write down what you put in it. Sounds so delicious; maybe it's just a pack of ground beef, cheddar cheese, chopped onion, corn chips all wrapped in tortilla shells? Now I've gone and made myself drool..

It's layered like a lasagna.
No wrapping.
The enchilada sauce is really complicated and involved a lot of different dried chili powders and spices.
I never make it the same.
I normally use some canned stuff but I keep forgetting.

[Tormahto]

I can't get over all the people cooking with the so called Vidalia onions.
Mostly self proclaimed chefs on YouTube that don't know anything about gardening or farming.
It irritates me to no end that they think it's a special variety and not something that can only be called Vidalia if it's grown certain places in Georgia.
The Vidalia onion is a cross between a grano and a bermuda onion called a granex bred in Texas.
https://www.treehugger.com/the-bitter-l ... ia%20onion.

Now it's my personal opinion that you don't cook with sweet onions.
You eat them raw.
Especially if you're really cooking them down because they get way too sweet.

It's not a special variety, Worth. It's the special location. As someone who likely consumes 30 pounds of Granex onions a year, for a few decades, the Vidalia/Granex ones have always been sweet, for me. The same Granex onion grown somewhere else (my understanding is more than one variety is now grown), is hit or miss, sweet or pungent.

A cooked onion can never be too sweet.

[worth1]

I can't get over all the people cooking with the so called Vidalia onions.
Mostly self proclaimed chefs on YouTube that don't know anything about gardening or farming.
It irritates me to no end that they think it's a special variety and not something that can only be called Vidalia if it's grown certain places in Georgia.
The Vidalia onion is a cross between a grano and a bermuda onion called a granex bred in Texas.
https://www.treehugger.com/the-bitter-l ... ia%20onion.

Now it's my personal opinion that you don't cook with sweet onions.
You eat them raw.
Especially if you're really cooking them down because they get way too sweet.

It's not a special variety, Worth. It's the special location. As someone who likely consumes 30 pounds of Granex onions a year, for a few decades, the Vidalia/Granex ones have always been sweet, for me. The same Granex onion grown somewhere else (my understanding is more than one variety is now grown), is hit or miss, sweet or pungent.

A cooked onion can never be too sweet.

That's what I said it's the location not the variety.
I find it wrong one would call an onion a Vidalia onion that isn't grown in that area.
One guy told me there was someone growing them in Alaska.
That's when the argument started with me saying no he isn't.
And that guy was from Georgia of all places.

[FatBeeFarm]

Trying to insert photo again:

[TomatoNut95]

I can't ever remember having a Vidalia onion.
So today I bought a 3 pound bag for 3.98 just to see what all the fuss is about.

My internet here at home is pathetic so I never search online for recipes, besides I prefer paper instructions than online stuff.
Maybe next time you make it you could write down what you put in it. Sounds so delicious; maybe it's just a pack of ground beef, cheddar cheese, chopped onion, corn chips all wrapped in tortilla shells? Now I've gone and made myself drool..

It's layered like a lasagna.
No wrapping.
The enchilada sauce is really complicated and involved a lot of different dried chili powders and spices.
I never make it the same.
I normally use some canned stuff but I keep forgetting.

Sounds kinda like my 'taco casserole'. In a skillet you cook ground beef until brown. Meanwhile cut up several soft tortilla shells into small pieces. After beef is cooked, add 1 can of Campbell's tomato soup, a can of water, a cup of salsa, chopped onion and the chopped shells. Let that simmer on low heat for awhile. Once cooked in together pour in casserole dish and top heavily with cheddar cheese.

[MissS]

Trying to insert photo again:

I just made a tutorial on this. I will tag you there.

[Tormahto]

I can't get over all the people cooking with the so called Vidalia onions.
Mostly self proclaimed chefs on YouTube that don't know anything about gardening or farming.
It irritates me to no end that they think it's a special variety and not something that can only be called Vidalia if it's grown certain places in Georgia.
The Vidalia onion is a cross between a grano and a bermuda onion called a granex bred in Texas.
https://www.treehugger.com/the-bitter-l ... ia%20onion.

Now it's my personal opinion that you don't cook with sweet onions.
You eat them raw.
Especially if you're really cooking them down because they get way too sweet.

It's not a special variety, Worth. It's the special location. As someone who likely consumes 30 pounds of Granex onions a year, for a few decades, the Vidalia/Granex ones have always been sweet, for me. The same Granex onion grown somewhere else (my understanding is more than one variety is now grown), is hit or miss, sweet or pungent.

A cooked onion can never be too sweet.

That's what I said it's the location not the variety.
I find it wrong one would call an onion a Vidalia onion that isn't grown in that area.
One guy told me there was someone growing them in Alaska.
That's when the argument started with me saying no he isn't.
And that guy was from Georgia of all places.

His being from Georgia was the problem. Vidalia onions are only grown in 13 of their 159 counties. So, he had a less than 10% chance of knowing what they are all about.

[JRinPA]

National Onion Day, finally one of these fake holidays that seems like a good idea.

I don't see a pic there fatbeefarm.

Sacrilege I'm not sure about, unfortunately the price I'm this week was $4.48 for 3lb of regular old yellow cooking onions, not Vidalias. The big ones labeled as Vidalia are sold by the pound and those were I think $1.59/lb. I did not look for the made in GA part on those.

The price of just cooking onions is crazy right now.

The seed I had bought at TSC was Burpee Granex F1...I almost didn't buy it. I think that was the first week they had seed, it is tough to get onion seed around here early enough to start it.

