SandyM
05-17-2001, 10:02 AM
Because I'm a Yankee, I didn't know about this. Maybe some of you know, but in case not, I'm posting it.........I hope you find it useful.
By Rob Kasper / Baltimore Sun
Not long ago, I came home with a pair of pantyhose given to me by another woman, and my wife didn't hit me with a frying pan.
It happened the day the Vidalia Onion Lady came to visit. Mary Louise Lever is that woman. A resident of Rome, Ga., she was traveling to various cities passing out pantyhose, recipes and wisdom about Vidalia onions.
Vidalia onions are like Southern belles -- they are exceptionally sweet but bruise easily. The crop, which by law can be labeled Vidalia only if it is grown in one of 20 southeast Georgia counties, usually arrives in markets around the nation in late spring.
To prevent these temperamental onions from rubbing against one another, Lever recommended storing them in the legs of pantyhose, then tying a knot between each onion. She demonstrated the knot-tying technique, using a pair of sand-colored pantyhose provided in a publicity kit. The idea, she said, is to keep the onions cool, dry and separated.
Once the onions are secure, you hang the hose in a dry, well-ventilated area, such as your basement or garage, she said. Most Georgians are accustomed to storing onions this way, but the sight of pantyhose hanging from the ceiling can alarm visitors from the North. Or, as Lever put it, "It shocks the Yankees."
While the hanging hose may make Northerners blush, the hose provides a practical method of onion storage, she said. The mesh in the hose (she used laundered hose that had developed "runs" or "ladders") allows air to circulate around the onions, slowing spoilage.
Vidalias hanging in hose can last four to six months, she said. It seemed logical to me that this storage method also would work for other sweet onions -- the Walla Walla, Maui and Texas sweets, whose exceptionally high sugar and water content make them vulnerable to bruising. But I didn't mention the competition. Somehow it didn't seem proper to accept pantyhose from the Vidalia Onion Lady and then talk about her rivals.
Instead, we talked about another recommended storage method: Wrapping the onions in paper towels, putting several wrapped onions in a brown paper bag, then putting the bag in the refrigerator.
Lever also showed me another pair of pantyhose, which she uses when she appears on television to demonstrate how to store Vidalia onions. That pair is fire-engine red. I liked that color, but didn't ask her for them.
Somehow I knew that if a guy wants his wife to believe that the pantyhose in his briefcase were for onion storage, the hose had better be drab, not saucy fire-engine red.
By Rob Kasper / Baltimore Sun
Not long ago, I came home with a pair of pantyhose given to me by another woman, and my wife didn't hit me with a frying pan.
It happened the day the Vidalia Onion Lady came to visit. Mary Louise Lever is that woman. A resident of Rome, Ga., she was traveling to various cities passing out pantyhose, recipes and wisdom about Vidalia onions.
Vidalia onions are like Southern belles -- they are exceptionally sweet but bruise easily. The crop, which by law can be labeled Vidalia only if it is grown in one of 20 southeast Georgia counties, usually arrives in markets around the nation in late spring.
To prevent these temperamental onions from rubbing against one another, Lever recommended storing them in the legs of pantyhose, then tying a knot between each onion. She demonstrated the knot-tying technique, using a pair of sand-colored pantyhose provided in a publicity kit. The idea, she said, is to keep the onions cool, dry and separated.
Once the onions are secure, you hang the hose in a dry, well-ventilated area, such as your basement or garage, she said. Most Georgians are accustomed to storing onions this way, but the sight of pantyhose hanging from the ceiling can alarm visitors from the North. Or, as Lever put it, "It shocks the Yankees."
While the hanging hose may make Northerners blush, the hose provides a practical method of onion storage, she said. The mesh in the hose (she used laundered hose that had developed "runs" or "ladders") allows air to circulate around the onions, slowing spoilage.
Vidalias hanging in hose can last four to six months, she said. It seemed logical to me that this storage method also would work for other sweet onions -- the Walla Walla, Maui and Texas sweets, whose exceptionally high sugar and water content make them vulnerable to bruising. But I didn't mention the competition. Somehow it didn't seem proper to accept pantyhose from the Vidalia Onion Lady and then talk about her rivals.
Instead, we talked about another recommended storage method: Wrapping the onions in paper towels, putting several wrapped onions in a brown paper bag, then putting the bag in the refrigerator.
Lever also showed me another pair of pantyhose, which she uses when she appears on television to demonstrate how to store Vidalia onions. That pair is fire-engine red. I liked that color, but didn't ask her for them.
Somehow I knew that if a guy wants his wife to believe that the pantyhose in his briefcase were for onion storage, the hose had better be drab, not saucy fire-engine red.