Onions and Johnnies

Brittany is a big supplier of vegetables to French and international markets.  The ground is fertile, the climate mild, and tere are huge fields of cauliflowers and artichokes.  I saw some fennel being grown, and other veg in smaller quantities.  Absent were the famous pink Roscoff onions, although I think they had already been harvested.  We bought a bag at the local market.

I have vague childhood memories of seeing an occasional French onion vendor, on a bike with onions hanging from the handlebars.  I found him rather frightening and shouted at him, I think.  I was very young.  Apparently they are called onion johnnies, although I had always thought that johnnies were contraceptives, manufactured from rubber, or, according to popular song, knitted from indiarubber tyres.

The size and vigour of the cauliflowers in Roscoff  gave me some understanding of why my weedy plants only make small curds.  I noticed that they are earthed up, like potatoes, something I had not seen before.  The field above is quite close to Roscoff town centre (easy walking distance), is enclosed in a wall and could well have been a back garden.