I tried Ailsa Craig a few times, they just seem to rot for me. This is only the second year for me for trying onions on large scale. I was hoping the granex would work for onion rings. I looked today and a bunch had the tops fall over now. I was hoping they would keep growing some more. They definitely had ALM on the leaves, but, so far I don't see bulb damage on these fresh onions.

[karstopography]

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/fres ... ag/2872502

3# of Vidalia onions for $4.14. Next visit I’ll get some.

[Tormahto]

The trouble with buying onions is that the bin onions tend to be huge and most of the time it’s a waste buying an onion where many weigh close to a pound when maybe 1/3 an onion is needed. Once cut, onions do not store well. The bag onions are smaller, but it’s hard to inspect them in the bag and their quality is sometimes suspect.

The Texas Legend onions I grow check a lot of the necessary boxes. Good onion to cook with, sweet enough for sweet onion uses, enough pungency for that need, and they store well. Want small ones, don’t feed them much, let the weeds grow a little or space them close. Want bigger ones, do the opposite.

Anytime I can bypass the grocery store produce section it’s a win. Growing my own onions helps me do that and they aren’t a high maintenance or fussy crop or expensive to get the sets. The starts are super cheap here. With some garden vegetables the math might be sketchy, but in my experience, onions aren’t one of them.

I rarely use less than a medium to large onion. But, I've found that wrapping the flat cut end tightly with cling wrap gives several days of storage in the fridge. If needed, a very small slice off of that flat end restores the cut end to its freshness.

All of the alliums seem to be hardy and fairly easy to grow, here. Weeding is absolutely necessary, for me. or the 5 ft weeds would shade out the 2 ft onion greens. To greatly reduce weeding, once the tops have established themselves, I put down long wide strips of cardboard on both sides of the plants, exposing only a couple of inches wide of bare soil, down the row.

[worth1]

Rest assured BBQ places aren't going to the expense of buying sweet onions.
They always get the strongest onions available.
You would think people like Rick Bayless would know their onions but they don't.
They equate white onions as strong yellow as sweet and red as whatever they think they are.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
That ends up in the echo chamber and soon everyone believes it.

I miss the days of those giant sweet Spanish onions the size of a softball or larger we used to get.
They were great and one slice would cover the whole large hamburger bun.

[karstopography]

Rest assured BBQ places aren't going to the expense of buying sweet onions.
They always get the strongest onions available.
You would think people like Rick Bayless would know their onions but they don't.
They equate white onions as strong yellow as sweet and red as whatever they think they are.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
That ends up in the echo chamber and soon everyone believes it.

I miss the days of those giant sweet Spanish onions the size of a softball or larger we used to get.
They were great and one slice would cover the whole large hamburger bun.

A chopped barbecue beef sandwich is something I enjoy raw onions on, plus the dill pickle hamburger slices. I don’t really like raw onions on a hamburger and generally get one “cut the onions” which down here people understand that means no onions. Up north, you have to say “no onions”, “cut the onions” doesn’t have the same meaning in different parts of America.

Half the time, they forget to take off the onions even if I say I don’t want them. It’s not a deal killer, but some places seem to think it’s an onion sandwich with a bit of hamburger.

I store the big onions with the cling wrap in the fridge. I tend to believe once the onion has been cut, it loses something good even if stored with the wrap. Big onions make good fried onion rings, but we seldom make fried onion rings. I like to grill the small onions I get. They get really good when softened up on the grill. The medium ones I tend cook with in recipes.

I was looking at egg salad recipes yesterday and saw people put onions in egg salad. Yuck. Same for chicken salad, no onions please. Sweet or pungent, no.

[worth1]

I love onion rings but haven't had any in years.
All the good onion ring places have closed down.
And I ain't gonna make any in the near future.
What a pain in the butt.
Well not really but I just eat the things as fast as I make them.
I don't mind an onion being on a burger but it or the tomato isn't a deal breaker.
What is a deal breaker is no mayonnaise and putting ketchup on it
And I like plenty of pickles too.
I will not order a hamburger with cheese on it if it costs more.
My favorite side vegetable is a roasted onion.

[Tormahto]

National Onion Day, finally one of these fake holidays that seems like a good idea.

I don't see a pic there fatbeefarm.

Sacrilege I'm not sure about, unfortunately the price I'm this week was $4.48 for 3lb of regular old yellow cooking onions, not Vidalias. The big ones labeled as Vidalia are sold by the pound and those were I think $1.59/lb. I did not look for the made in GA part on those.

The price of just cooking onions is crazy right now.

The seed I had bought at TSC was Burpee Granex F1...I almost didn't buy it. I think that was the first week they had seed, it is tough to get onion seed around here early enough to start it.

I tried Ailsa Craig a few times, they just seem to rot for me. This is only the second year for me for trying onions on large scale. I was hoping the granex would work for onion rings. I looked today and a bunch had the tops fall over now. I was hoping they would keep growing some more. They definitely had ALM on the leaves, but, so far I don't see bulb damage on these fresh onions.

Ailsa Craig (Exhibition) have virtually no shelf life.

They do grow big, however...

[worth1]

I'd weigh the thing win the prize and make French onion soup or some other concoction.

[slugworth]

Never had luck with onions.
Not worth getting on your hands and knees to plant.
Same size as when I planted them.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

They do grow big, however...

HeyZeus A'Freakin'Lou!

The Gotch

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

>200 views...nearly 40 replies...and counting?

Forget one (1) day...might Onions deserve an entire week...or beyond?

The Gotch