The Urban Farmer's Almanac

About a year ago I got some Egyptian Walking Onions from a generous (or maybe over-run) gardener down in Skyway. They are a pretty curious plant, producing Dr. Seuss-like forms when they first bud, and by the end of the year, they have burst into pods of onion “seeds”. I harvested all of these and am going to try planting some over the winter to see how they do (ignoring all the dire warnings of impending heavy snow). I’ll save the rest for spring, and probably have plenty to share, so let me know if you want to give them a try.

In addition to the seeds (that can’t be the right term…), the stalks of onions are ready to harvest. The bulbs below the dirt are like a cross between a shallot and a leek. I think the key with thes e onions is to pull them all out every year, and plant them again the next year. Otherwise, it sounds like the patch can get pretty choked with them.

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We tagged along with our friends Clay and Michaelynn on their annual “Cider Weekend” at their friends’ orchard in out in Wenatchee this weekend. It’s a gathering that’s been happening since they were all in college, where the orchards are gleaned after they’ve been picked, cider is pressed, taco soup is consumed, and all manner of farm fun is had. Our kids ran wild through the apple trees all day, got pushed on the huge swing, and ate more apples than I thought possible in the course of an afternoon. Plus, do I need to say anything more than “apple baseball”?

The main event was the cider pressing, and after a morning of picking apples, we got to work processing them into juice with the Ringsrud family’s fancy cider press. The previous weekend, we had our annual cider pressing here in Seattle, and in hindsight, it was a quaint affair compared to the raw power of this machine, squeezing nearly every last drop out of the apples it pulverized. In a couple hours we pressed more cider than everyone could even take with them.

To top it all off, the family has recently kicked their artisan hard cider business into gear, producing some fantastic bottles from the apples they grow in their orchard. Look for Snowdrift Cider… you won’t regret it. I think Whole Foods is carrying it in the Seattle area.

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