I have had permission from Angela of Tracing Rainbows, to use this charming photo of Pascal the onion seller at her local market.
It brought back memories of childhood in Cornwall in the 1950s.
Every year we looked forward to the arrival of one of the Breton onion men who cycled from the port of Roscoff to Cornwall, their bikes strung with onions, garlic and shallots. They went from door to door from Cornwall and as far North as the Shetland Isles.
Suddenly, up the drive he would come, cheerfully using his limited supply of English, and giving me a chance to practice my very few words of French. The onions were displayed to my Grandmother who always brought a string or two, hanging them in the garage to keep dry.
I used to marvel at the clever way the onions were strung, tied up with raffia.
photo from Brittany's Onion Museum.
Any market in France now will have a stall with a wonderful array of onions, shallots and garlic. The pink Roscoff shallots even have their own Appellation Controlee label. There is still an Onion Festival in Roscoff with music, dance and no doubt, stalls of every onion possible.
But nothing was quite so exciting as that first view of 'our' onion man cycling up the drive!
18 comments:
Oh, your first picture reminds me of our 'garlic man' who comes from South of France with the typical accent du midi - he is every year in Hex. We bought Piment d'espelette from him and my EG has taken seeds and tries to propagate them alongside with other peppers. I never knew that you had an onion man taking the ferry from Roscoff to Cornwall! I wanted to do that journey (Roscoff -Cornwall) long ago ----- will we ever do it? Have you done that journey?
Every time we crossed!
Loved this post, so interesting! When I was a girl we had a baker, grocer and draper visit us each week in their vans. My Dad drove a butcher van. Happy days! xx
I love those laden bicycles [I suspect Pascal comes to Dorset in a van] I remember the chap who came round on Fridays with the bottles of fizzy drink [and we got deposits back on the empties]
What a lovely tradition! And great pictures.
Love, Carolien
What a great memory for you, I love the photos of the men. They must have had great balance to carry that many.
What a sweet and precious memory! Oh, I LOVE onions! In just about anything...onions and garlic just add so much flavor to so many foods. Thank you for sharing these memories with us. :) God bless you!
Elizabeth, I love shallots and use them just about every day in my cooking. How wonderful it would be to actually have a chap on a bicycle ride up the road offering strings of fresh onions, garlic and shallots all the way from France. I might have that image in my dreams tonight. xo
The bicycling onion sellers make for a very picturesque photo. I do love onions!
A wonderful memory. I'm so glad I love onions and shallots and garlic, too.
How interesting! Lovely photos too.
What a lovely old photo of the Onion Men. The closest we have to anything like that is at a market stall in the summer. I buy my garlic in braids and hang it for as long as it lasts.
Oh dear Bolton was never this cosmopolitan when I was a child. The pop man and, casting my eye even further back, the rag and bone man are the only street delivery/trader people I remember.
I doubt anyone these days could afford to live off the proceeds of selling onions alone! I do think that if things look rustic and natural they sell double fast and at a good price though, I would certainly rather buy my onions from that pretty stall or a man on a bicycle than a supermarket any day.
good post
How interesting! We never had an 'onion man' in Texas, I think that is so great. Loved the pictures!
What a wonderful photo from Angela!
Another time when the pace of life was slower and so interesting.
In my daughters village they have weekly visits from the butcher in his van.
He parks it in the little square opposite the Hotel de Ville, opens up the side to reveal beautifully displayed meat, condiments and some vegetables.
I use shallots daily too as I prefer the milder sweeter taste to onions!
Shane
It's fascinating to find out that you actually have seen the "Johnnies" as we call the onion people who went from Brittany to England to sell the onions. They are very famous here, regarded as a treasure from the past.
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