Knowing Onions

The onion plant has been grown and selectively bred in cultivation for at least 7,000 years and is included in the cropping scheme on Siân’s allotment. 

She and also indeed, the Ancient Egyptians, revered the onion bulb. They saw its shape and concentric rings as symbols of eternal life and very useful culinary aid.

Pliny the Elder wrote about the use of onions Pompeii. He spoke of Roman beliefs about the onion's ability to improve ocular ailments, aid in sleep, and heal everything from oral sores and toothaches to dog bites, lumbago, and even dysentery.

Store your cooking onions and sweet onions at room temperature, optimally in a single layer, in mesh bags in a dry, cool, dark, well-ventilated location.

Knowing your onions.

The expression is American, first appearing in the magazine Harper’s Bazaarin March 1922. It was one of a series of such phrases, all with the sense of knowing one’s stuff, or being highly knowledgeable in a particular field, that circulated in the 1920s. Others were to know one’s oats, to know one’s oil, to know one’s apples, to know one’s eggs, and even to know one’s sweet potatoes (which appeared in a cartoon by T A Dorgan in 1928).