I first heard about candy onions last spring when loyal Cville Buzz reader, Cheryll Seiber, mentioned them in an email. As a fellow onion lover, she said they were so sweet you could eat them like an apple. Then, that weekend at a Farmer’s Market, I saw a bunch for sale, bought them and loved them. I immediately made plans for a few rows in my small vegetable garden. I even bought some seeds but was not all that excited because onions from seeds take forever to grow.
Last Saturday, however, I made my annual early spring trip to Crossroads Nursery in Ruckersville and was surprised to seed Candy Onion sets. I bought two bunches with about 50 sets each and paid only $6.29 a bunch. Later, I dug out three rows and convinced Nancy into placing and covering the sets with soil. I have discovered in recent years that getting down to plant things is easy. It’s the getting back up that causes problems. Last year I had to crawl over to a fence post to pull myself up.
I have come to discover that candy onions are a large, sweet, and very mild hybrid onion variety known for a high sugar content. They are less pungent than regular onions and are excellent for both raw and cooked applications like salads, sandwiches, caramelizing, grilling, and soups. They are crisp when raw, and tender when cooked.
Anyway, they are now planted, and I am super excited out the potential outcome.
