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Candy Onions are a Sweet Crop for Couple
July 4, 2007
Candy Onions are a Sweet Crop for Couple
Farmers' Markets DENISE MILLER For the Journal
Editor's note: Every other week, Denise Miller of the New Mexico Farmers' Marketing Association will spotlight local growers and their crops, along with tips about how to cook them.
What do fantastic sauces, great sautés and tasty sandwiches all have in common? If you are eating from the garden of Mary or Ray Arrowsmith, the common ingredient may be fabulous candy onions.
Onions do not always get the credit they deserve, but customers who buy more than 150 pounds of these beauties from the Arrowsmiths every week clearly know something good. "It's the best onion you'll ever eat in your whole life," Ray said in a phone interview.
Whether it is the 12 percent sugar content in candy onions or the way the Arrowsmiths present the fresh onions -- tops on, root cut and outer layer of skin peeled and wiped with damp cloth -- customers keep coming back for more.
While yellow storage onions are available throughout the year, sweet varieties like the candy have a much more limited growing season and shelf life. The Arrowsmiths sell these onions fresh until mid-July. The high sugar content means they don't store as well, so they should be refrigerated like scallions.
Beginning mid-July, and for about a month, you can then buy these onions cured, or dried. You know an onion is cured when it has a shriveled up neck and the outer scales are dry and rustle when handled.
Cured onions should be stored in a dry place away from the sun and air conditioning.
The Arrowsmiths say they like growing onions because they can be grown close together and don't leave much room for weeds. They also lend themselves to drip irrigation, an important feature for small growers.
Market gardeners tend to grow the types of food they themselves like to eat. With more than 3,000 onions growing in their 6,000-square-foot North Valley garden, you can bet the Arrowsmiths eat an onion or two.
Some of their favorite ways to enjoy candy onions include as a main topping on pizza, added to a tomato sandwich or sliced on a liverwurst sandwich with Dijon mustard.
Married for 43 years and now retired, the Arrowsmiths have grown food on and off for 30 years. They have been selling regularly at Albuquerque growers' markets for 10 years because they enjoy seeing friends, other growers and their regular customers.
"We also enjoy talking to new customers, which our display attracts. We are really proud of the things we grow," Mary Arrowsmith said in an e-mail.
Depending on when during the season you visit the Arrowsmiths, in addition to onions you may find cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, greens, shallots, summer and winter squash, bell peppers, leeks and eggplant.
They say their most unusual crops are bulb fennel and radicchio, as well as herbs that they dry and bottle.
All of the Arrowsmiths' produce is registered organic by the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission. They believe it shows their commitment to quality. Plus, they believe it's healthier to eat organically grown food.
"As an old Hispanic farmer from northern New Mexico once told me, `I would rather eat bugs than eat poison,' '' Ray said in a phone interview.
Selling at market also gives the Arrowsmiths a chance to point out to customers that their produce has traveled only four miles from where it was grown, rather than coming from California, Mexico, Chile or China.
While produce can be grown less expensively in other states or countries, the Arrowsmiths like to remind people about the many hidden costs of shipping, including fuel consumption, pollution and highway congestion.
Educating shoppers about the many benefits of eating local produce is a continuing process, but one message that is easy for the Arrowsmiths and other vendors to get across to customers is freshness.
Just about every vendor at growers' markets across the state harvests their crops within 24 hours of market.
So whether you're shopping for candy onions or other specialties, stop by the Arrowsmiths' table for some of the sweetest produce available.
FEATURED GROWERS
WHO: Mary and Ray Arrowsmith
WHERE TO FIND THEM: Los Ranchos Growers' Market
FEATURED CROP: Onions
NUTRTIONAL VALUE: Rich in chromium, vitamin C and fiber, regular consumption can lower high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, and help reduce risk of heart disease. Onions have also been found to lower cancer risk and boost bone health.
SEASON: Candy onions are fresh now through mid-July and are available cured mid-July to mid-August.
