I wonder if it’s the fact that the onion is perhaps the most ubiquitous of all the vegetables we eat, that makes it so easy to forget they do indeed have their own season? Growing them in a home garden completely changes that. There’s no doubt onions are at their best, freshly dug from the garden, in autumn and winter. To taste them at their peak sheds a whole new light on what you may consider using onions for. When they are picked in season their superior flavour makes them an easy choice to base an entire meal around rather than simply use them as a background ingredient. It’s worth mentioning they are a breeze to grow too. The brown onion varieties I have had the most success with are ‘Creamgold’ and ‘Murray Brown’, and although I don’t tend to use as many white onions compared to brown, I always plant a white onion option; ‘White Spanish’, which I find to be a milder tasting onion. Red onions are lovely roasted, but are also my first choice for a raw addition to salads and salsa, so I always include one or two varieties when I’m planting my onions for the season; I particularly like the sweeter flavour of ‘Redshine’ which grows very well in our Mediterranean climate. -MB